Is Your Smartphone Hurting Your Hands?
- Posted on: Dec 15 2019
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It’s hard to imagine life without your smartphone nowadays, isn’t it? From communicating with friends and family members with the tap on your touchscreen to streaming videos to mapping out directions to scrolling social media, we use our phones pretty much every waking moment of our day. With the trend being bigger screens, these phones have gotten pretty heavy and can cause stress on your joints, especially your wrists and thumbs. Here are some tips and suggestions for the best ways to be holding your phone as well as ways to relieve pain if you’re already experiencing some fatigue.
How to hold your smartphone
Unlike many of our other devices that have an alternative, ergonomic version available, smartphones don’t provide that option yet. To hold your phone in a more ergonomic-friendly position you need to first, minimize the strain being put on your wrists. Start by straightening out your wrists as much as possible when holding your phone. Whenever you can, place your phone on a flat surface when texting or hold the phone with one hand and text with the other.
How to relieve hand pain
If you’re already experiencing hand pain and suspect it could be from your smartphone, don’t fret. Take breaks from using your smartphone. We know eliminating smartphone use isn’t realistic, but you can take breaks and do little stretches from time to time to keep tendons flexible. If you’re really experiencing pain from it, try alternating hot and cold compresses on sore muscles. You may also want to consider a massage. If worst comes to worst, utilize the hands-free features on your phone as much as possible.
When to seek help
If the above self-care treatment tips aren’t enough to help out your aching wrists and thumbs, you may want to seek professional help. Particularly if you are experiencing numbness, tingling, cramping, and stiffness even when you aren’t using your phone.
If you’re noticing pain in the joints in your hands or are curious about other joint-related issues, schedule a consultation with us by calling our office at (707) 544-3400 today.
Posted in: Wrist & Hand Treatments
