“Text Neck” syndrome
By Joe Conway, PT
Text Neck The phrase was coined by Florida chiropractor, exercise physiologist and entrepreneur Dean Fishman, who came up with the phrase after beginning to see "an increase in frequency of younger people presenting to my office with complaints of headaches, neck and arm pain and discomfort."
"Medical research has shown that long term forward head posture will cause early spinal arthritis, disc degeneration, headaches, up to a 30% decrease in lung capacity to just name a few conditions. A survey was conducted with 6,000 chronic headache sufferers and the only common finding among them was the loss or reversal of the normal curve in the neck."
As cell phone and Smart Phone continues to rise there are a few issues to consider for the general public and care givers (Physicians, Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, and Chiropractors). We all need to pay attention to the position we place our head and neck in as we are texting or surfing the web on our „smartphones.‟ As we hold the phone in front of us gravity will tend to take over leading to our head drooping forward and our shoulders rounding. This places our bodies in a slouched position, and increases the force of gravity on the supporting structures of the spine and shoulder girdle. These forces on the spine and shoulder girdle lead to sprains and strains of these structures. Sprains and strains often lead to tightness, pain, dysfunction, headaches and potentially other serious problems, for example cervical and thoracic disc problems, rotator cuff problems, radiating symptoms, numbness, and weakness.
We tend to forget about the position of our bodies as we become engrossed in our technological devices. It is important to take care of our spine. In order to reduce sprains and strains it is important to be aware of the stresses we place on our bodies, to take frequent breaks from our technological devices. Go outside and walk. Walking is a great stress reliever; it is great exercise and please leave your phone at home or at least in your pocket.
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