A 9-year-old girl from Hangzhou, China, reportedly got so addicted to using her phone, that she suffered pains in her neck and numbness in her fingers, and her spine ended up losing its natural curvature.
Shan Shi News reported that the girl, Ming Ming, then went for a medical examination and the doctor was shocked upon seeing the girl’s X-ray scans.
A normal spine has a curvature to it, shaped like the alphabet “C”, but because of Ming Ming’s extensive use of her mobile phone, her spine curved towards the other direction and formed a straight line instead.
The 9-year-old girl’s spine was compared to that of a 50-year-old person’s. and the doctor then found that the girl developed text neck syndrome because of her long hours of mobile phone usage.
She then underwent treatment and her condition later improved.
Doctors warned, after the incident, of the dangers of cervical spondylosis, which affects children’s development physically.
Cervical spondylosis is the wear and tear of the spinal disks in the neck that usually comes with ageing, according to Mayo Clinic.
In severe cases, patients suffer from memory and vision loss, as well as dizziness, and the muscles get tense when looking all the time downwards.
Hypoxia and ischemia are also possibilities, which are low oxygen levels in the body and reduced blood flow, as well as an increase in lactic acid, and all these cause irreversible damage to the neck muscles, muscle atrophy and the degeneration of ligaments.
Doctors advise taking a break every 45 to 60 minutes and getting up and moving around.