Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by irritation to the median nerve in the wrist area. Steve Vitale, a physical therapist at Professional Physical Therapy, told WEEI's Alex Reimer:
The position you would have to be in when holding an Xbox or Playstation controller is not the prolonged extension of your wrist you would need –– you see it more with an elevated keyboard. I don't see it often with video game play. ... We tend to see more thumb tendon issues [with video game players].(Of course, learned opinions from experts in the field did not stop at least one columnist from speculating that video games were the likely cause. Guess who? Hint: He has curly hair.)
Dave O'Brien and Jerry Remy discussed this issue on NESN last night. It was immediately clear they knew nothing about video games and very little about carpal tunnel syndrome. If they were planning on talking about this topic on the air, shouldn't they have acquired some knowledge of the subject beforehand? They appeared ignorant about CTS and sounded like clueless old men trying to explain the new-fangled contraptions kids today are using.
Hearing that neither broadcaster knew about the popular video game Fortnite was surprising since Jen McCaffrey, one of the Red Sox beat writers, published an article on Monday, May 7, about how many Red Sox players are obsessed with the game.
So why didn't O'Brien and Remy know about McCaffrey's article? It had been online for four days. Isn't keeping up with the Red Sox (and coverage of the team) part of their job?
I had a similar case of mild and worsening carpal tunnel a few years ago, right when my seasonal allergies got worse, and what I call adult-onset-lactose intolerance, and other unknown mild sensitivity to other foods. I suspected that the food allergies had to do with it. I was right, it dissapeared within a week of giving up on gluten and going fully vegan. I had never played video games but was a heavy computer user due to my job. I have continued the same use of computer since then (if not more). Not once have I experienced the symptoms.
ReplyDeleteI listened to Felger and Mazz yesterday, they were downright brutal in making fun of Price for his allergies and carpal tunnel, and video games. I think he deserves a lot of flak for his time in BOS, but not for this issue. I dont see a happy ending to the Price era.