Yep.......you heard me right. Text neck leads to turkey neck. You may have not heard these two terms yet, but I promise you....you will. As the technology age gets quicker and smaller we spend more and more time hunched over our smart phones texting/surfing the internet/and watching videos. This led the medical community to come up with a name (Text Neck) for all the new patients that were coming into their offices with increased headaches, neck, and upper back pain. Hunching over your phone can lead to an extra 50 pounds of pressure across your neck. Lean over and tie a 50lb sack to your head..............how do you think it would feel? Check out the illustration below for a visual.

You can see that as the head gets further forward the pounds of pressure increase. Well, if the excruciating pain piercing your upper back and neck weren't enough, now plastic surgeons around the US are reporting a new malady.............Turkey Neck!!! What the heck is Turkey Neck?? Let me fill you in. The skin and collagen (what gives your skin elasticity and makes it look young) is very thin in the neck. By leaning over your phone for hours at a time you loosen and break down the collagen. Think of it like a rubber band that has lost it's ability to stretch. Try it now....go ahead...tilt your head all the way forward. What happens? Yep...the skin bunches and sags. Do this long enough and you develop jowls.....or the dreaded TURKEY NECK (spooky music inserted here)!!!.
So what do you do about it?? To start, spend a little less time drooling into your phone. There is honestly no better cure than to not do it. In my office in Roswell Georgia, I also work with patients on proper alignment and posture throughout their activities of daily living. Contact us for a list of exercises and stretches you can do to help prevent and reverse this problem. If all else fails the plastic surgeon will be more than happy to pull your face back and give you a nice Kenny Rogers/Burt Reynolds look. Thanks as always for reading--Dr.Wiskind
www.vitalitysportschiropractic.com
So what do you do about it?? To start, spend a little less time drooling into your phone. There is honestly no better cure than to not do it. In my office in Roswell Georgia, I also work with patients on proper alignment and posture throughout their activities of daily living. Contact us for a list of exercises and stretches you can do to help prevent and reverse this problem. If all else fails the plastic surgeon will be more than happy to pull your face back and give you a nice Kenny Rogers/Burt Reynolds look. Thanks as always for reading--Dr.Wiskind
www.vitalitysportschiropractic.com