Researchers train lens on ‘smartphone thumb’

Too much texting can give you “smartphone thumb” — a painful condition caused by repetitive movements of typing that may lead to arthritis in the thumb, according to doctors.

The condition formally known as tendinitis was earlier only seen in factory workers. It causes the tendon that bends and flexes the thumb to become inflamed.

More and more people are complaining about this type of pain in their thumb each year, doctors said.

According to Kristin Zhao, Mayo Clinic in the US, “One of the hypotheses is that the joints get loose and lax, and because of that, the bones kind of move differently than they would in a normal situation.”

Zhao and her team have been studying “smartphone thumb” for the last seven years.

They employed a dynamic imaging technique in 2010 to watch the bones of a healthy patient move so they could document what is normal and compare it with what is not.

Their observations: The movements we require our thumbs to make as we hold our phones are awkward. “It’s also a movement that requires some force through the thumbs. It’s not just free movement in space,” she explained.

“Our hypothesis is that abnormal motion of bones in the thumb could be causing pain onset and eventual osteoarthritis,” Zhao was quoted as saying by the ‘CBS Minnesota’.

Save yourself the pain

To prevent problems, start by giving your thumbs a break, doctors said
Mix up your method by using your forefinger or use your voice to dictate a message
Perform daily stretching exercises with wrists and fingers that may help in preventing the condition