'Text Neck' is the new in ailment for the tech generation

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'Text Neck' is the new in ailment for the tech generation
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Never mind that mobile phones have wreaked havoc in traffic and produced a generation of westerners who can't endure a moment alone. Now, the devices have generated their own disability:  "Text Neck."

The term was coined by a South Florida chiropractor who defines the condition as: Overuse syndrome involving the head, neck and shoulders, usually resulting from excessive strain on the spine from looking in a forward and downward position at any hand-held mobile device, i.e., mobile phone, video game unit, computer, mp3 player, e-reader. This can cause headaches, neck pain, shoulder and arm pain, breathing compromise, and much more.

People at risk? Those who twist themselves into unnatural contortions in order to use hand-held devices often two at a time.

Dr. Dean Fishman came up with the term after noticing among his patients a fast increase in repetitive stress injuries that he traced to hand-held devices. That's when he created the Text Neck Institute and registered the Text Neck term.

His website guides people to his practice, but the attention has outgrown his waiting room. Today he offers training for health providers, education,  a mobile phone app, online instruction and other amenities, In addition, media around the Web is touting his means of relief and exercises for the disorder.

 

 

 

 

Follow health reporter Harry Jackson Jr. on Twitter at www.twitter.com/STLhealth for coverage of health, outdoors, health gadgets and tips from fitness trainers.

Copyright 2012 stltoday.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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