Beware of Cell Phone Elbow

The average person spends a little more than three hours each day on their phone, which totals almost nine years over a lifetime. After dedicating years of time to our phones, it’s no surprise our bodies may suffer some consequences along the way.

Texting thumb (pain and inflammation) is caused by the repeated motion of typing and scrolling on a cell phone. Tech neck — clinically known as cervical kyphosis — is a painful condition in the neck and upper back caused by the poor posture so many people take on when staring at their phones or computers. And now, there’s cell phone elbow.

Cell phone elbow symptoms are virtually limited to strange sensations like tingling or numbness in your outer fingers, or an uncomfortable tightness, ache, or pain in your elbow when the ulnar nerve can get pinched and cause pain.

Cell phone elbow symptoms can usually be easily treated with some anti-inflammatory medicine, as it can go away on its own. You can also use the medication with heat or cold pack application or stretching for a more quick and effective cell phone elbow treatment process. The treatment can be furthered by wearing a splint or elbow pad when you go to bed.

You can limit your exposure to elbow pain and other cell phone elbow symptoms by taking a couple of mindful steps:

• Curb the amount of time your elbows are bent in a strenuous way by utilizing hands-free Bluetooth phone technology, changing your hand or arm position when talking or scrolling through your phone, or just cutting down your cell phone use overall.

• You can also regularly stretch your wrist extensors and arms to keep loose. 

Really though, there’s not too much else you can do on your own to stop cell phone elbow from ever occurring. That’s because if you’re experiencing these symptoms — while the billions of other people using smartphones aren’t — then it’s more likely due to a genetic predisposition than genuine mobile phone overuse. You could just have a narrower cubital tunnel than most people have. Moreover, you could have been born with an extra muscle there, causing issues. 

If more than a week goes by and your cell phone or tennis elbow, or another form of muscular pain, is heavily affecting your quality of life, make an appointment.