The number of people with a “Straight Neck syndrome” who suffer stiff neck and shoulder pain due to the habit of looking at smartphones with their neck bent are increasing every year. Straight Neck syndrome is a disease in which a C-shaped cervical vertebra is transformed into a dent because of the neck pulling it. According to the National Health Insurance Corporation, the number of patients with the syndrome from 2.39 million in 2011 to 2.69 million in 2016 is up nearly 300,000 in five years. This is an annual average increase of 2.4%.
According to the patients’ age grouping in 2016, those in their fifties (23.8%) suffered the most, followed by those in their 40s (21%) and then those in their 30s (15.3%).
The main cause of SN syndrome is misalignment and movement. When the wrong posture causes the skeletal deformation, the muscle strength around the neck weakens and the degenerative changes occur in the spine.
Left-sided neck syndrome can cause headache and shoulder pain as well as neck pain. When the neck spine is properly arranged, the weight of the head is distributed to the neck bone and disc, but the weight of the head in the dorsal neck is heavy on the neck muscles, ligaments, and joints. Prevention is important, especially if you have a sore throat syndrome that may require surgery.
It is helpful to stretch your shoulders in a direction to keep your shoulders open and to open your shoulders and stretch your rib cage. Since the muscles behind the neck are usually short, put your hand up in the head and then stretch it by pulling your head down. It is good to exercise while pushing the neck with your hand in the sitting position and applying force to the neck in the opposite direction through pushing by the hand. Move in four directions, front and back and both sides.
The computer monitor should be at a distance that you can reach out and adjust the height so that your eyes see the center of the monitor in a sitting position. Adjust the eye level and distance so that your neck is not excessively bent when you use a smart phone. Stretch once every 30 minutes.**- Jihye Jeong (UB Intern)
