With Christmas fast approaching, the great festive rush to fill those sacks and stockings is on with a vengeance! Skip back to 20 years ago and we had no choice but to battle through the frenzy of the high street at Christmastime. If we were to tick off the gifts on those Christmas wish lists, we had to physically go in search for them – come rain, snow or 3-mile queues to get to the tills!
But times have changed. Now we live in an uber connected world where pretty much any item is available to us at just a click of a button. We don’t have to endure traffic jams, hours of trekking around the shops or those crazy Christmas crowds to purchase presents for our nearest and dearest.
But is our back health paying the price?
Sitting down in front of a Smartphone, tablet or computer may seem safer on your spine than the traditional form of shopping, but it can actually be more harmful. Our London chiropractor warns that online shopping can strain the muscles in the neck and cause pain that extends down the spine into the lower back. This is especially worrying if you use your computer, laptop or Smartphone for hours on end as your body will eventually start to adopt a hunched position.
Try to look straight ahead rather than down at your screen and make sure you take frequent screen breaks. After all, there’s nothing “merry” about back pain at Christmastime!