Is "Text Neck" Causing You To Grow Horns in Winnebago IL?

In the media recently there has been a lot of discussion about "text neck." Basically, "text neck" is a result of looking down at your phone or tablet. When you look down for a long time it causes stress on the muscles, ligaments, nerves, and joints of your spine. New research suggests that this stress may be causing the growth of a "horn." To be clear the researchers never used to word horn the media started that (much better headline.) See how chiropractic care in Winnebago can help you overcome "text neck".

NEW RESEARCH IN WINNEBAGO IL SHOWS POSSIBLY:

In their research, Shahar and Sayers said young people may be developing tiny hornlike spikes at the back of their skulls, possibly caused by the shift in the weight of our heads from the spine to the muscles at the back of our head and neck. This anatomical feature is called an external occipital protuberance, or EOP.

For their first study, the two researchers set a threshold of 5 millimeters to record an EOP, and considered it an enlarged EOP if it exceeded 10 millimeters in length. They discovered that 41% of the participants, ages 18 to 30 years old, had an enlarged EOP in their skulls.

Why is Text Neck in Winnebago Happening?

Their second paper studied a larger sample size of 1,200 X-rays for subjects 18 to 86 years old. Thirty-three percent of the subjects were found to have the bone growth, but oddly enough, the growth was found more often in younger people. They concluded this could be due to increased cell phone usage.

"I have been a clinician for 20 years, and only in the last decade, increasingly I have been discovering that my patients have this growth on the skull," Shahar told the BBC.

So let's break this down. If you have had an exam with us this should sound familiar. We believe that God made an amazing body. It comes in the world pretty perfect and then we beat it up. From a young age we have cause our body stress. This could be physical, emotional or chemical. In this case, looking down for extended periods of time is stressful to the muscles, ligaments, nerves and joints of your neck. In fact the study demonstrated the stress on the neck is 3-5 times greater when you have your head flexed forward. The study showed that the average participant spent 4.65 hours/day on a handheld device.

Stress~>Inflammation~>All Degenerative Processes

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

• Reduce Stress: We all know we should be on our phones less and should decrease our kids cell phone and tablet time. But is there anything else we can do?
• Chiropractic: We know chiropractic reduces inflammation. We also know that it reduces the muscle tension in the neck muscles. Our Freedlund Family Chiropractic & Nutrition chiropractors can help.
• Nutrition/Supplements: Good food reduces inflammation. Carrie our nutrition educator can help guide you. We have great supplements that help reduce inflammation.

For more information, please give us a call at (815) 335-1381.