Doctors seeing more millennials for ‘text neck'

GREENSBORO, NC - Hours of texting appears to be catching up with some Piedmont millennials.

Doctors are seeing a number of "text neck" cases.

Text neck is a term used to describe neck pain associated with too much texting.

"We see them several times a week here in the clinic," said Dr. Cody Matthews, a Novant Health family medicine specialist.

Matthews explains that the patients are not people who are texting occasionally throughout the day.

"For it to become a chronic injury it has to occur several hours throughout the day. We're not seeing it in people who are doing it kind of casually," Matthews said.

A big health concern is that the posture associated with text neck puts pressure on the spine -- possibly causing premature damage over time.

You can avoid text neck by not hunching over when looking at your phone.

It's recommended to keep the phone at eye level.