Spending hours hunched over your smartphone sending texts to friends, or keeping in touch with office may seem like a harmless endeavor, but it’s not. In fact, doctors have revealed that there are serious health concerns with texting, notably neck and back pain. These injuries are now referred to as text neck.
Text Neck
When you are texting on your phone, chances are you are not in an upright position. You are usually looking down, with your head and neck bent forward. It is this forward position that can cause the chronic pains known as text neck.
Neck and back pain
Bending the head forward even for a small fraction of 15 degrees, can have serious implications for spinal health. The human head weighs about 10 to 12 pounds on average, but this weight is multiplied whenever the head tilts forward from the normal upright position. At 15 degrees the weight of the head feels like about 27 pounds, and this added burden can cause acute neck and back pain.
Loss of the spinal curve
In the long term, text neck can also lead to the loss of the normal spinal curve. The flattening of the curve can result in the early degeneration of the cervical spine. There are also a host of neurological problems linked to wear and tear of the spine.
What can you do?
Due to the health concerns with texting, people need to be mindful of the posture they adopt when using the smartphone. The challenge is to try and assume proper posture, by bringing the smartphone to you at the upright level.
If you are already experiencing neck and back pain, you can get relief by using Posture Pump products. They are designed to alleviate neck and back problems by decompressing and shaping the spine, and providing adequate lubrication. For more information visit www.posturepump.com.