Do You Know Anyone With "Text Neck?"

What is text neck?  It's an epidemic that could wreck your spine.  It's the result of the smartphone, that device we can't live without.  Hours each day of using the smart phone create poor posture, sometimes called "text neck," that can lead to early wear and tear on the spine, degeneration, and even surgery.

The human head weights about 12 pounds.  As the neck bends forward and down, the weight on the cervical spine begins to increase.  At a 15 degree angle, this weight is about 27 pounds, at 30 degrees it's 40 pounds, and at 45 degrees it's 49 pounds.  That's a lot of weight to be putting on the cervical spine.  Text neck is becoming a an epidemic.  Just look around you and see how many people are looking down and forward, texting.  Doctors are seeing profound changes in the spine in children as young as seven  Most smart phone users spend an average of two to four hours per day hunched over.  That's 700-1,400 hours per year people are putting stress on their spines.

Poor posture can cause other problems as well.  Experts say it can reduce lung capacity by as much as 30%.  It has also been linked to headaches and neurological issues, depression and heart disease.  It's important for parents to keep tabs of childrens' use of mobile devices, and encourage them to work on their posture.  In Encinitas, there is a doctor, who is promoting a good posture message through a program called Stra8up Kid2Kid.  It's a series of 5 stretches for kids to do to reduce and even reverse the symptoms of a stoop-shouldered, chin forward posture.  Each stretch takes just 10 seconds.  The program is being taught in schools by children, to children.  What a great idea.