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- Five hours of gadget use raises your risk for developing carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Frequent gadget users can experience burning, tingling and even potential permanent damage, which are known symptoms of carpal syndrome
How much time do you spend tapping, swiping and scrolling your gadgets?
If it’s about five hours a day, you better cut your daily usage as it can endanger your health.
Scientists have recently discovered that spending five hours on smart phones, tablets and other gadgets actually raises your risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome. According to a study published in the journal Muscle & Nerve, our obsessive use of these gadgets causes severe pain on hands and wrists.
To arrive at this conclusion, researchers from Hong Kong Polytechnic University examined 48 students who used mobile phones, tablets, computers, laptops, and video game consoles for over five hours a day and compared then with less frequent users.
Based on the results of the study, nearly 92% of the frequent users had experienced musculoskeletal pain in the past 12 months, compared to less frequent users. They also discovered that 45% of frequent users suffered wrist or hand pain, while those who used the devices less than five hours a day didn’t experience such pain.
Apparently, the repetitive movements compress the median nerve which runs through the hand. As a result, sufferers experience burning, tingling and even potential permanent damage, which are known symptoms of carpal syndrome.
According to Dr Stephen Simpson, director of research at Arthritis Research UK, they previously observed repetitive strain injury among people who used a mouse and keyboard at work.
“Now we have these new repetitive movements, swiping and tapping, in our leisure time, as people are barely ever without their smart phones and tablets,” he said.
Simpson explained: “One explanation is that the design of input devices requiring repetitive finger movements, including clicking, scrolling, swiping, tapping, and pressing buttons, may affect fingertip forces, tendon excursion, and muscular effort.”
