Blackberry thumb

Maybe you have heard of this already, it was news to me. A relative had a sore thumb, and wondered what we could do about it. I thought and tried a few things, ended up with a simple circular massage around both sides of the joint, the palm and up the arm a little. We were not sure why this happened, she had been playing Wii, or maybe something else? I told her to try icing it.

We later learned its "blackberry thumb" what used to be called "Nintendoitis". Repeatative use injury from small devices like phones for texting or even video gaming that uses the thumbs. Its not new and has been around since the 80's (nintendo been wrecking thumbs since way back, you know you remember getting that hand cramp from hours of mario).

Symptoms of Blackberry thumb include aching and throbbing pain in the thumb or sometimes other fingers and in the wrist.

Now for the treatment, yes ice, NSAIDS (ibuprofen), stop use for a while, splints, and yes massage are all recommended by most health care professionals. There are actual massage sessions that can be designed just to help treat this condition, but like all things, it only works if you help yourself.

As a rule of thumb...