
Ask HN: Could the answer to carpal tunnel syndrome be the trackpoint? - notsony
I used to get small pains in my wrist, hands and forearm when working on a laptop.  I tried changing my posture.  I tried using external keyboards, external mice, touchpad only, on both PC and Mac laptops.  The pains were still there.  I was lucky in that I didn&#x27;t have to see a doctor but I know people who have had to wear special gloves and have treatment<p>Since I started using a trackpoint (on a Thinkpad) and setting up the OS to completely disable the touchpad, the pains have gone away and have not returned.  Funnily, my posture is still bad, hunched over the laptop like most people, but my pains are gone.<p>My theory is that not having to constantly move my hand down to the touchpad to scroll, or move down to click a button below the touchpad (or press directly on it like Apple touchpads) has meant that I avoid lots of small movements.  These micro-movements probably caused stress, as does using an external mouse and having to move my hand off the keyboard, onto the mouse, move it etc.<p>Just wondering if anybody else has experienced the same thing?!
======
WaltPurvis
Yes. In my own experience, I used to use a version of the Thinkpad keyboard
made for desktop computers —- I owned two, actually, the first manufactured by
IBM, the second by Lenovo -- and the trackpoint worked wonders for all the
reasons you describe. (I stopped using those keyboards when I switched to Mac,
but now that you've reminded me, I may look into getting a new one, if it's
Mac-compatible.)

