We may not be doctors, but we have basically heard the terms "carpal tunnel syndrome" and "tenosynovitis", which can be said to be on the same level as "lumbar disc herniation" and have become "occupational diseases that are not (statutory) occupational diseases" in people's minds. Of course, this is a joke, the above three diseases can not be said to be absolutely related to which occupation, but also closely related to the behavior that is prevalent in our work, study, and entertainment, so it has become a problem that most people will worry about.
A more intuitive example is that many people's work and entertainment are inseparable from computers, and it is natural to use the most basic way of interaction: keyboard and mouse. When using the keyboard and mouse, our arm placement and wrist posture are not particularly natural, and most people may not notice this because of long-term habits. We can actually feel it now, placing the left arm and palm perpendicular to the tabletop, placing the palm of the right hand lightly in the middle of the left arm, and then turning the left arm clockwise to feel the radius in the forearm near the side of the thumb.
In simple terms, when our arms and palms are placed perpendicular to the tabletop (when standing, they are naturally hanging down, and the palms are facing the side of the body), the radius and ulna in the forearm are parallel up and down; When our hands are placed in the palm down posture commonly used when operating the keyboard and mouse, the radius and ulna are interlaced, perhaps in our view, just placed on the tabletop, but the muscles and interossteum around the forearm are in a relatively tight state, which may be easier to accumulate fatigue.
The problem of the arm is not the main contradiction, and it is more necessary for people who use keyboards and mice for a long time to pay more attention to the wrist. In "carpal tunnel syndrome" includes the "mouse hand" we hear more often, which is a symptom caused by the long-term pressure caused by the poor posture of the wrist on the median nerve in the carpal tunnel, and the numbness and pain of the middle finger of the thumb index finger are common.
How to define "bad posture of the wrist"? According to the data, the palm of the hand is too bent to the palm, or too much to the back of the hand will be compressed on the carpal tunnel and the median nerve, and now put our hands on the mouse, we will find that the bad posture caused by the "mouse hand" is mainly the arm and wrist close to the desktop, and the palm is raised because the mouse is raised upwards, that is, extended to the back of the hand, and maintain the same posture in more than several hours of use. Some flat-shaped mice reduce the angle of wrist bending as much as possible, which is why there was an early saying that "a flatter mouse is good for protecting the wrist".
However, in the era of ergonomic mouse, in order to take into account the needs of game entertainment and other needs, flat mouse has not become the mainstream trend, instead of the left high right low design of the mouse left and right buttons and scroll wheel as the core of the control to the right side tilt. In this way, the force acting on the vertical direction of the carpal tunnel is dispersed in the way of tilting the forearm and wrist, and the load caused by the self-weight on the carpal tunnel is transferred to a certain extent. Continuing to increase the angle of tilt, you get a unique new variety: the vertical mouse.
In fact, most vertical mice are not really the control surface vertical arrangement of the mouse, but relatively larger tilt angle, in the near side grip of the arm and wrist to a more comfortable posture, reduce the pressure of arm muscles and carpal tunnel median nerve. To some extent, switching to a vertical mouse after long-term use of a traditional mouse can help reduce fatigue and alleviate "mouse hand" symptoms, of course, to solve the problem of carpal tunnel syndrome, you still need to seek diagnosis and treatment from the hospital.
So, can everyone get a healthier office and entertainment life once and for all by replacing the vertical mouse? We can't ignore other issues, such as learning costs, usage experience, and adaptation scenarios. Vertical mouse in the operation of the feel and the traditional mouse is very different, which comes from its close to the grip of the control surface tilt characteristics, for the mouse common panning and clicking operations will be in another way to control the hand movements, in order to achieve the same control accuracy, still need the user to gradually adapt in use.
On the other hand, the click operation of the vertical mouse is forced from the side, which means that the user needs to hold the mouse from the other side with his thumb while clicking, so that it does not displace or displace the force from the arm according to the needs of the operation. That is to say, each click on the vertical mouse is like invoking the power of multiple fingers to "pinch" the mouse, if the game entertainment and other scenes require frequent mouse clicks, this feature of the vertical mouse will become a burden.
In general, the greater significance of the vertical mouse is to allow us to reduce the time we spend in the same operating posture, after all, our wrist bending is similar to that of a regular mouse when using the keyboard, but the vertical mouse itself does not guarantee that it will not bring other problems caused by posture curing. If you want to prevent or alleviate the "mouse hand", on the one hand, you can use the conventional mouse (also including the conventional ergonomic mouse) and the vertical mouse alternately according to different scenes, such as the use of regular mouse for game entertainment and the vertical mouse for office; On the other hand, it is to develop good habits, avoid sitting for a long time, and timely activities include waist, shoulders, neck, wrists and other body parts, just a simple change of mouse has the feeling of treating the symptoms rather than the root cause.