Blog Audio - Dr. Rey Bosita Talks About The Danger Of Text Neck

Spine Talk

Text Neck is More than a Cute Term. It’s Seriously Painful People, of all ages, staring down at a small screen for hours every day could have a real problem. As was noted in a previous blog post (http://texasback.com/about-us/blog/text-neck-its-nothing-to-lol-about/), this has resulted in the rise of a non-medical, but extremely descriptive term: Text Neck. It has also resulted in patients showing up in the Texas Back Institute waiting room, complaining of sore necks. More on this later. Dr. Rey Bosita, a spine surgeon at Texas Back Institute notes, “This is a pain in the back of a person’s neck, caused by poor back posture while looking down at smartphones, tablets or other electronic devices.” “The cause of text neck is the same for both kids and adults,” he said. “People have a tendency to hold a mobile device down in the lap or down on a low surface, while keeping the neck flexed. When that happens, the muscles in the back of the neck get fatigued. When users finally get distracted from dealing with “Angry Birds,” email, or FaceBook, they feel pain when they try to lift their heads.” “The problem with text neck is that people might keep their heads in this position for several minutes or several hours every day,” he noted. “This causes a cumulative pain effect. Text neck affects both kids and adults. The biomechanics are the same, whether a person is young or old. The most important thing is to try and prevent it.” The constant use of hand-held technology is causing other unintended consequences besides text neck. According to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “electronic toys hinder verbal development and traditional toys, such as common building blocks, sparked higher quality conversations among children.” Dr. Bosita, while not a child psychologist, is the proud dad of 4 youngsters, and he has first-hand experience with the benefits and challenges of smartphones, tablets and other electronic gadgets in the hands of kids. Does he see any backlash brewing with regard to allowing kids unlimited use of hand-held devices? “I agree with the statement that electronic games can hinder verbal development,” he said. “Parents have to be cognizant of this problem, especially with the little kids. Make sure the kids play with the traditional toys and have enough personal interaction with each other to make sure this ‘locked in’ situation doesn’t happen where the kid’s iPad becomes his or her world.” Read the Full Blog at www.TexasBack.com/blog