Washington - A new catchy, tech-driven condition is making the headlines: “selfie elbow.”
It is seeing a boost in recognition thanks to the plight of Today show host Hoda Kotb, who recently told Elle magazine that her doctor believes her elbow pain stems from her love of selfies - or more specifically, the uncomfortable grip she was putting her hand in each time she took a picture.
These types of injuries are hardly new, said Mary Ann Wilmarth, a doctor of physical therapy and spokeswoman for the American Physical Therapy Association.
They could be seen as variations on good old-fashioned repetitive-strain injuries.
Selfie elbow, she said, is similar to tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow, which are names for conditions in which you experience inflammation in the tendons that run along your arm from your hand to your elbow.
Inflammation from taking selfies, Wilmarth said, happens because you’re extending your arm but also trying to keep a firm grip on your phone as you do - something that the body just isn’t designed to do often.
Medical professionals have warned us for years about how using tech badly can hurt our bodies. Simply put, computers and smartphones can put us in unnatural positions and for long periods.
That can lead to serious problems - particularly if those hunched over screens and keyboards don’t exercise or stretch their bodies to counteract those effects.
As for taking a selfie, it’s not just your selfie-taking hand that you should worry about.
Many hand and arm problems, Wilmarth said, could originate from tightness in the neck and shoulders as well.
Luckily, it’s pretty easy to treat these sort of injuries with rest, ice, and regular shoulder and wrist rolls.
Wilmarth suggests that something as simple as extending your arm in front of you and bending your wrist gently and slowly up and down - with an extended palm and with a loose fist - could stretch the muscles that need attention.
But a selfie stick might not help your selfie elbow condition if you’re still extending your arm out to use the stick, Wilmarth said.
Holding it with both hands, she said, might help but it’s best to lay off taking so many selfies in the first place.
The crux of this, really, is to recognise that when a part of your body hurts, you should stop doing whatever it is that’s making it hurt.
The Washington Post