fbpx
(732) 345-1377 info@monmouthpain.com

Your Smartphone is killing you…well your spine anyway

Aug 14, 2014 | Physical Therapy, Wellness

Written By Michael Sabatino PT, DPT
Director of Physical Therapy | Monmouth Pain & Rehabilitation
m-sabatino-i
In our society, technology is rapidly advancing and our smartphones have taken over our daily lives for both work and recreation. With our lives revolving around continually staring down at our phones and tablets, I can’t stress the utmost importance of being cognizant of keeping correct posture and positioning while we type and text.

You’ll often see online comments and memes referring to the ‘zombie apocalypse’ with pictures of people constantly staring down at their phones. It’s funny, but is a valid observation. I frequently see people in the clinic, on the street, EVERYWHERE, walking with their heads turned down, staring blindly into their smartphones for hours on end. With that being said, when most people text or are reading something on their smartphones, they hunch and keep their heads looking down.

This may seem harmless at first, but the continued duration of looking down places an enormous amount of stress on the structures in your neck that weren’t meant to be loaded in that manner. Over time, this position has a debilitating effect, resulting in pain and injuries to your neck and spine. Additionally, while keeping your head in this lovely forward position, you are placing your thoracic spine in a flexed position for an extended period of time, again creating issues in another area of the spine which has a large influence on the neck.  With smartphones being such an integral, yet, monotonous part of our daily lives, most likely, you are completely oblivious to the causation of your pain.

I believe that the term, ‘Blackberry Thumb’ was coined years ago at the beginning of the smartphone craze. It was the pain and tendonitis developed from the overuse of your thumb while utilizing your wireless device. Blackberrys were popular with the business crowd and ‘Blackberry Thumb’ didn’t affect the masses.  It was viewed more as a techie/nerdy injury that only those specific people suffered.

But just like our thumbs in the past, by constantly keeping our heads down, we can cause overuse injuries to the muscles in our neck and damage to our spine.  This in turn can impede our ability to perform basic daily tasks, to recreational activities or even our jobs. Are we catching a theme here? This is not meant to scare you, but rather open your eyes to the damage we are doing to our bodies with seemingly innocent and mundane tasks. The technology is not going away anytime soon, but we can prevent poor posture and positioning while using our phones. We just need to remain mindful to what repetitive and sustained positions we keep our bodies in before it is too late.

Have Questions? Get In Touch Today!

Give us a call at (732) 345-1377 today to have all of your questions answered and to get you booked for an appointment!

Monmouth Pain - White Logo

About Monmouth Pain

Monmouth Pain is a multi-specialty, all-under-one-roof orthopedic facility serving Monmouth & Ocean County NJ.

Services include orthopedics, neurosurgery, pain management, sports medicine, chiropractic, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and acupuncture.

Monmouth Pain combines expert collaborative care with 5-star service to provide you with the best results for your condition.

Simple, effective, efficient.

Follow Us

Related Posts

Long days at the computer causing carpal tunnel pain in your wrists or hands?  

Long days at the computer causing carpal tunnel pain in your wrists or hands?  

Injuries from slips and falls, auto accidents, sports, degeneration from aging, poor postural habits, and lack of proper fitness can cause these discs to shift from their normal space between the vertebrae and into the spinal canal or spinal nerve space. When the disc shifts just a little bit it is defined as a disc bulge and is known to cause pain for a lot of people with or without pressure onto the nerve.

read more
Low Level Light Laser (cold laser therapy) for Back and Neck Pain

Low Level Light Laser (cold laser therapy) for Back and Neck Pain

Injuries from slips and falls, auto accidents, sports, degeneration from aging, poor postural habits, and lack of proper fitness can cause these discs to shift from their normal space between the vertebrae and into the spinal canal or spinal nerve space. When the disc shifts just a little bit it is defined as a disc bulge and is known to cause pain for a lot of people with or without pressure onto the nerve.

read more
Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation in Monmouth and Ocean County NJ

Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation in Monmouth and Ocean County NJ

Injuries from slips and falls, auto accidents, sports, degeneration from aging, poor postural habits, and lack of proper fitness can cause these discs to shift from their normal space between the vertebrae and into the spinal canal or spinal nerve space. When the disc shifts just a little bit it is defined as a disc bulge and is known to cause pain for a lot of people with or without pressure onto the nerve.

read more
If you suffer from eye strain related headaches or peripheral vision issues, we can help.

If you suffer from eye strain related headaches or peripheral vision issues, we can help.

This exercises is an example of vision therapy which is designed to aide in a multitude of ocular motility disorders, including trouble with eye convergence/divergence, peripheral vision issues, eye strain related syndromes, eye strain related headaches and many more. Dysfunction in ocular motility (movement of the eyes) can occur following whiplash associated syndromes found with many motor vehicle accidents, brain injuries whether traumatic or atraumatic, spinal cord injuries, strokes of the occipital lobe, acute concussions, chronic concussion symptoms, too much screen time and cervical soft tissue dysfunction just to name a few.

read more
Slipped disc? Sciatica? Pinched nerve? Herniated disc? Spinal traction can help!

Slipped disc? Sciatica? Pinched nerve? Herniated disc? Spinal traction can help!

Spinal traction takes the pressure off of compressed areas of the spine by stretching it. This process is the key to easing pain and helping the body heal itself along the way.

Traction can be done manually or by using mechanical traction to improve spinal alignment, reduce pressure on joints, and relieve pain.

How can it be done in the office and at home? Once one of our practitioners determines that traction could be beneficial for your condition, he or she will typically place you on a specific treatment plan.  He or she may also prescribe some at-home traction devices that you could use to continue experiencing relief.

read more
All about arthritis, and how Monmouth Pain can help!

All about arthritis, and how Monmouth Pain can help!

  Did you know there are more than 100 different types of arthritis and related conditions? Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and is also known as degenerative arthritis or degenerative joint disease. Osteoarthritis is a result of “wear and...

read more

Comments

0 Comments