Over 15 years ago (prior to release of the first iPhone) the only injury to be concerned about with respect to your phone was if an angry partner threw it you. That, and strangulation from the curly cord (we’ve seen too many movies). But now with more mobile devices than there are humans on the planet, people spend more time staring at small digital screens than they do with their friends and family. In Canada, the average person spends 4.4 hours of their day on the smartphone. As the years have progressed, users are experiencing chronic pains and strains from mobile device use beyond blurred vision. While we’ll leave the latter to optometrists and ophthalmologists, we do want to address smartphone injuries that you can get help for via a physiotherapist. Let’s review.
4 Common Smartphone Injuries and How Physiotherapy is the Key to Recovery and Prevention
Chronic Hand and Wrist Pain
This is one that nearly everyone experiences or will invariably experience over time. Scrolling, typing, and tapping are repetitive uses that lead to chronic pain. It can become so debilitating that performing other standard movements (i.e. brushing teeth, etc.) become painful. View more on how physiotherapy helps treat and prevent hand and wrist pain along with the phenomenon known as text thumb.
Chronic Neck Pain and Strain
Are you reading this while on your smartphone right now? Note the position of your neck, and the pressure if places upon your spine. Like text thumb, text neck is a new chronic pain phenomenon that will be with the human populous for the foreseeable future, until our devices are replaced by cerebral implants. Review these 5 tips to preventing text neck syndrome.
Chronic Headaches
Chromic headaches are also a side effect of smartphone usage, and it’s not necessarily due to eye strain. Chronic headaches are often connected to issues in your spine that are aggravated by arm, neck (see above) and body position involved with being on your smartphone for multiple hours per day. Further, the underlying issues that may be the cause of chronic headaches can be aggravated by smartphone use. The good news, is that physio can help alleviate this smartphone stressor too. View more on the benefits of physiotherapy for headaches.
Acute MVA Injuries
The smartphone injuries above are chronic ones due to repetitive use. However, there is one acute concern that we need to address in regards to smartphone use – distracted driving and the motor-vehicle accidents (MVAs) that come from it. Despite all of the warnings from the RCMP and ICBC, over 42% of BC drivers continue to use their smartphones will driving, and that is directly resulting in MVAs and subsequent acute injuries. Those injuries require physiotherapy intervention. In addition to offering chiropractic services for ICBC claims, our physiotherapy clinic also offers clinical counseling for those who have suffered post traumatic stress disorder due to an MVA.
Ironically, you may be suffering from one of the above while you read this very article from the palm of your hand. If so, tap the phone number below, then put your smartphone down, and head to our Burnaby Greater Vancouver BC clinic.