Haben Sie auch schon einen "BlackBerry-Daumen"?

BlackBerry thumb - a repetitive stress injury characterized by swelling and pain at the base of the thumb and caused by prolonged use of the thumb while operating a BlackBerry or other personal digital assistant.

source:(www.wordspy.com)


The BlackBerry is a high-end, popular personal digital assistant (PDA) that boasts an impressive list of users: world footballer David Beckham, Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan and former U.S. President Bill Clinton to name a few. Using the device demands a flexible thumb, something that experts like Professor Alan Hedge, director of the human factors and ergonomics research group at Cornell University in New York, claim nature has not given us: “The thumb is not very flexible and repetitive use of it can lead to damage to the tendon on the outside of the thumb.” That’s bad news for busy stars and ex-Presidents.

There is no shortage of physicians, ergonomists and physical therapists ready to voice their concern about the potential hazards of too much BlackBerry. The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), for instance, has said that BlackBerry thumb should now be considered a part of workplace injuries. In apparent response to the rising tide of complaints from business guests, the spa director of the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona created a special treatment for sufferers of this new malady: BlackBerry Balm Hand Massage.

BlackBerry thumb is really just another form of what the medical profession calls RSI - repetitive strain injury or deQuervain's tendonitis. Fritz de Quervain was a Swiss surgeon who first identified the condition in 1885 as an inflammation of the sheath or tunnel that surrounds two tendons that control movement of the thumb.

The syndrome can be caused by excessive video game use (yes, they have a name for it: Nintendoitis) or the simple act of hanging out the wash to dry (yes, they have a name for it: washer woman’s thumb). Other parts of the body can also be victims of repetitive strain including the wrist (referred to as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome which typically results from using a keyboard), elbow (tennis elbow) and the arm (milkmaid’s arm).

(sources: Associated Press, ABC News, BBC News)

© Paul Smith

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