Typing For Too Long Can Cause Epidemic Arm Injuries

The rise of computer use and flat light-touch keyboards that permit high speed typing have resulted in an epidemic of injuries of other hands, arms and shoulders called repetitive strain injury.

Repetitive Strain Injuries have now become a common problem among users of computers, blackberry phones, and tablets among other gadgets.

Injuries occur from repeated physical movements doing damage to tendons, nerves, muscles and other soft body tissues.

Prolonged use of the keyboard in high-volume data entry or high volume typing can cause Repetitive Strain Injury or RSI. This can be caused by any repetitive motion.

However, since touch typing-keyboarding is one of the most dominant office activities, Repetitive Strain Injury is commonly associated with this activity.

RSI occurs because the muscles of the forearm do most of the work moving the fingers and wrists, in high volume repetitive activities. Over time, repetitive motions can cause soft-tissue damage in which nerves or tendons may become irritated or inflamed.

Unfortunately, when RSI damage occurs, the pain may not go away even after rest because the area is inflamed and painful.

Nonetheless, there is some hope as experts have advice on how to minimise the injuries.

Dr Courtney Brown, a chiropractic specialist on the central nervous system advises that when one has to sit for longer hours, it is important to sit on a chair that is adjustable; can be bended backwards, forward, raised up and down.

However, if one cannot invest in buying such a chair one could also make use of a desk that is relatively higher than the chair he or she is sitting on.

He advises that another way to substitute in the absence of a high desk; one can alternatively adjust his or her laptop by place some books underneath the laptop to raise it to a high level.

There is therefore the need for one to take a work break at least once an hour when typing for a longer period of time to prevent one from having a repetitive strain injury.

Source: etvghana.com