If you’re a "Candy Crush" freak, and you’re in your 30’s or 40’s and you’ve been feeling pain and numbness in your thumb, index finger, and or wrist your smart phone could be the culprit. In today’s age, people pretty much are attached to their smartphones and feel completely naked without them. The thumb especially is what I see most affected. 

One of my new patients a couple weeks ago was diagnosed by an orthopedist with carpal tunnel syndrome. A condition where the median nerve in the wrist gets compressed when the wrist is constantly in a bent position. Instead of getting a recommended cortisone injection from her doctor, we took a non-drug approach and recommended some simple steps to FIX THE PROBLEM not just address the pain. After a couple wrist adjustments and the tips we implemented below, she has zero discomfort in only 10 days.

5 Tips to end your hand pain:

1) Become more ambidextrous. Give your dominant hand a break. It’s easier than you think to do this.

2) Consider some downtime with using your phone using it only when necessary. Give the Candy Crush a break! Consider a “digital detox” for a few days.

3) Use voice-to-text feature on your phone to give your fingers a break from typing.

4) Try typing with a stylus to cut down on the repetitive motion for your thumb.

5) While texting your thumb is in a flexed position (bending forward), but in an awkward manner. At the same this is happening the muscles on the back of your hand, the extensors, act as stabilizers. So it is very helpful to stretch your thumb as well as your wrist backwards or into extended on a regular basis.

Kids and Teens

A few days ago my daughter told me that her wrist was hurting. When she has had any kind of discomfort with her body I check it out like a chiropractic dad and most of the time everything feels normal and no adjustment is required. To my surprise this was different. Her wrist was indeed misaligned and was easily adjusted back to normal. Youngsters busy with smartphones and tablets for hours at a stretch are now a common sight. Little do they know that the addiction can cause repetitive strain injury to hand joints and can lead to a lifetime of arthritic pain. Cell phones aren’t going anywhere in the future. Share the tips above with your kids as well.

In Health, 

Dr. K