All are equal to the
amount of pressure texting puts on your back.
Barton Chiropractic has
always educated patients about the neck and back strain associated with
hunching over a computer screen on a daily basis, but now smartphones are
grabbing the spotlight as the top spinal stressor.
A new study in Surgical
Technology International showed that, bending your neck over a cell phone
to text, tweet, or check Facebook can exert an extra 60 pounds of weight on
the neck of an adult, creating spinal problems.
The farther your head
falls forward, the more the weight increases on your neck and spine.
“An adult head weighs
10 to 12 pounds. As the head tilts forward the forces seen by the neck surges
to 27 pounds at 15 degrees, 40 pounds at 30 degrees, 49 pounds at 45 degrees
and 60 pounds at 60 degrees, or about the weight of six large watermelons or my
eight year old son.
Chiropractors
are posture specialist. One of the first things that a Chiropractor reviews is a
patients posture. Good posture is when the ears are aligned with the
shoulders and shoulder blades. Losing the spine’s natural curvature causes
abnormal stress as well as wear on the spine which leads to
premature degenerative
joint disease and neck pain. Sometimes the degeneration gets so bad that
Chiropractic cant help and surgery is needed.
This image shows how
Subluxation ( the spinal bone being out of place) results in degeneration .
Most people spend two
to four hours a day on phones and other tech gadgets, resulting in at least an
extra 700 to 1,400 hours of stress on the neck and spine each year. I do not
expect people to give up their devices, but you do need to be aware of the
potential problem that you may already have developed.
So, what should you
do? First and foremost I believe that you should contact a Chiropractor
that specializes in corrective care like Barton Chiropractic and have your posture evaluated. This is
one of the reasons that we never charge anyone to sit down and talk with one of
our doctors. Second, I would try to position your phone/device at eye level if
you are spending any time on it.
Call Barton Chiropractic
at (925) 685-2002
to schedule your free posture evaluation today!