Does Typing Cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

When you have carpal tunnel syndrome, you can deal with pain, tingling, and numbness in your thumb and first three fingers. You may also experience pain that radiates throughout your hand and wrist and even travels up your forearm.

For many years, it was thought that typing or other keyboard work was a top cause of carpal tunnel syndrome since it requires so much movement from your wrist, hands, and fingers. However, research actually shows mixed evidence on that theory. 

If carpal tunnel syndrome is causing pain and limiting your daily activities, it’s important to find the root cause.

Our team, led by orthopedic experts Anand Shah, MD, Mehul Taylor, MD, and Adam Amir, DO, at Valley Orthopedic Institute in Palmdale and Ridgecrest, California, wants to discuss some common causes of carpal tunnel syndrome, look at how typing fits into the carpal tunnel syndrome picture, and offer how we can help reduce your symptoms in this month’s blog. 

Common causes of carpal tunnel syndrome

The main nerve that runs through your wrist, hand, and carpal tunnel is called the median nerve. If anything compresses, damages, or inflames your median nerve, you can develop the telltale carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms such as pain, tingling, and numbness along the nerve’s pathway.

Because of that, anything that causes your carpal tunnel to swell or damages your median nerve can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. These are some health conditions or injuries that often cause carpal tunnel syndrome, including:

• Diabetes
• Thyroid or pituitary gland disorders
• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• Wrist sprains or fractures 
• Fluid retention from pregnancy or menopause

Having a family history of carpal tunnel syndrome also increases your risk for the condition, especially if the anatomy of your carpal tunnel is what’s triggering it. 

Typing and carpal tunnel syndrome

As stated above, it’s been previously thought that typing for long hours was a top cause of carpal tunnel syndrome. However, experts aren’t so sure that’s actually true. 

Research does tell us that the top contributing factors to carpal tunnel syndrome are repetitive wrist movements and continual overextension of the wrist. 

However, a recent study done on the effects of typing on carpal tunnel syndrome risk showed that typing, no matter how many hours spent doing it, didn’t really cause the condition, though it could worsen existing symptoms.

Typing can increase your risk for carpal tunnel syndrome if your wrist posture at your keyboard is poor or you spend significant amounts of time doing other activities requiring continual wrist movements, such as working with power tools, playing video games, or doing laundry.

Seek expert-level care for carpal tunnel syndrome

When carpal tunnel syndrome is causing daily pain and limiting your mobility, don’t hesitate to seek care from our team.

We first work with you to discover the root cause and then offer a variety of conservative treatments, such as prescription medications, injections, and physical therapy, to relieve pain and allow for better wrist movement.

To get started with treatment for your carpal tunnel syndrome, schedule an appointment with our team by calling your nearest office location or using our online booking feature today.