Screen-addiction can hurt your spine

Screen-addiction can hurt your spine

PUNE: Being hooked to your smartphone or laptop for a binge-watch can take a toll on your spine. Excess use of smartphones and laptops can also affect your seating posture and neglecting it can be harmful to your spine.

This is not news for most of those who cannot live without a smartphone or laptop. But how many of them take measures to avoid getting affected? Not many, feel experts. 

Patients as young as 16-year-olds are suffering from problems such as back pain, that worry Dr Chandrashekar Dixit, Orthopaedic Surgeon in Pune.  

NECK PROBLEM
“Many people ignore the importance of good posture while using smartphones and laptops. Many patients visit with complaints of text neck, that is sprain in the neck due to excessive viewing of a handheld device,” said Dr Dixit.

He added that patients also complain of texting thumb, where the nerves of the thumb are affected due to over texting. 

WRIST AND ELBOW
Some patients experience pain in the wrist and elbow as well. Something as basic as a proper chair and table to work can make all the difference.

“While typing or using a laptop or computer, the elbow is not rested, which stresses the nerves resulting in pain. Especially professionals working from home suffer a lot. Many of them do not have a proper chair and table while using a laptop which again results in bad posture. Hence professionals should focus on these crucial aspects as well while working,” said Dr Dixit.

SPINAL CORD
Dr Nitin Bhagali, city-based orthopaedist said that nature has given us 33 vertebrae. Out of these 24 vertebrae are individually separate and 9 are fused to form our monkey bone and tailpiece (sacrum and coccyx). 

“Free vertebrae are divided into 3 regions neck (cervical 7), chest (thoracic 12) and waist (lumber 5). Cervical and lumbar vertebrae form a concave curve behind, while thoracic vertebrae form concavity in front. Individual vertebral bodies are separated by shock-absorbing gel-like discs in front. Man always tends to assume a posture of ease while using phone or computer thereby putting compressive stress on discs in the front,” said Dr Bhagali.

He added that these stresses can displace the discs behind and press on the neural structures like spinal cord or nerve roots causing pain in the back or leg (sciatica).

“Or due to continued stress these discs can desiccate, lose the ability to absorb shocks leading to early degeneration of adjacent vertebrae which we label as spondylosis,” said Dr Bhagali.

BINGE-WATCHING, ARE YOU?
- With all the latest series, movies and songs available on the Internet, binge-watching on weekends has become one of the favourite ways to relax and unwind for people today -- even at the cost of putting your body through a bad posture for hours. This is worse for those who are anyways working on laptops or computers throughout the week as well, as a part of their job. Dr Shailesh Hadgaonkar, Consultant Orthopaedic Spine Surgeon with Sancheti Hospital in Pune said that young and old who indulge in binge watch can often slip into a bad posture.
- “Bad posture can lead to back pain. No or very little exposure to sunlight can also affect the health of these people,” he said.

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