Texting Too Much Can Lead To Injuries
BOSTON (CBS) - Try as she might, Malisa Meresman can't seem to get away from her Blackberry.
"I'm on my Blackberry almost all day, because for work I use my Blackberry. At night I'm texting with friends. My boss will even text me in the evenings."
But one day, her thumb started to hurt, and she couldn't figure out why.
"It's very achy. It gets stiff. And it actually does hurt to text."
Turns out, Malisa was suffering from repetitive stress injury caused by frequent texting.
Dr. Kevin Plancher, an orthopedic surgeon, says you have to change things up to avoid pain.
"Our hands sit there with the cell phone kind of cradled, and we have to flex or bend the thumb or index finger to such an extreme that the repetitive motion over time gives problems to some of those joints."
Paula Ebben reports.
A recent study by Virgin Mobile found 3.8 million people in Great Britain complain of injuries resulting from text messages.
In one South African school, over half of the students interviewed reported at least one symptom of repetitive stress injury.
This doesn't surprise Dr. Plancher. He says these seemingly small symptoms could lead to bigger problems in the future.
"Repetitive injuries, one, are painful for many patients, and the other is they can develop over time - arthritic conditions."
The injuries are similar to those caused by excessive typing, adds Dr. Leon Benson of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons,
But texting affects different joints.
"Instead of necessarily getting tendonitis of your wrist, of inflammation in your wrist from typing a lot, you could get some symptoms in your fingers because you're working on a tiny keyboard."
Malisa was able to use ice and anti-inflammatory medication to relieve her achy joints, and she's vowed to text more responsibly in the future.
"I just try to be a little more aware of when I'm texting and when I don't need to be."
So, what's a frequent texter to do?
Experts suggest you slow down, take frequent breaks, change the way you hold your phone and consider talking instead of typing every once in a while.
