"BlackBerry Thumb" Strikes

By Leonard Hall

Editor: It makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Overuse of any part of your body can cause injury. I bet you'll quickly understand the phrase "Blackberry thumb". Here's Leonard Hall with the story. This article is republished with Leonard's kind permission.

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Eight years ago at the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) conference, a new technology device was discovered and used by hundreds of deaf people that changed the way deaf people communicate: The T-Mobile Sidekick .

Before 1998, hearing people used telephone and deaf people were limited to home TTYS to call other deaf people. Cell phone became popular for hearing people in the late 1990s, but deaf and hard of hearing people could not use cell phones.

With the introduction o f Sidekick, BlackBerry, and Treo devices known as PDAs or personal digital assistant devices, hearing and deaf people can send out text messages to other people.

Many deaf people cannot live without their PDAs. They use them often during the day to keep in touch with their work, family, and friends.

Several deaf friends told me they averaged over 50 text messages a day. They typed a lot of short and long messages on their PDAs.

Eight years later after the NAD Conference, some people using these PDAs are now suffering from "BlackBerry Thumb" a term some use to describe injuries to the thumbs caused by pressing the keypad on the PAD repeatedly with your thumbs.

The PDAs are like your cell phones which have very small keypads that requires the use of your thumb in a repetitive motion that can cause muscle spasms and soreness in the thumb and hand.

As you place your hand on a flat surface, you will see that the fingers are grouped together and somewhat separated from your thumb. By nature, the thumb was never intended to work as hard as it does on text messaging or video games.

According to one doctor, the tendons and muscles in your thumbs are very short. Using the small keypads on the PDAs and cell phone can cause 10 times the stress than if the someone uses all of his fingers and thumb on a full-sized keyboard similar to the one used on your computer.

Doctors said this is not a new problem. In the early 1990s, many users of the Nintendo video games were complaining of thumb, hand and wrist soreness. As I watched my 10-year old son played for an hour or more on his Nintendo Game Cube, he is constantly using his two thumbs during the entire hour.

The use of any small handheld devices can put a lot of strain on your hands and place you at risk of muscle spasms and soreness. For some deaf people, it can impact their sign language.

In the worst cases for older people, there are reports of tendon-tearing which cause permanent disability in the thumb and hands.

Experts urged people to limit their typing on the PDAs. Type long message on a computer. You can use the PDA with the special pen to type your messages.

Moderation and limited amount of typing on the PDAs is the key to a healthy thumb and hand.

(Leonard Hall writes a weekly column for the deaf community. He can be reached at Legalnetwk@aol.com)