GREENSBORO, N.C. - If you have a smartphone, you're at risks of falling victim to tech neck.
It's when you experience neck pain from spending too much time hunched over looking at a your cell phone.
According to analytics firm Flurry, Americans spend more than five hours a day hunched over reading emails, sending texts, or checking social media sites on tech devices, such as smartphones or tablets.
Your head weigh as much as 10 pounds.
But, when you look down at your cellphone, it can feel like 40 pounds.
That weight puts tremendous strain on the upper neck and lower back.
"Over time, your head shifts forward," said Andrew Lui, a physical therapist and associate clinical professor at University of California San Francisco's Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science Department. "We call this forward head carriage. It can cause excess strain on your upper spine."
If left untreated, tech neck can cause serious problems, including headaches, pinched nerves, arthritis, bone spurs and muscular deformation, disc degeneration and nerve complications.
One quick way to see if you might be suffering from tech neck is to look at your profile sideways in a mirror.
If your ears are not lined up with your shoulders, your posture may be promoting chronic pain.
Here are a few tips to help prevent tech neck:
- Set time limits to control the amount of time you use your device.
- Take a three-minute break for every 15 to 20 minutes you use the phone.
- Set automatic reminders, such as an alarm.
- Instead of straining your neck forward to see the screen, adjust your posture and bring the device to you.
- Sitting in a chair with a headrest can also help in this case.
- Using a tablet or phone holder is another idea.
- Be sure to watch out for the signs of pain.
- If you start to experience pain in your neck or frequent headaches, there may be a more serious issue going on.