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Surprising Causes of Back and Neck Pain

Nearly all adults will experience minor neck or back pain in their lifetime. In fact, it is estimated that 31 million Americans experience lower back pain at any given time. Fortunately for the majority of adults, only 10% of these cases are severe and debilitating. Many causes of back neck pain are common knowledge, such as old mattresses, strains from heavy lifting, or whiplash. However, there are some surprising habits that may be the source of your back and neck pain throughout the day.  “Text neck” – Your addiction to your smartphone or tablet may be affecting your posture more than you realize. The leaning forward, hunched-over position can strain in your neck and upper back and cause minor pain or “text neck.” Holding your phone at eye level and taking breaks from your phone goes a long way to prevent or reduce this pain.  Old shoes or flip flops – Reducing back pain starts from the bottom up! Shoes that lack proper support, such as flip flops and shoes with worn-down soles, can throw off your alignment and cause significant lower back pain. Wearing comfortable, supportive shoes and getting rid of older shoes can help you avoid this common

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Text Neck and Other Pain from Digital Devices

You may be familiar with the term “Tennis Elbow,” but have you ever heard of ailments like “Blackberry Thumb” or “Text Neck”? Digital devices no doubt improve our ability to communicate and pass information, but there are also some negative effects to be wary of. Text Neck, as it is commonly referred to, is one of the most recent tech-related maladies to gain notoriety. It refers to the headaches, arm, shoulder, and neck pains that occur when one spends too much time in the common posture for using cell phones, tablets and e-readers. To show just how prevalent this term is becoming, an initial Google search for Text Neck yielded about 123 million results, whereas only hours later, the number increased to about 126 million results! In addition to headaches and joint pain, people may also experience extreme fatigue and muscle spasms as a result of improper posture while using these devices. Physicians across the nation are seeing these effects manifest in people who are much younger than  one might expect a person suffering from joint or neck pain to be. Scott Bautch, a spokesperson for the American Chiropractic Association, notes that “by age 14 approximately 7% of teens are having daily symptoms of back pain,

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