Text Neck and Chiropractic Care in Zionsville

Yikes.

We could write a whole book on text neck.

We're seeing it constantly in our Zionsville practice.

The Problem with Technology and Spinal Health in Zionsville

This term has been showing up in the news and in health literature more frequently with some articles calling it an "epidemic of the modern era" - which is really neck pain from looking at your phone.

Living in such a digitally connected world, we see people everywhere on their phones for long periods of time looking down at a small screen.

A 2017 study claimed that almost 80% of the population between the ages 18 and 44 carry their cell phones for over 90% of their waking day.

Americans on average spend about 5.4 hours a day on their smartphone... 5.4 hours a day!

That adds up to be 37.8 hours a week, or 1971 hours a year.

Can you imagine what a 40 hour work week with your head bent down towards your phone is doing to your spine?

Compound that with those of you who have desk jobs and are already spending 40 hours a week looking down at a computer...that adds up to be 80 hours a week with your head bent forward!

So why does this matter and how does it impact your spine?

On average, your head weighs about 10-15 lbs. When your head shifts forward, your neck has to start doing a lot more work to hold your head up against gravity.

Imagine holding a bowling ball with your arm bent at 90 degrees so that the bowling ball is stacked above your elbow. From the angle, the bowling ball probably doesn't feel too heavy and you could sustain this posture for a while.

Then imagine straightening out your wrist slightly and moving the bowling ball forward. You can imagine that the bowling ball will start to feel heavier and heavier. The more you bring the ball forward and straighten out the curve of your wrist the more strain will be put on your wrist and forearm.

Your head and your neck work the same way! Check out the graphic above that illustrates how much heavier your head will feel to your neck when you start to bend your head forward. When you have your head bent down all the way to look at your phone or computer, it increases the effective weight of the head on the neck and spine by 60 lbs!

Having your head bent forward for long periods of time can cause a slew of issues including:

• Stiff neck and shoulders
• Headaches
• Radiating pain
• Mid back pain
• Early-onset arthritis
• Spinal degeneration
• Reduced or even reversed neck curve

The worst part is, we're seeing these issues starting at a much younger age. Think about all of the kids you see with tablets in their laps looking down at a screen constantly.

We get it! Sometimes it's what we need to do to keep them occupied.

But, if they're going to be using that technology help them understand better ways to enjoy the screen so that they aren't looking down into their lap the entire time. This is especially important while we're moving into things like virtual schooling. These ergonomics are so incredibly important to help kids grow and develop strong and healthy spines.

So what can you do to prevent this?

1. Make sure that you (or your kids) are holding devices up to eye level. Avoid looking down with your head tilted forward. Hold your screen up to look at it, or look down only with your eyes.
2. Change your workstation. Make sure the center of your monitor is about 2 inches above eye level. This will keep you looking up instead of looking down. (this is typically a much better angle of your face for all those Zoom meetings anyways 😜)
3. Reinforce and support the curve. After a long day looking down at a screen, stretch your neck out the opposite way by rolling up a towel and laying flat on the floor with the roll under your neck for 10 minutes at night. This should feel like a nice gentle stretch so if it's painful or feels too intense, talk to your chiropractor.
4. The most important thing you can do: see a Chiropractor. Chiropractors are the most trained professionals in the healthcare field to deal with spinal curves and text neck issues. At Foundations Chiropractic, we analyze the spinal curves through postural analysis, spinal x-rays, and specialized scans to determine exactly where your spine is holding the most stress so we can come up with a plan to address your issues and work on curve correction. Chiropractors free up the movement of the joints and reduce the stress on the nerves so that your spine and body can function better. With proper function, we tend to see a dramatic decrease in discomfort that comes with text neck.

We troubleshoot with you what you can be doing at home in terms of ergonomics, sleeping posture, stretching, and traction to help you use your body and your spine better. We see issues like this every day and we've been able to help patients get rid of that dreaded text neck posture and restore proper spinal curves.

References

Neupane S, Ifthikar Ali UT, Mathew A. Text-Neck Syndrome-Systemic review. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research. 2017;3(7):141-148.

1. Vate-U-Lan P. Text Neck Epidemic: A growing problem for smart phone users in Thailand. Proceedings of the twelfth international conference of eLearining for knowledge based society; 2015 December 11-12; Thailand
2. Toh SH, Coenen P, Howie EK, Straker LM. The associations of mobile touch screen device use with musculoskeletal symptoms and exposures: a systematic review. PLoS One 2017; 12(8): e0181220.
3. Sharan D, Mohandoss M, Ranganathan R, Jose J. Musculoskeletal disorders of upper extremities due to extensive usage of hand held devices. Annals of Ann Occup Environ Med. 2014; 26(22).
4. Kwon JW, Son SM, Lee NK. Changes in upper-extremity muscle activities due to head position in subjects with a forward head posture and rounded shoulders. J Phys Ther Sci. 2015. 27; 6:1739–1742.
5. Shoshany S. A Modern Spine Ailment: Text Neck. https://www.spine-health.com/blog/modern-spine-ailment-text-neck