Home Treatment for Repetitive Stress Injury

Everytime we read a label or look online, there’s someone threatening us about the next Big Disease — cell phones cause cancer, computers cause carpal tunnel, crossing the street can get you run over by a car, video games can make you psychopathic– or do they? Of course we can’t live our lives in fear [...]

Carpal Tunnel syndrome is possibly the injury most commonly associated with computer over-use and repetitive stress injuries, but research has come to show that CTS is often caused by a genetic predisposition, not by overuse and activity. A recent study at Harvard University revealed that biological factors are three times more powerful in causing CTS [...]

One of the key issues in ergonomics is that one size never fits all. The petite, five foot tall woman (that’s me) has vastly different needs than the broad-shouldered 6’5″ man. We have different sizes, weights, different abilities to grasp, different shapes and spaces between our fingers and our shoulders. But most product manufacturers don’t [...]

Laptops are great tools for business users and students on the go, but they’re from an ergonomic standpoint they’re badly designed. They lead us to hunch over, push our necks forward and squint at the screen till we look a little too much like Quasimodo… but there are solutions! One is to use a notebook [...]

In previous posts, I’ve written how many types of activities beyond computer use can cause repetitive stress injuries like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or Golfer’s Elbow or Epicondylitis… anyone from pizza makers to archaeologists to musicians can be at risk of this kind of injury. However, it’s not just your usual motions that put you at [...]

Recently, I described how Paraffin Wax can help reduce inflammation and stiffness in your joints, and how nurses and medics have been using this treatment for quite a while. I’ve had this treatment in physical therapy clinics before, and have left feeling much better. However, you don’t have to go to a clinic to try [...]

Paraffin Wax therapy is a very old technique used to reduce inflammation and stiffness in the joints of your hands or feet. Coating your hands in warm wax helps to increase circulation, providing relief for the pain, swelling, and stiffness that can accompany arthritis, repetitive stress injuries, or other acute injuries like broken fingers. Today, [...]

I spent Saturday at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, and found some cool related tutorials for modifying your own computer input devices like mice and scroll wheels. Some of them don’t require much electronics savvy, while others are serious mods that need a few tools and some background. Either way, they’re fun to browse [...]

If you have a hand injury and seek treatment, you may end up in a physical or occupational health center being treated by a hand therapist. While you sit there receiving treatments, you might wonder what training they’ve received before working on you. Hand therapists have to demonstrate the following experience to receive certification: A [...]

What exercises can be done with Chinese Medicine Balls? This is a question posed by Bethany in the comments, and I thought the answer deserved its own post. Chinese Medicine Balls, or other similar-sized balls, can be used to help increase flexibility or range of motion in the hands. The general idea is to hold [...]