A new study suggests that people who text frequently may be causing more damage to their thumbs than they believe.
Researchers in Turkey found that engaging in the activity frequently with your thumbs can result in the thickening of tendons in the hand, which causes tendinitis, according to The Wall Street Journal. They also discovered that texting with two thumbs doesn't do much to prevent tendinitis since most people put more stress on the thumb of their dominant hand.
The study consisted of 149 people between the ages of 18 and 40, and researchers ranked half of them as frequent texters. When people in this group texted, they repeatedly flexed the interphalangeal joint, which is the joint that is closest to the tip of the thumb. The other group also used their thumbs, but they didn't send as many texts.
The thickness of the tendon traveling through the carpel tunnel to the thumb's tip was measured with ultrasound imaging, The Wall Street Journal reported. The research team associated the thickness of this tendon with the amount of text messages that were sent each day. The participants who texted more often were shown to have larger tendons in general, but especially on their dominant texting side.
An average of 1,209 text messages were found among the frequent texters, while an average of 50 were found among the other group. The frequent texters also experienced more thumb pain in their dominant hand than those who didn't text as much.
The team said that chronic tendon injuries in the shoulder and other large joints are often caused by repetitive movements of joints, The Wall Street Journal reported. They added that not enough attention has been given to injuries in small tendons that are caused by overuse.
The study was published online in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
