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Mouse maneuvering, video gaming and texting have made our lives easier. And, in a few cases, more painful as well. Here, some medical maladies blamed on gadgetry.

Wii Knee
How could one of the biggest family-friendly, fitness-promoting video games be a bad thing? Doctors in England recently warned that double-jointed fans of the Wii-Fit are at risk of dislocating or even popping out their kneecaps. The condition, being seen more often by doctors, has been dubbed Wii-knee. Doctors have also seen cases of strained muscles, broken bones and inflamed shoulders and wrists.

Text Thumb
If you're addicted to text messaging, your tired thumbs could develop tenosynovitis -- an inflammation that causes your fingers to stay in a flexed position. Especially for those who like to text with one hand, overworking your fingers can cause pain in the tendons of the hand and the wrist. One New Zealand woman, who sent around 100 texts a day, reported that her thumb and wrist filled with fluid and became immobile.

Cell Phone Elbow
Holding your cell phone for lengthy gabfests with your best friend can put a strain on your elbow. Keeping it in that flexed position for long periods of time can cause numbness, cut the flow of blood and oxygen to your fingers and can cause nerve damage in the long run. The solution -- try a hands-free headset, or at least switch ears now and then!

Click here to read about Bluetooth Ear and a host of other tech-y ailments.

Old Tyme Medical Treatments for Women

    Aloe for constipation: Being bound into your corset would be even more difficult if you were bound up. Fortunately, aloe not only heals burns; when ingested, the slimy stuff from inside the leaves works as a laxative (blech).

    Manual stimulation for hysteria: In Victorian ages, hysteria was blamed for everything from anxiety to irritability. But what may actually have drawn women to get treatment was the "manual massage of the vulva by physicians." We'd pay out of pocket for that.

    Paraffin for small boobs: Paraffin, a waxy substance, was injected into flatties in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, the stuff would clump, harden and fester. Docs also tried implants made of ivory, glass balls, ground rubber, ox cartilage, wool and polyester before settling on today's saline and silicone.

    Getty Images

    Horse saliva, horny goat weed, etc. for low libido: In Egypt, women drank milk and stallion saliva to cure their low libidos, while the Chinese ingested ginseng, Gingko bilboa, and horny goat weed (seriously!) to get the blood flowing down below.

    caragana25, Flickr

    Weed for cramps: Marijuana was often prescribed as a treatment for menstrual cramps during the 19th century. Reefer was thought to relax tense intestinal muscles and ease the pain of perioding.

    AP Images

    Assorted animal parts for infertility: In Ancient Egypt, women would go to their dealers for a nice little mixture of honey, animal testicles and powdered placenta ... a great snack to help kick-start the babymaker.

    Tobyotter, Flickr

    Memory Lapses: For memory issues not related to hard nights of drinking, garlic was often prescribed as the cure. Eleanor Roosevelt was said to take three chocolate-covered pills of the stuff every morning to help with her retention.

    AP Images

    Chastity belts for promiscuity: While there is some debate over whether or not these steel underpants even existed, chastity belts are said to have been invented for the wives and girlfriends of knights who wanted their women to stay faithful while they were off fighting dragons or Romans or whatever.

    Getty

Bluetooth Ear
Um, but of course, a headset isn't a miracle cure for tech ailments. Since it's placed in the ear and stays there for long periods of time, earwax can build up on the device (no matter how diligent you are about cleaning your ears). When there's earwax, there's a chance for bacteria and fungus growth. And besides increasing your chances of infection, the buildup of wax can also make you temporarily deaf.

Computer Vision Syndrome
Computer vision syndrome affects anyone who views computers up close -- even kids who just watch shows or read online -- and can cause headaches, dry eyes, blurry vision and more. Blinking a lot and focusing on something far away every 20 minutes that you're at the computer gives you some basic protection.

Tell us: Have you ever gotten hurt from using your cell phone or playing a video game?

Also on Lemondrop: Want someone who can sympathize with your Wii-knee? Check out our list of nerdy guys we love.


Beta Males

    Ben Stone (Seth Rogen), "Knocked Up." A beautiful woman with an unbelievable job agrees to unprotected sex with an out-of-work Canadian stoner, under the cinematic pretext of "beer goggles." Please let us know what she was drinking so we can buy stock.

    Universal

    Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), "Say Anything." Oh, Lloyd Dobler. Now that we know that kickboxing was not, indeed, the sport of the future, following gorgeous, smart Diane Court to college in England without a job or prospects of his own just seems kinda pathetic.

    Everett Collection

    Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell), "The Forty Year Old Virgin." Steve Carell's hairy manchild had neither a driver's license nor a lick of sexual experience, but landed small business owner and hot single mom Catherine Keener. You know, cause he was so nice.

    Universal

    Chuck (Adam Sandler), "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." A homophobic firefighter so broke that he agrees to marry his male coworker for domestic partner benefits lies to Jessica Biel about his sexual history. She falls madly in love with him. Who wouldn't?!

    Universal

    Troy (Ethan Hawke), "Reality Bites." Unemployed musician makes romantic pronouncements about smoking Camel Wides and bitches at Winona Ryder even as he crashes on her couch and hits her up for free pizza. The love story of our time.

    ZUMA Press

    Seth (Jonah Hill), "Superbad." Aside from a rather impressive collection of obscene drawings, this paunchy, raunchy dork seems to have little to offer the cute, funny girl he gets.

    Sony

    John Beckwith (Owen Wilson), "Wedding Crashers." A gorgeous, altruistic senator's daughter falls for a "professional mediator" (who inexplicably never goes to work) who spends his spare time lying his way into parties and bridesmaids' underpants. Obvs.

    Everett Collection

    Ben Wrightman (Jimmy Fallon), "Fever Pitch." Boston baseball superfan and crap boyfriend constantly ditches his beautiful, successful girlfriend because the Red Sox "need" him. How adorable!

    20th Century Fox

    Dante (Brian O'Halloran), "Clerks" & "Clerks II." A chubby dude with a creepstache and a series of crap jobs that he loves to whine about. Catnip to women like Rosario Dawson.

    Weinstein Co.

    Michael (Zach Braff), "The Last Kiss." A mopey man-boy cheats on his lovely, pregnant girlfriend with a college student, and she takes him back. In the movies, he's "conflicted." In real life, we call that "sleazebaggy."

    Dreamworks