Does your Blackberry make you more productive or more distracted? With 8 million Blackberry subscribers, many have asked this question (BNET Intercom included). But today on the Huffington Post Dr. Rock Positano blogs that this is in fact the wrong question. We should be asking if our Blackberries (or Treos or Sidekicks) are making us sick.
Dr. Positano notes that more and more businesspeople are showing up in doctors’ offices with a heretofore unheard of complaint, “Blackberry Thumb.” He doesn’t appear to be kidding.
You need your thumb. You also may need your blackberry. But by using the device incorrectly, say by moving their palms together over that bottom third of the blackberry, you can strain the tender tendons that run from the thumb to the wrist.
If you’re a total Blackberry addict but have no sign of the dread malady yet, that’s good. Just make sure your texting technique is sound:
“You want to get the tendons as straight as possible so they have the least strain on them as possible,” Dr. Carlson states. “That means that your palms should not touch and your wrists should also be apart.” Know, though this advice is hardly foolproof. “Some people can do everything wrong and never have a problem; some can do everything right and have a problem.”
And if you are suffering form Blackberry thumb, “Dr. Carlson advises a common sense combination of rest, anti-inflammatory medicine, topical pain products , and a splint.”
