Text Neck Disease: Expert warns against long hours on mobile phones
AS p e c i a l i s t Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr. Issam Mardini, has warned people against spending several hours on their mobile phones and other electronic devices as it puts them at risk of Text Neck Disease.
Text Neck Disease or Syndrome is a modern term coined to describe repeated stress injury and pain in the neck as a result of excessive watching or texting on hand-held devices over a long period.
According to Florida Chiropractor, Dean L. Fishman, who coined the phrase, “Text Neck is an overuse syndrome or a repetitive stress injury where you have your head hung forward and down looking at your mobile device for extended periods of time.”
Dr. Mardini, who works with the Emirates Hospital in Dubai and other hospitals, said the new disease was fast becoming prevalent among young ladies and children because of the length of time they spent working on their mobiles and electronic devices.
“They work for many hours and put the neck in a very bad position, thus creating problems for the neck, the muscle, ligament and discs. This causes some compression on the nerves because the heaviness of the head comes down by gravity and they are so relaxed that the muscles cannot support enough. This makes them get a lot of pain in the neck, shoulders and they also have headache,” said Dr. Mardini who has over 30 years experience in general orthopaedic and arthroscopic surgery, spine and hand surgery, as well as sports injuries and upper limb problems.
Speaking during an interview with Daily Trust in Abuja, he said it was worrisome that children as young as two or three years played with mobiles all day and had problems with their necks. He, therefore, advised parents to take care of their children and not let them stay for hours on their mobile phones and devices.
The expert said people should learn how to hold their mobile phones and other electronic devices in front of their face and keep the head straight. He added that people who had developed Text Neck Disease were often treated with pain killers, physiotherapy and rehabilitation and enlightenment on proper sitting position, as well as reducing the time they spent on their mobiles.
Dr. Mardini said he had treated many Nigerian patients in the last 20 years in Dubai and that most of them came with spine problems, low backache and people aged 50 and above who could not walk, drive or sit for long and that some others had problems from accidents, gunshots and difficult cases which could not be handled in the country and had been diagnosed wrongly.
He said spinal cord injuries were difficult to manage and that they required immediate operation within three to four hours by qualified medical practitioners.
While saying that he was presently setting up a unit at his hospital to train doctors in his area of expertise, Dr. Mardini said he was working towards partnering with local hospitals to treat patients in Nigeria.
Chief Executive Officer of Swift Air Ambulance Services Limited, Dr. Abdulazeez Oniyangi, said Dr. Mardini was invited to Nigeria to share his experience with indigenous medical professionals, adding that there were plans to put in place a visiting physicians referral programme so that doctors like Mardini could come to the country to perform surgeries, especially the minimal invasive kind, and minimise the cost for Nigerians who travelled abroad for minimal surgery.
Some people interviewed by Daily Trust said they had experienced neck pains after using their phones for a long time.
Sumbo, a student, said there was a particular week she had to visit hospital because she felt so much pain on her neck that she couldn’t turn it. She recalled playing games with the phone almost all day for a few weeks.
Daniel on the other hand said he experienced what he suspected were symptoms of Text Neck Syndrome when he began to spend a lot of hours on social media chatting with his friends.