There are a lot of jobs in the world where risk and danger is imminent. It’s possible that you never thought your desk job would have any potential health risks (aside from eating too many chips out of the vending machine). However, if you sit at your desk typing all day long, there is a risk to your wrists and hands. In fact, if you find already that your hand hurts from typing – listen up! These conditions could be the cause behind your discomfort.
Here are 5 possible reasons why your hand hurts from typing.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome usually begins gradually with a tingling sensation or numbness in your thumb, index and middle fingers that comes and goes. It’s often caused by repetitive motion, such as typing. Common carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms include:
- Tingling or numbness in hand and fingers—especially the thumb, index and middle fingers
- Pain in wrist, palm or forearm
- More numbness or pain at night—the pain may even wake you up from sleep
- Increased pain when using hand or wrist
- Difficulty gripping objects such as a doorknob or the steering wheel of a car
- Weakness in your thumb
A thumb sprain is an injury to the ligaments inside the structure of the thumb. Typical causes of thumb sprain include:
- Smashing your thumb into the ground or wall
- Jamming your thumb into a ball, other sporting equipment, or a person
- Bending your thumb into an extreme position
While typing might not have caused thumb sprain, you can bet that it would hurt to type after having one.
Nerve damage can be caused by a variety of factors – but, luckily, hand therapy can help save the day! If you’ve experienced nerve damage, hand therapists can help you to “educate the damaged nerves” through sensory reeducation exercises. Sensory reeducation is a method of exercising the hand in order to re-teach the brain how to use it, and ultimately help you achieve maximum functionality again.
Trigger finger is a painful condition that can also be caused by repetitive movement, particularly in women between the ages of 52 and 62. This condition happens when swelling and inflammation presses against the tendons in your finger, causing the finger to either freeze in one position or “snap back” to another position.
Edema is generally caused by an injury (whether you know you’ve injured yourself or not) but it can also be caused by other factors. This condition is fluid retention, or swelling, in your hands which can be uncomfortable and painful. You might have puffiness, difficulty moving your hands, or swollen and shiny skin that looks stretched.
As always, consult a doctor first.
If your hand hurts from typing, it’s important that you discuss hand therapy with your doctor. While hand therapy is an excellent alternative to pain medication and has been proven to help speed up healing, you should always be under the guidance of a licensed and certified therapist. Plus, many of the conditions that we listed above must be diagnosed by a doctor first.