Re: Helpful hints, and wrist problems

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM>]

Garret Romaine wrote:
>Colleen Dancer was talking about mouse vs. keyboard issues, and brought in
>the argument about carpal tunnel syndrome.

>Which made me want to flex my wrists and do a few exercises and generally
>baby my wrists. Kind of like how I feel the need to floss when someone talks
>about their root canal... But anyway, I am curious about this carpal tunnel
>thing. Does anyone know of a site where there are some statistics that break
>this down? Because one thing I wonder about is whether it strikes men less
>than women? Personally, I've been typing at speeds up to 80 wpm (in short
>bursts, but spell checker usually bails me out) for 25 years, and I'm
>generally pain free. And I wonder why?


[snip]

I'm not sure it's just the *typing* that leads to carpal tunnel --
don't forget, it's a *repetitive* stress injury. Typing, when it's
real-word typing, leads your hands all over the keyboard, so you're
less likely to get an injury than you are if, for example, you're
using a 10-key where your hands don't move around so much -- or
when you're running a macro or a manual search-and-replace where
you're hitting the same keys over and over.

Mousing is another prime cause -- limited motion plus the need for
tight control so people clench up on the little beastie and there
you have it. And grocery store clerks get it from continually
dragging groceries over the scanner -- using the same motion
over and over again.

I've been typing -- one way or another -- for a whole lot of
years -- and tho it's done a fair amount of damage to my neck
and upper back (loss of curviture from bending my head down),
I have no symptoms in my hands and wrists. I do, however,
need an elbow brace for most home remodeling tasks. The
repetitive motion of using a paint roller does terrible
things to my elbow.

BTW - Vitamin B6 appears to relieve some RSIs.


-Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com