Prevention Australia – June – July 2017

22 PREVENTIONAUS.COM.AU

Health

Smartphones help you wake up, connect with others, listen to music and

have fun. Not so fun, though, are some things using your phone can do to you

YOUR BODY ON

a mobile phone

RINGXIETY

Anxiety about staying

connected can make you

feel phantom vibrations

from your phone when you

don’t actually have an alert.

At the furthest extreme is

so-called ‘nomophobia’ (no-

mobile-phone-phobia), or

fear of being separated from

your device.

PHOTOGRAPHY ALAMY

DRY EYES

Staring at your phone

screen for longer than

two hours can cause eye

irritations such as dryness

and blurred vision.

TEXT NECK

When you tuck your phone

under your chin to talk or

tilt your head down at a

60-degree angle to read that

tiny screen, it can put about

27kg of force on your neck,

which stresses the spine and

can eventually damage it.

BUM THUMB

Making repeated thumb

movements while typing

on a phone can lead to

de Quervain Tenosynovitis,

discomfort and swelling

along tendons at the base

of the thumbs.

WANDER-WALKING

Texting while walking has caused

people to tumble down stairs or

walk straight into trai c, and it

also slows you down, so you lose

some of the aerobic benefi ts of

being on the move.