Hours of bending over the phone turn into
a healthy nightmare for a young Chinese man
Oddity Central reports that a young man in China was unable to raise his head due to muscle spasms and paralysis resulting from his constant use of his phone.
According to Chinese media, student Xiaodong worked part-time in a café during the summer, bending over for long hours to wash dishes and wipe tables.
During his free time
- he spent long hours on his phone playing video games and browsing social
- networking sites, and this pattern continued until he woke up one day to
- discover that he could not raise his head and could not feel his legs.
His parents had to take him to the hospital
where a medical examination revealed the presence of a large blood
clot in his cervical vertebrae, which was pressing on
the spinal cord, causing almost complete paralysis.
Doctors explained that
- the constant curvature of the head leads to excessive pressure on
- the blood vessels in the spinal canal, which leads to the rupture of
- one of the blood vessels and the formation of a clot.
Xiao underwent emergency surgery during which surgeons removed the clot and prevented complete paralysis, and now he is gradually beginning to regain movement in his legs, with doctors expecting him to fully recover soon.
Doctors stress
the importance of taking regular rest periods, doing neck exercises, and avoiding sitting for long periods with the head tilted down, to avoid similar complications.
"Similar to addiction withdrawal."
- The effect of
- restricting smartphone
- use on the brain
Smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives, as we use them for many daily activities such as work, socializing, and entertainment.
As reliance on it increased
its psychological and neurological effects began to appear on users.
In a recent study published in Computers in Human Behavior, researchers studied the effect of restricting smartphone use on brain activity, by recruiting a group of young people that included 25 participants between the ages of 18 and 30, who were regularly dependent on their smartphones.
Initially
- the participants' psychological and physical health was assessed
- and the extent to which smartphone use affected their social lives
- was determined, with the aim of ensuring that there were no
prior mental health conditions that might affect the study results.
Participants were also pre-tested to examine their smartphone usage habits and the extent to which they were affected by their use.
After these initial assessments
participants were instructed to limit their smartphone use to a minimum, limiting it to basic purposes only, such as urgent communication with family or performing necessary daily tasks.
This period lasted
for 72 hours
during which the participants underwent accurate psychological tests, in addition to a brain scan using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
technology
which allowed the researchers to monitor brain activity while the participants were exposed to various images, including neutral scenes such as landscapes and boats, in addition to images of smartphones, whether turned off or on.
Tests showed that restricting
smartphone use had a direct impact on brain activity in areas associated with the production of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin.
These chemicals
- play a major role in regulating
- mood and emotions
- and are closely linked to addiction.
The researchers concluded that
the effect of suddenly stopping smartphone use is very similar to the withdrawal symptoms experienced by addicts of addictive substances, such as alcohol or drugs.
These effects were significantly observed in participants who were heavily dependent on their phones, as well as those who used phones moderately.
They pointed out that
suddenly restricting the use of smartphones may cause a feeling of intense desire to use them, which shows that the effect of smartphones on the brain can go beyond simply using them for social or practical purposes.
The team stresses that
this behavior may be linked to changes in neurochemistry, suggesting that excessive phone use may lead to outcomes similar to those seen in addiction cases.