You don’t have to be a NASA Rocket Scientist nerd or Disney Computer Artist geek to experience cold hands working at your computer. Sitting for long hours using a computer mouse can cause your mouse hand to get extremely cold, even if you are a simple stay-at-home or office-junkie computer nerd.

Many heavy computer user “nerds” suffer with a cold mouse hand as soon as the temperatures drop in their work space. It doesn’t matter if it’s winter or summer, if the work space is cold or drafty, a computer user’s hand can become extremely cold. The most common occurrence of a cold hand is by people who sit for long hours at the computer. If a person uses the computer occasionally, or if they are naturally warm-blooded, they may not experience a cold mouse hand. It all depends upon the person, their work space conditions, and their medical history.

Several online forums have surveyed their members about the cold computer hand problem. The majority of responses indicate the cold hand problem is fairly common with the exception being laptop users who do not use a computer mouse when computing.

There’s no specific medical condition for a cold mousing hand, but there are medical conditions with cold hand symptoms.   The most common of the cold hand medical condition is “poor circulation.”  Poor circulation is most commonly caused by a progressive blocking of the arteries. Factors for developing poor circulation include a lack of physical activity, smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

The cold mouse hand problem can become very annoying because the longer a person sits and works at the computer, the colder the hand gets making the tips of the fingers and top of the hand numb. There are products on the market to address the cold hand problem which include both USB connected devices and earth-friendly devices requiring no electricity. Depending upon which device you want to use, it’s wise to address the problem to relieve discomfort as you work. The only other option is to stop working, and that’s not always possible when there are deadlines to meet and computer work to be completed.  Read the rest of this entry »