Our phones are essential to our everyday lives but now doctors are warning how you hold your phone and how long you spend on the device could be impacting your health.
Dr. Danica Michel with Apex Physical Therapy in Fort Myers says more and more people are feeling the impacts of using their phones for a long period of time.
"The problem is that it can lead to pain, headaches, muscle tension, sometimes even nerve damage with carpel tunnel, pinched nerves that come with forward posture," Michel said.
It impacts the body from the head to the toes.
"The average human head weighs 10-12 pounds and every inch you are forward that adds another 10-12 lbs to what your head weighs So, your spine is not designed to hold your posture up with your head weighing double than what it's built to do," Michel said.
It's not only your posture while using your phone but also how you hold it. Many of us hold our phones with a pinky under the base of the phone.
So if you do have your pinky resting like that, if you think about the ligaments on one side that are now being kind of gapped or stretched. It will over time create changes," Dr. Michel said.
It can impact the ligaments, the nerve, and even the pinky shape.
Doctors say the best way to hold your phone is with two hands where all your fingers are supporting it.
However, Michel says that in a perfect world, we would use voice-to-text communication.
"Just being conscious of how long we are going to be in that position is the best thing somebody can do," Michel said.
Also listen to your body, if you are in pain address it and continue to move.