Take your hand and feel the back of your head , just where your spine joins the bottom of your skull . If you’re able to experience a slender growth , a bit like a small boney posterior , it could be a sign your body is responding to 21st - one C living and smartphones .
A cogitation published in the journalScientific Reportsin 2018 argued that dense utilisation of smartphones and handheld gadget might explain why an increasing issue of new people have an strange boney prodding on the back of their skull .
scientist from the University of The Sunshine Coast in Australia noted that a growing number of untried multitude have a boney growth sticking out of the back of their skull . Typically , the growths were 2.6 cm long ( 1 inch ) , but they were seen to grow up to 3.1 centimeters ( 1.2 inches ) in duration .
Known as an enthesophytes or enlarged external occipital protuberance ( EEOP ) , the bony projections move up from the sites where ligament or tendon seize to a osseous tissue . Since they typically grow over a recollective time period of fourth dimension , they expected to happen they were more unwashed in aging populations . However , they found the exact reverse . In a cogitation of 1,200 people , aged from 18 to 86 , the hypertrophied spikes occurred in 33 percent of the participants , but most commonly in males ages 18 to 30 years old . In fact , every decade addition in age ensue in a 1.03 reducing in the likelihood of having the growth .
Previous studiesalso suggest that this is a relatively novel phenomenon , as it was n’t see in unseasoned adults during the 1990s , at least not to the same extent .
" I have been a clinician for 20 twelvemonth , and only in the last decade , increasingly , I have been discovering that my patients have this ontogeny on the skull , " lead generator David Shahar , a wellness scientist at the University of The Sunshine Coast in Australia , lately state theBBC Future .
The research did n’t look for a clear lawsuit - and - effect human relationship ; however , the fact it ’s such a recent phenomenon among untested adults started to get the investigator thinking . Drawing onother studiesthat have suggested smartphone role is associated with risky postures , they suggested that smartphones and “ text neck ” could be to blame . Spending 60 minutes each day with your neck opening crooked downwards , endlessly flip through the same three apps over and over again , applies newfangled stresses to the base of the skull , to which the consistency responds by pose down new bone . The solution , they hypothesize , is this unusual boney spur .
“ The development of EEOP may be attribute to , and explain by , the extensive enjoyment of sieve - base activities by individuals of all eld , including children , and the associated poor posture , ” the study author conclude .
“ We hypothesize that the use of modernistic engineering science and manus - held devices , may be primarily responsible for these postures and subsequent growth of adaptative robust cranial feature in our sample . ”
Update 2025-03-09 : We should stress that this is evenhandedly notional and there are a range of other factor to consider . For model , asThe New York Timeshighlighted , much of their data came from people visiting a chiropractic clinic and required X - shaft of light . Therefore , it ’s safe to say , these subjects might not be representative of the whole population .
[ H / T : BBC Future ]
