Selfie-wrist and phone-thumb are the price you pay for technology

You know that, when Kim Kardashian has given up something that kept her firmly in the public eye, it must be really, really bad for you – although if you don’t know who Kim Kardashian is, congratulations on living what is already a full and fulfilling life.

Kim, a member of one of America’s most needy families – craving, not food, but infinite public attention.

And one of her primary methods of seeking attention was to take pictures of herself, doing anything and everything . . . from hooking up with her celebrity (and equally needy) friends to capturing her near-naked image in the bathroom mirror.

But no more.

Because Kim has caught a terrible disease – it’s called selfie-wrist, and it’s a result of taking too many photos of yourself with your phone, thereby damaging the tendons in your wrist.

Selfie sickness is a different condition altogether because that’s an illness of the mind; it’s an addiction caused by an affliction which goes way beyond the old notion that it’s a good thing to love yourself – in this case it’s better defined as self-obsession.

But selfie-wrist is a first cousin of carpal-tunnel syndrome, which is nothing to joke about by any stretch.

Only selfie-wrist is self-inflicted, because you wouldn’t have it if you didn’t feel the need to turn your camera phone on yourself every waking minute of your life.

Kim is not the only sufferer either, because one consultant plastic surgeon based on Harley Street has been dealing with an increasing number of sufferers, which has left some of them requiring surgery.

Dr Raj Ragoowansi told the London Times recently that this is caused by repeated inward flexing of the wrist to capture a perfect selfie.

“The wrist holding the camera phone is in a flexed position: that is the most unfavourable position,” he explained.

“The carpal tunnel is an unforgiving space in the wrist — if you keep on taking selfies, the blood supply of the nerve in it will be compromised, causing pain and numbness.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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