Lose Those Carpal Tunnel Blues

by Elle Ray | Mar 27, 2018 | Writing

How to Protect Your Wrists & Hands from Harm

Writers and editors spend much of their days at the keyboard, so they’re prone to carpal tunnel syndrome. A devastating medical condition, carpal tunnel syndrome keeps you from typing — and therefore from working — for quite a while. While not everyone develops the condition, you may have some unhealthy habits that can lead to hand and wrist problems.

The carpal tunnel is the rigid, narrow passageway on the back of each hand, through which tendons and nerves pass to your fingers. It’s a pretty sturdy tunnel, but continuous pressure can eventually cause it to cave. Its lining can become inflamed and swollen too, also leading to pain and disability. Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when the median nerve running through the tunnel gets squeezed at your wrist.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Symptoms

When your carpal tunnel becomes damaged or inflamed, the pain alone can send you far from your keyboard. And the treatment makes it difficult to continue with your work as well. Common painful symptoms include:

• Numbness in that hand
• Weakness in your wrist, fingers or hand
• Pain in your hand or wrist
• Pain that travels up through your forearm
• Tingling or burning in the palm of your hand
• Thumb muscles become atrophied

The symptoms often begin at night and may wake you up. Or when you do arise in the morning, it feels like you have to shake your hand to get feeling back into it; it feels like your hand fell asleep and didn’t hear the alarm. When symptoms start affecting you during the day, that’s a sign the condition is getting worse. Eventually, you may not be able to feel hot or cold in that hand.

Don’t Write It Off

While repetitive stress and improper ergonomics often are the main culprits, there are other causes, such as:

• An underdeveloped tunnel
• Fluid retention
• An injury to the tunnel, such as a sprain or fracture of your hand
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Pituitary gland problem
• Tumor or cyst pressing on the carpal tunnel
• Diabetes

With so many factors at play, it’s best to get it checked out by a physician who may take an x-ray or MRI, do blood tests, and provide hands-on manipulation to identify the underlying cause and give you a definitive diagnosis. Self-diagnosing isn’t a good idea, especially when it comes to your hands that are your source of income!

Prevention Is the Best Line of Defense

It may seem that writers and editors don’t do much in the way of physical exertion. And very often, writers place so much emphasis on the mental challenges of the job that just the thought of it being physically challenging seems ludicrous. However, writing on a keyboard or by hand is very taxing work.

And if you do it improperly, you’re going to feel the results — in your hands, your back, your shoulders, your neck and beyond. Your body is so interconnected that, like a string of dominoes, when one part goes down, the rest follow closely behind.

Take It Seriously

Taking into consideration the risks of continuing your unhealthy work habits should encourage you to take care of your money-makers. Make some simple changes now. Examine how you work, where you do your writing and what kind of equipment you rely on. You just may save yourself from some heavy-duty carpal tunnel syndrome treatment.

Simple modifications make your work feel better and stack the odds against you having hand problems. Tips for changes include:

• Correct your posture to allow the blood to flow smoothly to your extremities.
• Adjust the arms on your chair so that your arms rest gently on them while you type. Don’t press down on your arm or wrists — that could shut off blood flow and compromise your carpal tunnel.
• Lose the wrist rests. A common typing tool when ergonomics first hit the office scene, it’s now known that your wrists should never rest on anything for more than a few seconds.
• Get up and move around at least for five to 10 minutes every hour. Movement helps to shift waste products out that can clog up your veins and restrict circulation.
• Do wrist exercises before, during and after a writing session. Straighten out your arm and hold it steady with the opposite hand. Move your wrist in one direction for a minute, then reverse. Make sure you do both wrists, even if only one is hurting.
• Stretch during another of your breaks. Reach for the ceiling and pull your arms gently up to give your muscles and blood vessels a slight tug.
• Boost your circulatory system by adding foods high in B6 to your diet. Avocados, eggs, whole wheat, bananas and peanuts are just some of the foods rich in B vitamins, and B vitamins are good for your blood.

If you’re already feeling some early symptoms and your doctor approves, try wearing a splint at night while you sleep. If the pain continues to worsen, you may need to wear it during the day too. You may have to learn how to type while wearing it.

A custom-made splint may help. If all else fails, you may need to have surgery. At that point, we hope you have a good transcriber or a voice recognition program to type for you!

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

Nutrition for Writers

by Elle Ray | Mar 13, 2018 | Writing

Brain Food Helps Fuel Your Creative Juices

Coffee isn’t brain food; don’t rely on it to spark your creativity.

Every day, we’re bombarded with advice about what we need to put in our bodies to become:

• A better athlete
• A more efficient worker
• Safe from outside influences
• A growing teen
• An aging senior
• A healthy middle-aged anybody

But you barely see any advice for what brain food and nutrition can help you better use your noggin to be more creative, think outside the common areas of the park or tap into hidden sources of inspiration. The mind/body connection has clearly been defined and proven beyond any reasonable doubt. Yet creativity and inspiration still too often get left primarily to the unseen, mysterious realms of spirituality and/or religion.

Brain Food for Thought

While new technology or updated apps on all your devices might make them smarter, they actually do little for your own brain. In fact, the internet, Google and all other higher forms of the internet of things (IoT) has indeed given humans the ability to find, extract and process information quicker than ever – in effect, making us smarter. But rarely can technology and its spurious offspring act as brain food for higher levels of thinking – like art, prose and music.

Instead, consider relying on the research that does inform the human brain to produce effectively and efficiently. In other words, eat more brain food, and you can become more creative. Some of the best foods for higher thinking include:

• Dark chocolate. A cup of dark hot chocolate provides more antioxidants than green tea or red wine, two other common sources of drinkable brain food.
• Broccoli. A natural source of vitamin K, broccoli plays a huge role in blood coagulation in your brain, which keeps the blood and fat in your brain modulated, balanced and stress-free.
• Eggs. This is your brain on eggs: smoothly operating as ideas fire off one after another. Eggs are a good source of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine that helps cells in your brain communicate with one another. It also fosters a better memory.
• Fish. The omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish – like salmon, mackerel and tuna – act like weights for building your creative muscles. As far as brain food goes, these little fatty acids are hard to beat.
• Blueberries. Now this is one all-around powerful brain food. It should fill your freezer and fruit basket every day. Not only are blueberries a superb source of antioxidants, they also boost the production of good sugar, or glucose, in the body. And since your brain can’t store glucose for later use, like fat or muscles in other parts of your body, your brain needs a constant supply to keep it fresh and healthily creative so it can spin out new ideas.

Blueberries are amazing brain food!

Supplementing Bad Food with Brain Food

One of the biggest zappers in terms of healthy nutrition is processed food, which also contains harmful chemicals that only work to derail concentration, creativity and constructive ideas. Ideally, every working writer needs fresh, organic live foods that haven’t been processed. Even if you’re just noodling around on the keyboard and haven’t yet decided whether to publish or not, beware of processed food. It’s not your best source of nourishment.

So you say you can’t afford fresh fruits and veggies every day? So you’re not a very cook? You’re the type of writer who gets started on a project and forgets to stop and eat? If you can’t make a daily habit of consuming fresh, wholesome brain food, you can make up for your lack of nutrients with supplements designed just for this purpose.

Talk to your doctor, though, before starting on a regimen of supplements. Some of them may counteract other medications you may be taking. Some supplements even require oversight by a medical professional if you have any medical conditions or plan on taking huge doses to counteract an imbalance.

Brain Food Musts

It’s always better to get most of your brain food from actual real food, but when you can’t, supplements can take up some of the slack, as long as you don’t overdo it or go against your doctor’s recommendations. But every day, make sure you consume sufficient amounts of:

• Antioxidants. These nutrients are important for reducing and even eliminating inflammation. Brain cells are particularly susceptible to damage from oxidation and free radicals. In addition to boosting your brain’s cognitive functions, antioxidants also slow down the aging process. Early research suggests they may even reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer’s or dementia. Get your daily dose of antioxidants from supplements like vitamins A, C and E.
• Fat. Yes, fat. It’s not necessarily a put-down when someone calls you a “fat-head.” Dietary fat is an essential brain food, as the organ is made up of nearly 60 percent fat. And not only does healthy fat serve as exceptional brain food, it makes you happier too. Inadequate dietary fat consumption is tied to depression. Fish oil supplements may be the best source of fat supplementation when you can’t get your fill of fish, nuts, olives or avocados.
• Protein. Those neurotransmitters that thrive on eggs every day are primarily made of proteins. They’re responsible for your mood too, as well as moderating sleep and addictive cravings, more things that can get in the way of your creative production. A heap of protein powder might suffice on days that you can’t consume enough eggs, meat or dairy.
• B Vitamins. In particular, a deficiency in vitamin B-12 leads to a condition called brain fog that definitely will interfere with your writing. But all B vitamins are good for you in the right doses.
• Vitamin D. While your body and brain need a daily dose of all essential vitamins and minerals, a lack of B-12 and vitamin D are most common because it isn’t easy to get your daily dosages from food. And too many people, especially writers, don’t spend enough time in the sun to get enough of this brain boosting nutrient. Vitamin D is often referred to as the happy vitamin for its ability to improve your mood and your memory.

When all is said and done, it’s really just common sense that dictates anyone’s diet. But unlike steel workers and aerobics teachers who burn enough calories in a day so they can get all the nutrition they need from food without gaining weight, sedentary writers need to watch their caloric intake. And fat writers aren’t as productive either, since they have other medical issues that too often short-circuit their creativity.

So, feed your brain with healthy brain food meant for Pulitzer Prize-winning writers – and all the rest of us. And keep your brain exercised by writing every day. A good diet and exercise: the keys to good health and creative success!

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

Writing for Fun and Profit

by Elle Ray | Feb 27, 2018 | Writing

Consider Both When You’re Writing for Fun

Whether you’re writing for fun or writing for profit, following the same simple principles helps you go further in your literary endeavors. All writing should be designed to be read. It doesn’t matter whether you’re:

• Writing for profit, hoping to get more work from freelance efforts
• Already on staff as a professional writer
• Just writing for fun because you enjoy the process

Writing that isn’t read is like a painting kept in an attic or a new dress left on its hangar – what’s the point? Just as a goal without a plan is just a wish, so writing that isn’t read is lost seed on infertile ground.

Writing for Fun vs. Writing for Personal Use

To be clear, writing for fun doesn’t include journals or diaries. First of all, those kinds of musings typically aren’t written to be read by anyone else. Instead, personal writing meant for your eyes only is a therapeutic process, best left to yourself or your therapist.

Letter writing – designed to be read by only one other person, including love letters, letters of apology and notes serving as reminders – may be called writing for fun if you get a kick out of doing it. It’s kind of a lost art today, but if you write to your recipient on a regular basis, maybe that’s a fun exercise for you. But again, that’s not the kind of writing for fun this article addresses.

Don’t Look Now!

The best kind of writing for fun is the kind that too many writers believe is not suited for others’ eyes. For example, if you’ve jotted down a short story in your spare time, but are worried what friends, family or even strangers may think of you – in other words, if you’re afraid of criticism – then you should reveal it immediately. Announce its existence and don’t hold back!

Just as the journalist braves the insensitive red pen of the editor and the novelist cringes when her editor calls, you must learn to accept constructive criticism with a fearless heart and an optimistic grin. It’s not just the best way to grow your talent, it’s the only way. By allowing others to read their work, professionals become better writers. You will too.

You may tell yourself you’re just writing for fun, but writing truly is a serious business. You need some skill, certainly, but becoming a writer, even if for fun, takes work. Some would even go so far as to say that a writer who doesn’t share her talent is no better than a person who can’t write at all. Don’t let that describe you.

Writing for Profit Isn’t Always Fun

Professional writers often express extreme envy and outrage at the thought of writers writing just for fun. Real writers, they believe, write. Every day. And they post or publish their writing; they don’t keep it to themselves. Professional writers have to meet their boss’ expectations, even if they’re writing:

• Blog posts
• Website pages
• Novels
• Magazine articles
• Newspaper stories
• Press releases
• Marketing brochures

“What I wouldn’t give to be able to write what I want to write and be damned if anyone bothers to pay for it!” That’s a common lament among those who write for profit. Yes, even novelists have publishers and a public to please. It’s often enough to take all the fun out of the job.

Marry Writing for Fun with Writing for Profit

The best of both worlds involves taking bits and pieces from each and creating a writer’s life few ever get the chance to enjoy. Perhaps when talented writers overcome the fear of rejection or ridicule and relegate their inner critic to a back room with the door locked, more great writing will be published. Don’t let those voices in your head stop you. Write to be read!

On the other hand, talent may emerge from professional writers who spent a lifetime writing for profit. When those writers retire, the skills learned from writing for profit get turned into writing for fun. Or maybe even someone like you will finally allow the world to see your writing. Once you stop kidding yourself that you’re only writing for fun, put it – and your talent – to the test. Submit your work. Encourage people to read it. Embrace your inner writer.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.