So can wearing a watch cause arm pain and damage? Yes. Wearing a watch can cause arm pain if not worn properly. Keep scrolling to find out how to wear a watch properly to avoid discomfort or pain.
How Can Wearing A Watch Cause Arm Pain And Damage
If worn correctly, your wristwatch will not cause any pain or discomfort. You should wear a watch above your wrist bone and adjust the wristband of the watch to lose enough so your index finger can pass through.
Wearing a watch tightly on your wrist can fracture the little bones of the wrist or cause them to be inflamed with an excruciatingly painful feeling. The watchband of your wristwatch shouldn’t be too tight as it may compress the soft tissues of the arm, impairing blood flow and causing structural damage to delicate nerves of the wrist which will present with a numb feel and tingling sensation.
A tightly worn watch over a long period of time will accumulate sweat over the area it sits on which can inflame the skin over the arm or worse, get the skin infected. Watches may also contain substances like gold which some people are allergic to such that when they wear them, they experience serious allergic reactions.
Can Wearing A Watch Cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that presents as numbness and tingling sensation around the wrist and hand resulting from damage to the median nerve. Carpal tunnel syndrome is mainly caused by constant straining of the wrist.
This can be made worse by wearing a tight wristwatch. A tight wrist watch compresses the structures within the carpal tunnel exacerbating the condition.
No research has linked smartwatches to be a major cause of carpal tunnel syndrome. Instead, a smartwatch can exacerbate the preexisting carpal tunnel syndrome of its user when used inappropriately.
How To Wear A Watch Properly To Avoid Damage To The Wrist
To avoid complications from wearing a watch you need to wear your watch right.
- Make sure to wear your watch above the wrist bone or two fingers below your wrist to avoid adding pressure on the bones of the wrist. The wrist is made up of eight little bones that can get fractured from constant pressure.
- Wear your watch on your non-dominant hand but this time, ensure you follow the best practices as you do so. Additionally, wearing your watch on your non-dominant hand minimizes your chances of developing carpal tunnel syndrome since you won’t use the hand often.
- Ensure you adjust your watchband to allow a finger to pass through to prevent a tight hold over your arm which may lead to complications but be careful not to make it lax so it doesn’t slip freely over your arm. When watches slip over the arm, they may cause bruises.
Can The Radiation From A Smartwatch Be Harmful?
As smartwatches are now able to perform functions similar to mobile phones, people have become worried about the effects of radiation from smartwatches on the human body.
Smartwatches use low-powered radio frequency transmitters to send and receive information from the internet. Radio waves are non-ionizing and are used extensively across gadgets.
However, since the radiation from a phone are a lot higher than that emitted from smartwatches. It is safer to worry more about your mobile phones than your smartwatch.
How Long Should You Wear A Smartwatch
There is no specified timeline to wear a smartwatch per day. However, it is best not to wear your smartwatch all the time especially if you’re going to bed. You will want to avoid dirt from accumulating over the skin where your watch is placed as it can become unpleasant giving you rashes and blisters. Sleeping over your hand with a watch can also cause wrist pain or even damage your smartwatch.
Can Apple Watch Cause Nerve Pain
Apple watches like other smartwatches shouldn’t cause pain unless they are not worn properly. An Apple watch shouldn’t be worn too tightly or too loosely. A tightly worn apple watch can irritate the skin and underlying nerves. If it is worn loosely, it sleeps over the arm causing rashes and blisters
How Do You Manage Wrist Pain From A Smartwatch
Without a diagnosis from a physician, you can’t be sure that your wrist pain is solemnly caused by your smartwatch. There are a lot of other conditions that present with wrist pain ranging from diabetes to arthritis so the first thing to do whenever you have wrist pain is to see a physician.
However, in a case where the pain is a result of your smartwatch, you’ll need to either stop using your smartwatch or adjust your watchband to be as comfortable as possible. You can also switch the hand you wear your watch on and make sure you follow the appropriate guidelines in doing so.
FAQs
While you may have wrist pain from wearing your apple wrist watch too tightly, there is however no evidence to support Apple watches causing carpal tunnel syndrome.
The major reason you are feeling pain after using your watch could be due to using your watch for an extended period or wearing it too tight.
Studies have shown that smartwatches may increase anxiety in people that wear them due to the frequency with which they check their vitals using the gadget.
We’ve Seen That
The pain associated with watches is not caused by the watch itself but due to the lack of awareness of the wearer on the appropriate steps to take to wear the watch perfectly.
