Are Your Electronics Killing You?

Have you ever watched a person text or work on a mobile device for an extended period of time? If so you may have noticed some of the following things. The person may start to stick their head out in front of them and roll their shoulders and upper back forward. Put yourself in that position for a moment and hold it. If you’re like me you start to feel tension in your back and neck after not too long of time.  Using the phone a lot to text, write emails, play games, etc., can causes the muscles in your neck and upper back to get very tight and can even in some cases be the cause of those late afternoon headaches.

In the article Your Body is Sending You a Message by Dr. Dean Fishman, it's mentions that the Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that young people ages 8-18 years old spend in excess of seven-and-a-half hours a day using some form of mobile media. That’s like a full time job! The continual head forward position among other things can be a cause of aches in pains for years to come for our youth.

In the book Physiology of the Joint Volume 3 by Kapandji, it explains that for every inch forward the head is from its normal position over the shoulders can equate to increasing the weight of the head by 10lbs!! Reach back and feel your neck/shoulders, is Kapandji talking about you?

The forward head posture can also lead to long term muscle strain, disc degeneration, and even nerve impingement (Mayo Clinic Health Letter, March 2000).

Now if you are like me, you are probably not going to go as far as to get rid of your phone, tablet, PSP or whatever your device of choice may be. These devices are great we just have to learn how to use them and still take care of our body.

The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) has a few simple guidelines that one can use to help you get the most out of your electronics while saving your neck and back. A few of them are the following:

• Sit upright, keeping your ears over your shoulders
• Look down with your eyes and gently tuck your chin in
• Don’t pinch the phone between your ear and shoulder
• Try using a headset
• Instead of returning all your emails via your mobile device, wait until you can use a computer for longer messages.

If after trying these tips you still can't seem to get rid of the pain or discomfort that you may be feeling it may be a sign that you need to get in to see your chiropractor or health care provider. Have more question about this topic feel free to drop me a line!