Prolonged use of mobile phones and typing can also lead to tennis elbow

Avoid frequent use and take mobile phone and social media breaks

Healthy Soch

New Delhi, March 25, 2019:

 As per recent research, tennis elbow, a painful chronic condition that affects job performance and quality of life, can be effectively treated without surgery. Researchers found that through transcatheter arterial embolisation (TAE), an image-guided, non-surgical treatment that decreases abnormal blood flow to the injured area to reduce inflammation and pain, the condition may be treated.

Tennis elbow, also known as lateral epicondylitis, stems from repetitive stress injuries that occur in activities such as sports, typing and knitting. The injury is common in carpenters, cooks and assembly line workers. The condition can be difficult to treat, leaving many patients unable to perform the simplest tasks, such as picking up their children, cooking dinner, or even working on a computer.

Speaking about this, Padma Shri Awardee, Dr KK Aggarwal, President, HCFI, said, “While tennis elbow is essentially caused by sports and other activities, extensive use of mobile phones for typing is also emerging as a cause. BlackBerry thumb is a neologism that refers to a form of repetitive strain injury caused by the frequent use of the thumbs to press buttons on PDAs, smartphones, or other mobile devices. It is also called wiiitis, nintendinitis, playstation thumb or cellphone thumb. Thumb lacks the dexterity that the other four fingers have. This is especially common in those who use these devices for such activities at high speeds comparable to that of touch typing. Symptoms of BlackBerry thumb include aching and throbbing pain in the thumb or sometimes other fingers and in the wrist. Some of these are similar to tennis elbow.”

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Cellphone elbow is a pain in the elbow because of the stretching of ulnar nerve because of use of mobile phone in a flexed position. Using hands-free set can prevent this.

Adding further, Dr Aggarwal, who is also the Group Editor-in-Chief of IJCP, said, “Until now, the debate has been whether mobile radiations can cause brain cancer or not. However, recently, a new spectrum of diseases related to use of mobile phones has come to the notice of medical profession and it is anticipated that 10 years from now they will take an epidemic shape.”

Some tips from HCFI

• Electronic curfew means not using any electronic gadgets 30 minutes before sleep.
• Facebook holiday: Take a Facebook holiday for 7 days every three months.
• Social media fast: Avoid use of social media once in a week for the entire day.
• Use your mobile phone only when mobile.
• Do not use computer for more than three hours in a day.
• Limit your mobile talk time to more than two hours in a day.
• Do not recharge your mobile battery more than once in a day.
• Mobile can also be a source of infection in the hospital setup; therefore, it is disinfected every day.

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