Back Pain And Smartphones
In recent years, the smartphones have become protagonists of our lives and routines. We hardly part with them and use them for practically everything. Either to watch WhatsApp conversations, to choose the best song to go for a walk or even to work.
The result is that, throughout the day, we spend a lot of time staring at the screen of our phone. However, have you ever considered the problems that this can cause to your body?
There are many people who suffer from back pain, headache or even vision problems due to smartphones. Unfortunately, back pain is precisely one of the most frequent chronic health problems in Spain.
Currently, although most people are unaware of it, the continuous use of smartphones is one of the main causes of this back pain. In this article we explain why it happens and how to avoid it.
Why do smartphones cause back pain?
Yes, there are many people who experience back pain due to the use of smartphones . Specifically, it is usually cervical back pain, which is the uppermost part of the spine. That is, from the base of the skull to the thorax, more or less.
Why does it occur specifically in this area? It’s very simple. If you look closely, you will see that we rarely place the mobile at the level of our eyes, raising our arms. On the contrary, we always tend to tilt our head and neck down in order to see the screen well.
This posture, which we usually maintain for a long time, is harmful to our back. It is estimated that, on average, we perform this movement about 150 times a day.
According to a study, every time we bow our head like this, it is as if we load our cervicals with about 27 kilograms of weight. In addition, the fact of maintaining this posture for a long time makes the overload even greater in our cervical vertebrae.
The main problem is that back pain is often very disabling. In fact, almost 12% of sick leave is due to some kind of problem in this area. It is important to be aware that a bad habit of this type can take its toll on us throughout our lives.
What can we do to avoid problems for using smartphones ?
In reality, back pain is multifactorial and does not depend only on using smartphones, although it is true that it is one of the most relevant aspects. However, we must also bear in mind that the incidence of this annoyance has been increasing due to other factors.
The abuse of computers and television is a problem that, undoubtedly, is part of the same technological advance as smartphones . And all of them are related to postural pathologies and back problems.
Therefore, in the first place, the ideal is to try to reduce the hours we spend throughout the day using these devices. Currently, many of the applications that we use the most tell us what is the daily use we make of them, such as Instagram.
We must try to reduce this consumption and, at the same time, avoid making that almost automatic gesture of looking at our smartphone continuously. Another interesting measure is to look at the position we adopt.
It is recommended that, instead of lowering your head every time you want to look at something, raise your arms and place the mobile where you can see it well. By keeping your neck upright, you will reduce the strain that cervicals are usually subjected to.
In addition, exercising the shoulder area and the back in general can help you strengthen it. Thus, it is quite likely that part of the discomfort will decrease and the problem will improve.
In conclusion
The smartphones are related to back pain because they make us adopt postures that overload the cervical especially. It is important to be aware of this problem and try to reduce the time we spend with our phones.
