Is your tablet or iPad ruining you!!

In recent months there has been a number of discussions in the media (see link to Paul Henry interview below) regarding the increase in neck and back pain as a result of using hand held devices (i.e. tablets, iPads, mobiles, video game controllers, e-readers). This is particularly important to me as our children all use hand held devices for entertainment, but also an increasingly greater proportion of time in their education process. Moving forward their lives are likely to be even more dominated by technology so understanding the impacts on our bodies and what we can do to minimise the negative impacts is critical.  What can we do to maintain the health of our, and our kids, bodies while these hand held devices are being used?

Neck and upper back strains and the associated pain are often caused by the stress put on the spine by stretching forward and downward while looking at those smaller screens. Using technology can, for a period of time, very easily led to a posture that causes pain with head too far forward, hunching of the shoulders and upper back. This can lead to any number of symptoms including headaches, neck pain, numbness or altered sensations in the arms and hands, and in some cases difficulty breathing.

Lower back pain can also often be attributed to the use of hand held devices, this is often due to the slumped posture which is common with the increasing time spent sitting in ‘comfortable’ chairs such as the home couch while using these highly portable devices.

So what is the answer? Giving up the use of these hand held devices I don’t think is practical, it would cause rioting on the home front for starters!! But given the prevalence now in our lives and kids’ education experience there is no escaping technology and our exposure to it.

What I, and Dr Heidi Haavik (NZCC Research), suggest when we, but especially children, are using these devices is lying on our stomachs to maintain a better head and upper back position and stops that slumping – this also works for adults! If you need to work for long periods from a hand held device the purchase of a Bluetooth keyboard is highly recommended so that you can raise your screen to eye level.

Take regular breaks and talk to your children about posture, putting the hand held device down, and moving regularly. The body uses movement to feed the brain and keep our positional sensors going, something which does not happen when we are long focused on a hand held device.

For more information regarding posture and what you can do to help while still using technology please feel free to pop into the clinic and have a chat. For the full interview from Dr Heidi Haavik with Paul Henry on technology and posture click here.

SPECIAL OFFER - For the month of July we are running a super special on Spartan ChiroPaks (Backpacks and amazing school bags). Mention this newsletter and you will get any of the Chiropaks (S, M, L, and XL) for the cost price plus 10%. My children all use these as school bags and after several years of use they still look brand new. I got sick of spending $20-30 on a schoolbag every few months when a ChiroPak lasts and promotes great posture.

Monday 29th of June 2015

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