Smartphones have made all of our lives easier. From getting us around town the quickest way possible, to organizing our dates and deadlines, one can’t help but wonder how anyone survived without smartphones before.
Although these convenient devices have ultimately optimized our lives for the better, there’s no denying they do quite a bit of damage to our health. This time, we’re not talking about text neck. We’re talking about the latest scare in medicine- smartphone pinky.
Smartphones users everywhere are noticing a deformity in their pinkies, all due to the long hours of texting, snapchatting, and candy-crushing, and have taken their concerns to social media. Some of the pictures uploaded are alarming.
IMAGE SOURCE: THEDAILYMAIL
Doctors believe the indentation between the first and second joints of these little fingers are caused by the weight of holding a smartphone. Uploaded to Twitter was a picture from a teen who evidently suffered from the condition. She wrote, “I have an actual #iphone injury. My finger has bent and will not straighten. Need to change the way I hold my phone.”
IMAGE SOURCE: THEDAILYMAIL
IMAGE SOURCE: THEDAILYMAIL
Reporters from The Daily Mail spoke to Tim Allardyce, Chartered Physiotherapist and Registered Osteopath from Surrey Physio, about the alarming issue and he warns about the potential long-term affects.
“Regular use of phones, especially using the phone for text messages or to type emails, can cause repetitive movements of the thumb and fingers, with the thumbs being most over-used,” he says.
“In the short term, this can cause hypermobility of the small joints around the fingers and thumbs as the ligaments can be come slightly stretched. Longer term, over a period of decades, overuse of the fingers and thumbs can cause osteo-arthritis as the cartilage degenerates between the joints.”
Just last year, cosmetic surgeons coined the term “text neck”, a chronic pain in the neck due to the position one sits in while texting on their smartphone. The proper curve in the cervical spine gets reduce and moves forward as oppose to reverse, simply because of the amount of time one spends on the phone. Yikes!
Next time you’re using your smartphone, think of the damage it may be doing to your body. Constant awareness can reduce the long-term issues of smartphone pinky and text neck. What do you think?
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