BLACKBERRY THUMB

You would never know how much strain your putting on your thumb every time you hit a dial or press a button on your mobile phone! As text messaging becomes more than a fad, a condition known as "blackberry thumb" is also grabbing the limelight in this technology-manned era.The term started to come in to picture to describe a state of repetitive thumb injury brought about by an overuse of miniature gadget keypads- like those of mobile phones. The thumb, originally designed as a pinch-gripping stabilizer for the finger, experiences painful sheath swelling of tendons once overused. Such inflammation predisposes the feeling of aching and throbbing pain of the thumb itself that may also radiate to the fingers, as well as the wrist! Most texters believe that thumb acrobatics would build up speed and efficiency, unaware that aggravation of thumb carpometacarpal joint arthritis is taking stride. This degenerative condition might go unnoticed since the syndrome involves a rather slow persistence of symptoms, most of which are noted only on severe cases, when inflammation and pain is at its extreme.

As cases of such syndrome is not strictly tracked, and persistence of such condition remains discrete, experts would rather regard it as a form of social construction not until better science would be made available for further study.