Too much Texting can cause health problems

Too much Texting can cause health problems

04 August 2008

Published research declares that texting can produce damaging physical problems

A survey undertaken by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) revealed that excessive texting causes injuries. Bronwyn Clifford, a CSP spokeswoman, told The Register website that phones aren't ergonomically designed for excessive texting and that 'too much texting can result in pain and swelling of the tendons at the base of the thumb and wrist'. As 1.4 billion texts are sent from the UK every day, this is hardly surprising.

The CSP has created a five-step guide to safer texting, which will reduce possible injury.

1) Hold the phone up with the screen facing towards you so you are not having to flex your neck too much as you look down to view the screen.

(2) Keep your hands close to your body. The weight of a phone may not feel much, but the load on your arm is significantly increased if the arm is held out stretched and this action will put strain on your neck and shoulder muscles.

(3) Try to use both hands together when texting to 'spread the load'. Keep messages short and use abbreviations and the predictive text messaging feature on your phone. This will help reduce the repetitive motion of pressing various keys.

(4) Don't text continuously. Try to take breaks by putting the phone down between text messages.

(5) Carry out the following two exercises to prevent text message injury: Regularly open your fingers and stretch them out. Stretch your arm out, rotate your wrist so it is facing upwards and with your other hand pull your palm down towards the floor to feel a stretch over the front of your forearm muscles. Hold for 15 seconds and repeat 2-3 times.

Click to read The Register's story