The Catastrophic Effects of Tech Neck | Chiropractor for Neck Pain in Smithtown, NY
The introduction of technology has really changed our spinal health. And one of the reasons why is because we’re constantly looking down. And all of you know what I mean by that, we’re always looking at our phones, or we’re attached to a screen or on our computers or we’re on our iPads. And the further forward our necks come, the more pressure we put or the more weight, the more load we put through the very tiny joints in our necks.
Looking Down Increases Pressure on the Neck
Now, when your head, it’s just sitting on your neck in neutral, so you’re not coming forward at all, you’re neck only having to hold 12 pounds, so your brain in your skull weighs 12 pounds. And that’s what your neck is designed for. It’s only designed to hold to be able to withstand 12 pounds of load through each of the tiny joints in there, lots of little joints all the way through the neck. Now, as you come forward with your head and your neck, you put more weight through those little joints. So once you come forward, even just 15 degrees, so you’re just looking at your phone, maybe this much 15 degrees, you put in 27 pounds through those tiny joints in your neck, I mean these, these joints are only millimeters wide. Once you’re coming forward 30 degrees, you’re putting 40 pounds of pressure or load through your joints 45 degrees, you’re putting 49 pounds of load through your neck. And then when you’re all the way forward at 60 degrees, which I think most of us are, we’re putting 60 pounds of load through the little joints in our neck. So what does that mean for us?
More Pressure Equals More Spine Problems
First of all, it means that those joints just cannot take it, like the joints in your neck cannot withstand that much that much weight going through them constantly. And we spend hours and hours doing this every single day. And it’s bad enough for adults. But for kids, it even changes the way that they grow and develop their spines. So first of all, you’re putting so much force through that you’re creating a process, a degenerative process in your in your skeleton. So what the body does, it does something very, very clever, or seemingly, it tries to strengthen up the spine by adding more bone to the joints. In theory, that’s a good idea, because you’re reinforcing the joints that are having to take on too much weight. But in reality, it’s not a good idea, because what that means is that you’re creating extra bones flowing through the spine, which is osteo arthritis.
Tech Neck and Osteoarthritis
So we’re now producing more cases of osteoarthritis through the nation through the population because we’re all putting our heads in this position. When our neck becomes straight and we lose the curve in our neck. We’re also putting this major stretch through the spinal cord and through the nerves. Why is that a big deal, because your spinal cord and your nerves supply regulate every single part of your body. So you start to see changes in organ function. And we start to see a lack of ease or disease grow within the body so we start to produce more disease. So don’t take it lightly, that you are putting more more stress through your neck. It changes your whole health.
Maintaining Proper Ergonomics
So keep your chest up, keep your phone up. Try to shift the ergonomics at work or if you’re at your desk, bring your screens up higher so that you’re forced to look up to maintain that curve and not to put so much force or stress through your neck.
