In this episode of the Morley Physiotherapy Centre Podcast, owner Tony talks about “Text-Neck Syndrome.”
What is it? It’s the unofficial term for an increasingly common problem – neck soreness from hours spent looking down at phones, tablets or other screens. Listen now or read on to find out how to avoid it, whether you’ve got it, and how to treat it (or help your kids treat it), should symptoms arise.
The full transcript is below!
Tony: It’s Tony from Morley Physio here. Just getting a chance to sit down, having a bit of a chat, maybe talking about some of the things I’ve been seeing in the clinic lately that might be of interest to you and maybe give you a few tips about how to avoid some of these things in your life.
So, look, what comes to mind today is people with neck pain, particularly pain that comes on from prolonged periods of sitting with their head down over a desk or a book or a computer, and as most people now have got sedentary jobs, we’re doing a lot of this and we’re finding in the clinic people are coming with a lot of postural neck pain, and it’s becoming a very common problem.
More interestingly, it’s becoming more obvious now that people that are using high tech equipment like smartphones, e-readers and tablets are spending more and more time with their head bent forward connecting with Facebook and Snapchat and obviously texting. And in fact, it’s become so prevalent that a US chiropractor called Dean Fishman has termed the coin “text neck syndrome” to make it obviously a separate condition with, especially young people, are spending so much time on these high tech equipment and in their lifestyle today, that they’re finding that their necks are getting sore.
So what sort of people are we seeing with these problems? Particularly younger people, anywhere from, say, mid teenage years to 30. A lot of these people are commuting, they’re spending time in a train or a bus for up to an hour and then they spending time in an office situation in their work, and in their off time from work, they’re spending more time on their handheld devices. So in the course of a whole day, they may be having many hours of prolonged neck flexion, which is the bent head forward position and that has a bit of an effect on the neck. In the ideal position with the head over the shoulders, that means that the ear is over the shoulder area, the forces on the neck and the muscles are quite low. As the head bends forward, as it weighs about 10% of your body weight, the weight of the head creates increased pressure in your joints, in your muscles, ligaments and also along some of the fascial planes of your upper back and shoulders. So, over many hours of use, what people become aware of is tightness, pain, stiffness, burning across the shoulders, and in more severe cases, headaches and even nerve pain with tingling and numbness in the upper limbs.
So if you’re really interested in preventing this problem from developing, we have to understand that there are a few things we have to do. The first thing we have to do is take a break on a regular basis whenever we’re using these devices, and I’d recommend anything more than about 15 minutes of use to have a bit of a break, and by doing that you put your device down and you have a bit of a stretch: neck and shoulders, back, looking up to the ceiling and moving your arms over your head will at least take some of the pressure off.
Also what we can do is become more aware of our posture and that means that we can become a little bit more upright and rather than having the device in a low position, raise it up so you’re able to have the device more in front of your face. Keeping your elbows tucked in also helps.
So keeping your position more ideal will reduce that stress on your neck. And doing regular exercise will help. I think that having that education and awareness of that will help minimise the problem from developing on. If the pain that you’re developing in the neck is persisting or not being eased by regular breaks and exercises, it probably is wise to go and see someone like a health professional, a physiotherapist that’s trained in this area, to get some advice and assessment, particularly if that area of pain is becoming more intense: if you’re getting pain at night sleeping, and if the pain isn’t easing off with regular heat packs or rubs.
A physiotherapist will help to assess your posture, will help to analyse some of the mechanical and muscle balance problems that you may have developed over your lifetime, and give you a set of exercises that will help to improve not only some of the postural problems you’re getting, but also any stiffness that you’ve got. There’s mobilisations and active exercise that we can show you that will help to get that problem under control.
I think at this stage, most people are going to be able to manage it themselves if they don’t let it get too far down the track. But if you do know that you do have a problem, earlier treatment does give you better results. So I wish you all the best and take care.
That concludes this episode of the Morley Physiotherapy Centre Podcast. We hope the tips and advice helped! If you’re experiencing neck pain, or looking for neck pain treatment, feel free to get in touch with us.
Until next time, stay healthy! Avoid craning your neck down at that phone too often or for too long, and mind your posture at the desk. And remember – Feel well, Move well, Live well!
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Morley Physiotherapy Centre Website
Phone: 9375 3900
Email: admin@morleyphysio.com.au