Chiropractors see spike in neck pain from work-from-home, remote learning during pandemic

LYNNFIELD, Mass. — For 20 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of Dr. Peter Martone’s patients at Atlantis Chiropractic Wellness Centers were suffering from back pain.

But these days, most appointments are to address neck pain Martone attributes to a sharp increase in adults working from home and students learning remotely.

“It’s completely reversed,” Martone told Boston 25 News from his Lynnfield office. “Now, more than ever, we see so much more neck pain, and that is because of the poor postures at home.”

“Tech neck” isn’t a new phenomenon: computer use and texting have been contributing to an increase in neck pain over the past couple decades. But the issue is only getting worse.

Kids and adults are often hunched over their laptops for hours, benching their neck down to look at their computers, at their desks, at the kitchen counter, even in bed. That poor posture strains the neck muscle, puts pressure on spinal discs and joints and can lead to other painful effects including migraines and ear congestion, Martone said.

“Normal cervical curve is a curve in the neck, and the muscle is nice and loose,” Martone explained. “As we start to lose the curve in the neck just by losing the pure structure, the muscles get very, very, very tight. So, everybody has been coming in with neck pain, because of their poor work set-ups at home.”

But the pain can be reversed by making some lifestyle changes, Martone said.

He suggests mounting your desktop monitor on the wall slightly higher than eye level or buying an inexpensive monitor lift. For laptop users, you can raise the computer and get an external keyboard.

The other component is good sleep posture, he said. Lying on your back with a pillow under the neck, not under the head will support the arch of the neck instead of the weight of the head.

“Everybody wants to control posture when they’re thinking about it,” Martone said. “But 95 percent of the day is subconscious, when you’re not thinking about it. So, we want to set up our environment to win. We want to improve posture not thinking about it.”

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