Although smartphones had been gaining tremendous popularity in the recent years due to their more and more advanced hardware, this doesn’t mean that they are necessarily good for our health. Not everything that it’s popular is also good, as a rule of thumb.
A new study published in Neurology Clinical Practice this week claims that smartphone users are recovering harder from migraines or headaches than those who don’t use such a device. Also, smartphone users are likely to take more pain medication.
But doesn’t everybody have a smartphone nowadays?
Well, not really. It may look like that judging by the modern world, but the official data in 2020 says that the total number of people in the world owning a smartphone is only 3.5 billion. This means less than half of the world population, considering that there are 7.7 billion people living on the planet.
The researchers involved in the study concluded that 96% of the patients with headaches took pain relievers, and they were also smartphone users. On the other hand, only 81% of their counterparts with headaches who were not smartphone users needed the medication.
However, the outcome of the study mentioned above doesn’t necessarily mean that smartphone usage is causing headaches by itself. Further study is needed in order to find a more exact explanation. The study author and also a professor of neurology, Deepti Vibha, confirms it by saying:
While these results need to be confirmed with larger and more rigorous studies, the findings are concerning, as smartphone use is growing rapidly and has been linked to a number of symptoms, with headache being the most common,
Whether we like to admit it or not, living without a smartphone in a technological world like the one we live in is almost impossible. But it’s true that these gadgets are becoming very addictive and we can cure that easily with a little ambition.
