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As new products utilizing the state-of-the-art technology are conquering all aspects of our lives, there is an increasing incidence of some specific medical conditions that take a heavy toll on human societies.
One of these conditions is “text neck” which is caused by overusing devices such as smartphones, tablets, or other wireless devices.If you are a cell phone owner and feeling a stiffness in your shoulders and the base of your neck without any obvious reason, it may be text neck.
Looking down at your smart phone phone, tablet, or other wireless devices for too long and too frequently can damage your neck. The excessive stress in the neck is causing a lot of burden, especially among young people. Some might even wake up with severe, acute, upper back muscle strain.
This early wear-and-tear on the spine and even disc degeneration caused by text neck might lead to neck surgery.
A news video from Denver Channel with over 1 Million viewers announced that neck pain sufferers from smart phones are getting younger and younger.
What is text neck and Why You Should Worry?
The term “text neck” was first used by a US chiropractor, Dr. Dean L. Fishman. This medical condition is a repetitious stressor an overuse injury which occurs when your head is flexed in a forward position and bent down looking at your smartphone or other electronic devices for a long time. The termis derived from cervical (neck) spinal degeneration resulting from the repeated stress of frequent forward head flexion while texting on mobile devices. News Channel MyFox Zone announced Text neck causes chronic neck pain at younger age already.
Today, text next is more common among youngsters who have become excessively accustomed to their electronic devices and are much of the time bending their head over their device while eating, walking, etc
Signs and symptoms of text neck
Bending your neck while looking down at your smartphones or other electronic devices for a long time,contribute to some physical conditions as follows:
- You feel stiffness across your shoulders.
- You may also feel pain ranging from a chronic, mild pain to sharp, severe muscle spasms in your neck, back, arms, hands,and shoulders.
- There will be a deformity in the musculoskeletal system of your neck (changes in the curvature of your cervical spine).
- You may also experience tenderness in your neck area.
- There may be numbness and tingling sensation in your arms.
Causes of text neck
The average human head is around 4.5 kilograms. When your shoulders and ears are in alignment, the upper part of your body is in a neutral position. In this position, there is a minimum tension on the muscles and bones and other structures of your neck. When you lean your neck forward and the neutral position disturbs, the neck has to bear much more weight. In a study published by the journal “Surgical Technology International,” the total force the head puts on the spine as the head tilts was investigated. The results were as follows:
- If the head is tilted 30 degrees forward, that puts 18 kg of forces on the cervical spine.
- If the head is tilted 45 degrees forward, that puts 22 kg of forces on the cervical spine.
- If the head is tilted 60 degrees forward, that puts 27 kg of forces on the cervical spine.
Scary Statistics of using Smart Phones and Tablets
In our modern digital age, there are an increasing number of people who are spending a lot of time on handheld devices such as smartphones, computer tablets, e-readers, etc.Here are some statistics from Pew Internet Project’s research related to mobile technology, 2014:
- 67% of cell owners check their cell phones regularly even when the phones don’t ring.
- 34% of cell internet users mostly use their phones to go online, and not using a desktop or laptop computer.
- 79% of the cell owners between 18 and 44 have their cell phones with them almost all the time.
- Americans spend 2.7 hours daily communicating on their phones, and even more, time looking down at their mobile phones for searching in the web and other similar uses.
Consequences of text neck in long term
Iftext neck is left untreated, it may lead to some more serious and permanent physical and medical problems in your body such as:
- Your spine curve transforms to become flat in the upper part of your body.
- You may have an early onset of arthritis.
- Your spinal alignment will be disturbed.
- Spinal degeneration may happen in your spine.
- Intervertebral disc compression is another outcome of text neck.
- Due to abnormal pressure on the discs, disc herniation may occur.
- Your nerves may be damaged in text neck.
- The neighboring muscles may damage due to excessive tensions.
- You may also have gastrointestinal disorders.
- In the long term, you may also lose your lungs’ volume capacity.
How to prevent text neck
Your symptoms in text neck such as muscular pain and discomfort can be relieved by some simple lifestyle changes such as:
- Your text neck can be easily prevented by taking regular breaks from using mobile devices. You could have a break every 15 minutes or so. During the break, you must look up and bring your neck back into its neutral position.
- You can also hold your smartphone or other electronic mobile devices higher at your eye level.
- Reduce the need to look at your screen as often by using talk-to-text as much as possible.
- Try a device with a bigger screen, so the device can be held farther and higher.
- You also need strong and flexible muscles of the neck to reduce strain on your spine.
- There are some posture-focused exercises that aim in gaining the right posture. Yoga and pilates are among those exercises. They increase your consciousness of the way your smart devices should be used.
- You need to do specific strengthening exercises to target the abdominal and lower back muscles to support your upper body.
Try Our Vita Activate® Text Neck Reliever — Best Posture Tracker to Prevent Neck Pain from Texting Treatment for text neck
In severe cases of text neck, a thorough examination will be performed along with other investigations to find out if there is anything wrong with your neck. If there are some specific physical problems, then a combination of the following treatments will be used to treat your condition including:
- Medications: your doctor may prescribe you some medications such as NSAIDs and muscle relaxants to relief your symptoms.
- Cold laser therapy is another way of producing your pain relief.
- A professional massage can alleviate the pain and stiffness of your neck.
- In more severe cases, there may be degeneration causing nerve compression resulting in nerve pain in the neck. In these cases, specialized treatment is required such aschiropractic care, physiotherapy,spinal decompression therapy, massage therapy, and exercise Planning.
- Exercises: there are some stretching exercises that can relieve your neck pain from text neck including corner stretch and levatorscapula stretch.
And now both prevention and treatment in one: ChiSoft® Foam Neck Support
ChiSoft® Foam Neck Support is designed to help you get rid of your text neck problem.
The benefits of ChiSoft® Foam Neck Support are as follows:
- Guiding your neck into neutral position
- Instant relief on your neck by even distribution of your head’s weight all around the foam
- Providing a worry-free comfort while working away, no matter how long
- Convenient design for your neck’s comfort through elegant curvatures of the foam.
- High-quality one-inch thick foam with extra-strength and adjustable Velcro strap
- Dimension: 10.24 x 3.94 x 1.18 inches, weight: 0.2 lbs
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Originally published at https://www.vitactivate.com on December 24, 2019.