Bad news for people who use their phones more often for texting than for actually calling people (including yours truly): Texting could lead to lower life expectancy, as could using mobile devices for long periods of time. Yikes!
What’s so bad about texting? According to the Telegraph, we apparently all have a tendency to drop our heads and adopt a forward-leaning posture when texting, emailing, or playing games on our phones. Poor posture has been linked in older people to hyperkyphosis, a skeletal disorder that results in what’s known colloquially as a “dowager’s hump,” which is in turn associated with pulmonary disease and other cardiovascular problems. Oh, and did I mention that when you drop your head and round your shoulders, it restricts your muscles in such a way that it becomes impossible to take a full breath? Because it does, and it stops your heart and lungs from functioning at full capacity, to boot.
Says British United Chiropractic Association executive member Estelle Zauner-Maughan, “People are now definitely at an increased risk of having problems through the top of their neck and back because of their posture, which is causing a change in the curve of the back.” She continues, “There is an increased risk that they will develop this earlier on in life because of the length of time they’ve been sitting at computers or using mobile devices.”
The good news is that we can do something about the problem. Just limiting the amount of time we spend checking our phones and bringing them up to eye level when we do check them can do a world of good. Speaking of, maybe now would be a good time to invest in one of those standing desk things I keep hearing about — and delete these games off my phone while I'm at it...
