thoracic outlet syndrome -- fad diagnosis?

I had never heard of TOS (thoracic outlet syndrome) prior to signing up to the sorehand mailing list.

There are several participants who write about their TOS and the importance of having it properly diagnosed. You wouldn't want to think you have RSI and actually have TOS, after all.

What on earth is TOS, I wondered.

This link seems to explain it quite well:

http://www.answers.com/topic/thoracic-outlet-syndrome

And the syndrome does seem to be a genuine medical diagnosis.

But, with all the varying diagnoses going around, I think that the dangers of self diagnosis by Internet are definitely there.

Between fibromyalgia, RSI, TOS, TMS, Tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome etc having similar symptoms, I really do think that you need a doctor who can rule out what you don't have and help you manage what you do have.

Three approaches for treating RSI

Keith Bacon who is an active participant on the sorehand mailing list has a great description of the approaches people use to overcome RSI.

First, people often try to make ergonomic changes.  Take rest breaks, use assistive technology.

Secondly, people try physical therapies and massage.

Finally, people try mind/body approaches.

Although Keith goes far deeper than this, to my mind, it is only through changing our behavior and reactions to stress that we can give the muscles a chance to heal.

Melissa @ RSI treatment blog

Blackberry thumb a thing of the past?

I'm very excited that the makers of Dragon NaturallySpeaking have released Dragon dictation for the iPhone and Blackberry.

However, at this stage it only looks to be available to the UK, Germany, France and the USA. I would love to know if anybody from Australia had managed to install this on their phone successfully...

http://www.dragonmobileapps.com/

Melissa@RSI treatment blog