MoneyConsumerConsumer Reports

Actions

Tips To Help Pain Caused By Cellphones

Posted at 2:03 PM, Aug 31, 2015
and last updated 2015-09-08 04:30:38-04

Cell phones are a necessity in our lives, but the convenience of constant connectivity could be causing you physical pain.

When texting or using a cell phone, we sometimes overuse your hands and wrists, and that causes a receptive-stress injury, or tendonitis.

Neck pain, or “tech neck,” comes from bending your head down to look at your phone, putting excess stress on your neck.

And if you have shooting pain down your backside and legs, it might be sciatica from stashing your cell phone in your back pocket and putting pressure on your sciatic nerve when you sit.

The good news is that most of those injuries are easily preventable just by modifying the way you use your cell phone.

Reduce your risk of developing tech neck by holding your phone at eye level.

To prevent sciatica, don’t carry your phone in your back pocket.

To cut the pain from tendonitis, Consumer Reports suggests using a hands-free device, a speaker phone, or FaceTime whenever possible to reduce the hand stress caused by typing on your phone.