Have you ever heard of text neck? What about Pokemon Go? Well, if you have had any recent interaction with the internet, radio or tv than of course you have! Suddenly kids of all ages have grabbed their phones, headed out the door and began wandering around trying to “catch” little animated creatures. There are some great things that have come from playing Pokemon Go. The main one that comes to mind is that kids are finally going outside to play! It is great that kids are getting outside and exploring with their friends trying to catch these creatures but there is another issue that unfortunately goes ignored. That is, the increased strain on the spine and nervous system from looking down at a phone screen while text messaging. Hence the name text neck.
The spine has natural curves from top to bottom that help support the structure of the body and keep us upright. Arguably the most important curve is the one that is in the neck. This is known as your cervical curve and it’s the curve that is affected by constantly looking down at your phone, laptop and even your book while you read. Text neck occurs as your head and shoulders fall forward. When this happens it places unwanted strain on the spine and that natural curve becomes lost. This puts an extreme amount of stress on the nervous system because it causes the spinal cord to constantly be stretched out, and that is not a good thing. With text neck and the loss of your cervical curve, the muscles behind the neck and upper back are under constant stress and never have a chance to relax.
THE NEXT STEP
You may have noticed that your neck and shoulders have been getting tight and achy. You probably feel fatigued, irritable and get headaches. Massaging the area helps for a little bit but the problem keeps coming back. The only way to correct text neck is to restore the natural curve in your spine, and that is where Chiropractic comes in. The chiropractic adjustment restores proper motion in the spine and allows the body to naturally restore this curve. The specialists at New Wave Chiropractic Center perform motion studies on your spine to determine how well your spine and nervous system are functioning. With this they are able to restore the natural curve in your neck and restore proper function. Give us a call today for a no cost consultation to see how we can help you and your kids.
