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Colleen Dancer was talking about mouse vs. keyboard issues, and brought in
the argument about carpal tunnel syndrome.
Which made me want to flex my wrists and do a few exercises and generally
baby my wrists. Kind of like how I feel the need to floss when someone talks
about their root canal... But anyway, I am curious about this carpal tunnel
thing. Does anyone know of a site where there are some statistics that break
this down? Because one thing I wonder about is whether it strikes men less
than women? Personally, I've been typing at speeds up to 80 wpm (in short
bursts, but spell checker usually bails me out) for 25 years, and I'm
generally pain free. And I wonder why?
I have this nutty theory, and I'm not trying to sound sexist, but I'm
wondering if men use their hands more, when not keyboarding, in pursuit of
such things as baseball, football, basketball... do these sports serve to
strengthen the wrist? If you do a lot of basketball dribbling, you really
work out your arms and wrists. Ditto for shooting free throws. And in
baseball or softball, throwing and hitting give the arms and wrists a
workout. In my case, just playing catch with my kids, I am a notorious "junk
ball" pitcher. I throw knuckleballs, curve balls, split finger fastballs...
each of which makes my wrist do something a little different.
So I'm wondering if one of the keys to beating carpal tunnel syndrome, which
seems to afflict a lot of tech writers, is to use those wrists and
strengthen them? I'm just tossing this out, trying not to add clutter to the
list, but since CTS is a career threatening problem, I thought I'd see if
anyone else had a thought or two. Eric, if this gets off-topic and we start
delving into sheathed tendons and actuarial tables, I apologize in advance.
Garret Romaine
gromaine -at- radisys -dot- com
- "Endeavor to persevere"
