Docs warn of rise in ‘iPhone hands’ as people are left blighted by painful joints from using touchscreens
EVER noticed your hand hurting after a particularly vicious Facebook or Instagram scroll? If so, you're far from being alone.
Doctors are now warning that our obsession with our phones is leading to an epidemic of so-called "iPhone hands".
More and more people are turning up to their GPs complaining of "iPhone tendonitis", a form of repetitive strain injury that causes pain to develop at the base of our thumbs.
Our thumbs aren't working as much as they used to.
To hold a pen, you need to grip with your thumb; today, we just use them to tap.
Experts have warned that if things continue and we evolve a new handshape, our brain function could be reduced - as it has with other primates.
Our thumbs are wasting away
Physical therapist, Professor Raquel Cantero, said: "Atrophied (wasted away) thumbs are more and more frequent in our practice; in fact, we already talk about the iPhone tendonitis".
Writing in the journal Reumatismo, scientists from the University of Malaga warned that our phone habits were putting our hands at risk from inflammation.
"In this age of handheld electronic gadgets, for many individuals, the thumb is repeatedly used to text on smartphones countless times per day," they said.
"Adults using mobile phones punch out numbers with their thumbs and develop synovitis in their carpometacarpal joint."
What is synovitis?
Synovitis is where a joint's soft tissue becomes inflamed, and in this case, it's at the base of your thumb (that carpometacarpal joint).
Smartphones are small - they're not really designed to be doing the same movement for long periods of time.
And yet...how many of us are guilty of clocking up hours on Instagram/Bumble/Snapchat/*insert app*?
We're essentially giving ourselves "writer's cramp", but with our phones.
Our brain size may reduce as a consequence
Scientists predicted that soon, humans could start to form a pinch-like grip with our hands, "losing" our thumbs in the process.
"Look at what happened in primates' brain when they came down from trees and their brain structure changed as they began to use their hands to carry out different functions," Professor Cantero said.
What is tendonitis?
Tendonitis is when a tendon swells up and becomes painful.
The main symptoms of tendonitis are:
- pain in a tendon (for example, in your knee, elbow or shoulder) which gets worse when you move
- difficulty moving the tendon
- feeling a grating or crackling sensation when you move the tendon
- swelling, sometimes with heat or redness
- a lump along the tendon
Normally, you can treat it at home within two to three weeks by trying RICE therapy:
- Rest – stop the exercise or activities that caused the injury until you feel better
- Ice – put an ice pack (you could use a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel) on the injury for up to 20 minutes every 2 to 3 hours
- Compress – wrap a bandage around the injury to support it
- Elevate – if possible, keep the injured area raised on a pillow when sitting or lying down
Source:
"We wonder if the passage of time will not be such a milestone nowadays due to this change in the use of the thumb, the key finger involved in the pressure and functionality of the human hand."
And that change could potentially change the shape of our brains.
Although there's not a lot of evidence that hand movement and brain activity are linked, the team did cite how disorders like arthritis have been linked to a change in brain activity when they try to move their hands.
They concluded that the evolution of the human hand has given humans the opportunity to evolve into more complex activities and societies.
"And this could have influenced the development of our species’ brain. Will hand under use carry as a consequence an underdevelopment of our brain?
"In other words, by freeing us from hand use, is technology going to reduce our brain functions? Only time and science will answer this question."
But the lack of thumb grip isn't the only problem
According to physio Dan Baumstark, the action of using your thumb to unlock your screen - or swiping on dating apps - may also cause problems.
"This motion may at first appear to be quite harmless, but repetitive motion can have serious long-term effects if performed dozens or even hundreds of times daily," he said, writing for .
"Several tendons of the thumb pass through a compartment in the wrist that serves to keep the tendons in place as they are used. "
Continually sweeping the thumb across the screen can cause irritation in that compartment - a condition called De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis.
Dan claims that it's an issue which is way more common today than it was a decade ago, and that it's more common among young people.
The cure? Reduce the number of hours you spend scrolling, change hands to text and pick up a pen once in a while.
What about 'text neck'?
Experts have previously spoken about how smartphones wreck havoc with your posture.
Bob Chatterjee, a surgeon at Harley Street Spine and Highgate Private Hospital, warned there has been a rise in the number of people experiencing migraines and blurred vision due to "text neck".
"Text neck" is a repetitive stress injury or overuse of the neck, caused when a person has their head flexed in a forward position and is bent down looking at their mobile phone for long periods of time.
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Of course, it is not just phones that are to blame for this phenomenon.
Laptops, iPads and all other forms of personal electronic devices cause people to hold their head and neck in the same way.
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