Mystery Pain Explained: Your Screen Obsession Could Be Giving You 'Text Neck'

Texting is a literal pain in the neck.

HuffPost's Executive Lifestyle Editor Lori Leibovich has used computers and smartphones often over many years, and after visiting the doctor she found out her technology use was to blame for the perpetual pain she had been suffering.

"I couldn't ignore the shooting pains anymore in my neck, and there was numbness and tingling in my arm," she said. "I'm getting an MRI next week to figure it out."

Leibovich told HuffPost Live's Caitlyn Becker that she deduced the cause of the pain when she realized that it was triggered by the motion of swiping across her phone's screen and using her thumb to scroll.

Chiropractor Dean Fishman has seen that before. He recalled an appointment with a 17-year-old girl who was experiencing headaches and neck pain. As he was reviewing the x-rays, he noticed the patient was texting in the corner.

"We put the pieces of the puzzle together and we found that the repetitive stresses of having her head in a forward, titled posture for long periods of time was the contributing factor," he said.

See the full HuffPost Live conversation about how technology hurts our bodies in the video below.