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Identifying and Treating the Symptoms of “Text Neck”

Many people tend to spend a lot of the day glued to their phones, but constantly looking down at a phone while sending texts or scrolling through social media can take a serious toll on your spine. “Text neck” or “tech neck” is an increasingly common problem. If you’re experiencing acute pain in your neck and upper back, the way that you use your phone may be to blame. Here are some important things that you should know about the causes, symptoms, and best ways to treat text neck.

Causes

When you crane your neck forward and downward to look at your phone, it can shift your cervical vertebrae out of alignment. This can occur whether you are sitting down, standing up, or lying down. Using a tablet or looking at a monitor that’s too far below eye level could also lead to text neck.

Symptoms

When you are suffering from text neck, you may feel pain and stiffness in your neck and upper back. You may also see a pronounced change in your upper body posture and appear to be hunching over when you are trying to stand up straight. The change in your spine’s alignment can also impinge one or more nerve roots, which most frequently occur in between the C2 and C7 vertebrae. The result can be cervical radiculopathy which can send shooting pain through your shoulders, arms, and hands.

Text neck also causes muscle pain and weakness in your upper body. As forward-tilting posture becomes progressively worse, it makes your head feel heavier and it’s harder to hold your head upright. Your head is around 10-12 pounds, and the force of gravity from pushing it forward and down 15 degrees will more than double that weight. With 30 degrees of forward strain, that weight increases to around 40 lbs.

Treatment 

People afflicted with text neck need to modify how they use their phones and other devices. Be conscientious about looking down at your phone. Try to hold your phone so the screen is in front of your line of vision so you won’t have to crane your neck downward to look at it. Stretching and doing exercises to strengthen your neck can also mitigate the symptoms of text neck.

Simply changing how you use your phone may not offer adequate relief or prevent your condition from getting worse. When your spine is out of alignment, effectively changing your posture yourself can prove to be very challenging or practically impossible. Chiropractic adjustment is an excellent way to restore your posture and combat the symptoms of text neck.

When a chiropractor manipulates your spine back into alignment, it will take a lot of the strain off of your vertebrae, discs, and supporting muscle groups. An adjustment reduces spinal compression, and discs can move back in place. This improves nerve impingement and pain associated with cervical radiculopathy. Straightening the alignment of your neck and upper back will also reduce the heaviness of your head.

Get Help Today

Raleigh Specific Chiropractic can correct tech neck and other conditions. Contact us today at (919) 355-5879 to schedule an appointment.