You’ve probably heard that cell phones can cause a range of health problems, from cancer to addiction, but I recently heard of one health hazard that I had not thought of: neck/back pain. Everywhere you look, you will see at least five people with their head down looking at their phone. Not many people seem to realize how bad it can really be for their health.
It’s been said that the average person will spend between 700 and 1,400 hours a year staring down at their phone. While in the natural, upright position, the average adult head weighs between ten and twelve pounds. However, due to gravity, the greater the angle in which you bend your neck, the heavier your head will get. Dr. Kenneth Hansraj, chief of spine surgery at New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, found that bending your neck at a 60 degree angle puts on 60 pounds of pressure on your cervical spine.
DR. KENNETH HANSRAJ/SURGICAL TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL
But what does this physically do to your body? Experts say the bent neck position can lead to a variety of issues, such as muscle strain, disc herniations and pinched nerves. Additionally, “it can even flatten or reverse the natural curve of your neck,” as time goes on. Dr. Tom DiAngelis, president of the American Physical Therapy Association‘s Private Practice Section, says it is similar to “bending your finger back all the way and holding it there for an hour… As you stretch the tissue for a long period of time, it gets sore, it gets inflamed.” Dr. Michelle Collie, director of Performance Physical Therapy in Rhode Island, said it can also cause metabolic issues. Dr. Larry Bompiani, a chiropractor from Virginia, said, “the joints as well as the disks become degenerated from over period of years of that repetitive stress.”
In order to help this problem, Collie suggests to be aware of your posture and to invest in a docking station and wrist guards to help support your mobile device. Additionally, holding the phone in front of your face, instead of below it, can help. Even taking time away from your device can help you feel better physically and mentally.
After reading about the serious and long-term effects cell phone usage has on your neck and back, I will definitely be more conscientious about how I use my phone. Additionally, I will start working on better posture, even when I’m not on my phone.
This is very interesting! It made me also wonder about slouching looking at your computer in the same way as well. I know I often lay in bed and lean against my pillows and watch Netflix with horrible posture. Last year I had to sit out of basketball because I was having very bad back pain. I strained muscles in my back along with several other issues, but the main things that the doctor and physical therapist had me work on was my core, my posture, and my balance. After working on those things the pain was very minimal. This article makes me wonder now if my phone had anything to do with it. I’m also very curious if there is exercises that could help slow down this process, or even change the habit we have to look at our phones at that angle. I agree with Eric, who commented above, that I have been working on mt posture as well, but mine certainly is not perfect.
I use my phone way to much so reading this definitely woke me up. It is interesting to see that people are already having physical issues despite the fact that cell phones are still fairly young. I am curious to see how our body changes over time to adapt to our cell phones. I also read on Twitter that people are claiming that their fingers are being deformed due to the way they hold their phones. After some research, this has been proven false. But, I wondered what else could be happening to our bodies because of our generations new addiction.
I can definitely relate to this because I feel that I have a slight hunched back because of my phone. I am glued to my phone 24/7 so it does not surprise me that I have poor posture. I feel as I am not the only one who can’t keep away from their phone and I see plenty of people with poor posture as well. It makes one ponder if we will have a new generation of poor postured and curved neck people, especially with new phones coming out every year. Putting things in perspective, 60 pounds is a lot. Just imagine laying a 60 pound weight from the gym straight on your neck. I have been more conscious about my posture, and am interested to find out how wrist guards work.