Carpal Tunnel Syndrome And How To Avoid It
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a nerve disorder of the wrist and
hand. It can cause pain, numbness and tingling. It's caused by
doing repetitive hand motions, such as typing.
Medical transcriptionists are especially at risk of developing
carpal tunnel syndrome due to the amount of typing they do.
Although, there is no way of avoiding typing if you're a
transcriptionist there are a few things you can do to alleviate
or avoid carpal tunnel altogether.
1. Set up a comfortable work area. Make sure you have plenty of
room to use the mouse comfortably and position your keyboard to
elbow level.
2. Keep your wrists and hands parallel to the floor as you type.
Do not rest your wrists on the keyboard unless it has a
specifically designed wrist rest on it (these let you rest your
wrist while keeping them straight).
3. Stretch your hands and arms before and after typing. Make a
tight fist with your hand, hold for a few seconds then slowly
release. This will help alleviate any tension in the hands and
wrists.
4. Take breaks while working. Ideally, you should get up every
hour to stretch and relax your body. Shake your hands and open
and close your wrist to help relieve tension.
5. Sit up straight in your chair when working. Overall good
posture will give you good hand position.
6. Wear a wrist band to help avoid the problem. This will give
your wrists and hands extra support.
If you follow these tips early you may avoid carpal tunnel
syndrome altogether since there may be damage being done before
you actually feel any symptoms. And If you already suffer from
carpal tunnel, following these tips should help alleviate the
problem.
Symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome include tingling/numbness in
the hands, a burning sensation in the fingers, and/or sharp
pains from the wrist shooting up the arm.
If you do have any symptoms of carpal tunnel, you should see
your physician right away.