As any parent out there will know, it can be a bit of a battle to get your child to put their phone down for even half an hour, but these pictures may provide the incentive that they need.
Leading Australian chiropractor Dr James Carter has warned parents that ‘text neck’ – a condition caused by bending over phones and other devices for long periods of time – is starting to affect children all over the world.
Dr Carter delivered the stark warning along with worrying x-rays depicting children as young as seven displaying hunchbacks and abnormally curved spines.
“I have started seeing lots of cases over the past two years, especially in young schoolchildren and teenagers. The condition is called ‘text neck’ because it is often caused when people sit with their heads dropped forward looking at their devices for several hours at a time,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
Explaining what he has been seeing in his surgery, he added: “Instead of a normal forward curve, patients can be seen to have a backwards curve. It can be degenerative, often causing head, neck, shoulder and back pain.”
Alarmingly, ‘text neck’ doesn’t have just physical effects. Dr Carter added that positioning the brain stem and spinal cord as pictured can negatively impact on the release of ‘happy hormones’ around the body.
With the worrying trend seen mostly in young children and teenagers, there is hope of turning it around, with Dr Carter advising exercise and a ‘healthy’ lifestyle to minimise the damage.
