By Matt Sloane
WebMD Health News
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Michael
W. Smith, MD
Nov. 26, 2014 -- Gift-buying season is here, and on top
of the wish list for most people is the latest tech gadget or gizmo. But some
experts are concerned that more tech may equal more pain for frequent
users.
For starters, we take on “text neck” -- and yes,
according to Kenneth K. Hansraj, MD, it’s a real thing.
“We did a study on the issue of poor posture and how it
affects you, especially when you’re on a cell phone or smart device,” says
Hansraj, chief of spine surgery at New York Spine Surgery & Rehabilitative
Medicine. “It’s a lot of load, an amazing amount of weight to be carrying
around your neck.”
Just how much load does that constant downward-looking
gaze put on the neck muscles?
“When your spine is in
neutral position, the head weighs about 10-12 pounds,” he says. “At 15 degrees
[forward], the neck sees 27 pounds. At 45 degrees, it sees 49 pounds, and at 60
degrees, it’s 60 pounds.”
That’s 60 pounds of weight stress on muscles and nerves
that are meant to handle 10-12 pounds of stress, and that much load can do a
lot of damage over time.
“When you have such aggressive stressors on the neck, you
get wear and tear on the spine,” Hansraj says. “You can develop tears within
the disc, or even get a slipped or herniated
disc.”
The end result? “We’re seeing tons of patients who have neck pain,
and really when you look at the MRIs, they are fairly normal,” he says. “When
we straighten them up and get them some physical
therapy, they do a lot better.”
Aletha Chappelear, DC, an Atlanta-area chiropractor,
says she often sees patients with aches and pains that turn out to be related
to their tech.
“We’re seeing it a lot, especially in teenagers and older
adolescents,” she says. “We’re so into our electronic devices, and what we’re
doing is holding the device at chest- or waist-level, and looking down at the
device. It’s causing neck muscles to be shortened and tightened, and shoulders
to be rounded forward.”
The upper part of the spine is normally curved, she says,
to allow nerves plenty of space to pass through the neck and out into the body.
But when you crunch that space down, it can cause major problems down the line.
“There is a big cluster of nerves in the area between the
neck and the shoulder,” she says. “Any compression, irritation, misalignment, muscle
spasms, or tension in this area can cause pain that spreads out all the way
down to the fingers.”
Lying down with your head propped up at an awkward angle,
and talking on the phone with the device pinned between your ear and your
shoulder, are just as bad.
Any kind of neck, shoulder, or back pain requires some
sort of attention, she says. You can:
- Stretch
at home.
- Get
a massage.
- See
a chiropractor or physical therapist.
“If you’re not doing something consistently to reverse
the amount of time you’re looking down, then you’re just going to make it
worse,” she says.
On to the next area of concern. Heard of so-called
“Blackberry thumb”? That's an injury you get from texting for hours with your
thumbs. It can cause long-lasting damage as well.
The thumb isn't very nimble. "It is really designed
as a stabilizer for pinch-gripping with a finger. That is why you only have two
of them, not eight," says Alan Hedge, PhD, professor of ergonomics at
Cornell University.
Repeated stress on delicate tendons in your wrist and
thumb can lead to painful conditions like tendinitis.
Experts have written about cases of thumb problems and
other tech-related issues in many journal articles, but relatively few studies
have been done.
So what can you do about it? Hedge recommends you:
- Switch
between using thumbs and forefingers to text.
- Use
a voice-texting assistant.
- Use
predictive text functions, which suggest words for you as you type on your
phone.
You might also just make a phone call instead.
Whether or not you live on your phone, the way your work
space is arranged might not be doing you any favors either, Chappelear says
“Sitting at a desk, looking at the computer, writing
papers, students sitting in school,” she says. “We’re basically taking that
poor posture [we get from our phones] and making it even worse.”
Her suggestion is something she calls "desktop
yoga."
“You’re sitting at your desk, you open your arms up as
far as they will go, stretch your neck back, and look up as far as you can,”
she says. “Anything you can do that opens up the distance between the chin and
the chest, as well as the distance between the shoulders, will help
tremendously.”
She also recommends you:
- Place
your computer monitor directly in front of you, rather than off to the
side.
- Walk
once an hour while you’re at work.
- Stay
hydrated.
“We are made up of about 75%-80% water, and that fluid
creates lubrication, and helps us deliver nutrients in to -- and waste products
out of -- our cells,” Chappelear says. “If you’re dehydrated, then the tissues
are drier and stickier, so it allows all of the [muscles and nerves] to be more
squished together.”
Tired Eyes
Speaking of staring at screens all day long, your eyes are getting
a workout too -- and they can become exhausted.
Ophthalmologist Anne Sumers, MD, says she sees patients
all day long who say they have trouble related to technology.
“It’s everybody! They come in complaining of eye strain
while working on the computer, and what they mean is their eyes are irritated,
their eyes are tired, they have blurry vision, and they have headaches,”
she says.
The good news is that constantly staring at a screen
isn’t causing permanent damage.
“Working on the computer doesn’t harm your eyes. There’s
no harmful radiation or anything like that,” Sumers says. “What it does cause
is eye strain, where your eyes feel tired and fatigued. These are temporary
problems, and there’s a lot that can be done about them.”
The first step: Check your glasses.
“Make sure the glasses you’re wearing are appropriate for
working on the computer,” she says. “A lot of time, all you need is a better
pair of glasses.”
That means clean, unbroken lenses that are set for the
distance you sit from your computer.
Dry
eyes are also a common problem.
“When you’re concentrating, you don’t blink very much, so
people's eyes dry out,” Sumers says. “Stop for a moment and just close your
eyes for 30 seconds.”
You can also use a few drops of artificial
tear solution.
And the biggest tip: Take a break!
“Do something slightly different after 45 minutes or an
hour on the computer,” she says. “Looking at a distance of 50 feet for 20 or 30
seconds will relax your eyes again.”
SOURCES:
Hansraj, K. Surgical Technology International, November
2014.
Kenneth K. Hansraj, MD, Chief of Spine Surgery, New York
Spine Surgery & Rehablitation Medicine.
Aletha Chappelear, DC, Chiropractor, Back to Balance
Chiropractic.
Alan Hedge, PhD, Professor of Ergonomics, Cornell
University.
Anne Sumers, M.D., Clinical Spokesperson, American
Academy of Ophthalmology.
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