Mobile phones are changing human skeleton!
Especially people who are hunched to their screens seemed to develop a bony spike on the back of their skulls.
- Researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia did the study
- People are increasingly growing lumps of bone at the bases of their skulls
- The bone forms to support bigger, stronger muscles needed to hold our heads
- Looking down at phones puts extra strain on previously lesser-used muscles
Many people spend more than couple of hours on their mobiles or smart phones or tablets everyday, this directly has an effect on their bony architecture.
Researchers study in the Journal of Anatomy said growing numbers of people have growths called enlarged external occipital protuberances(EOP) at the base of their skull. This bump on our head is mostly cant be visualized or felt with the hand when palpated but these late years many young people seemed to develop the bump which is clearly seen when inspected behind their hair.
Research showing that the bumps are most common among 18 to 30-year-old.
Scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, have done detailed research on this phenomenon and concluded the relatively close relationship between the phones and the bumps.
They scanned more than a thousand skulls belonging to people ranging in age from 18 to 86.
The lead researcher, Dr. David Shahar, told the BBC: ‘I have been a clinician for 20 years, and only in the last decade, increasingly I have been discovering that my patients have this growth on the skull.’
He explained the reason for these abnormal bumps to be, the muscles which connect the neck to the back of the head are overused as they try to hold still the skull — an average adult head can weigh around 5kg (11lbs).
These muscles are previously not much in use but lately due to these overuse of these head holding muscles due to mobile usage, which became stronger and stronger and the new layer of the bone has been reinforced in this struggle and thereby widening the area of the bone. A leading Australian chiropractor last year warned that he is seeing an ‘epidemic of people developing what he calls ‘Text neck’.
Many patients came with complaints of having a headache, then latter the researchers found the cause is the text neck.
Dr. Shahar and colleagues wrote in their study that ‘repetitive and sustained mechanical load’ leads to adaptation of the tendons and connective tissues.
‘Musculoskeletal disorders related to poor posture while using computers and tablets have been investigated extensively and were identified as a risk factor for the development of related symptoms at the neck, shoulders, and forearms.’ according to researchers. Dr. Shahar said that, although the bony lumps are unlikely to cause any damaging effects themselves, they may never go away. if they are left neglected they may continuously grow. An Elongated EOP was significantly more common in males (67.4%) than in females (20.3%), with the mean EEOP size for the combined male population (15 ± 7 mm) being significantly larger than for females (10 ± 4 mm). The longest Elongated EOP in the male population was 35.7 mm, while in the female population it was 25.5 mm.
CONCLUSION:
The changes in our lifestyle have sure effects on our body and mind. out of many such changes seen on our body, researchers have come across a significant one called the text neck or enlarged external occipital protuberances(EOP). The main reason for this morphological change in the skull of humans is said to the bad positioning of our head and back during the usage of mobile phones.
The prolonged usage of them has caused the misuse of the muscles and thereby producing new layers of bone onto the skull. This lifestyle modification in recent years has proved to show a significant effect on the human body.