年輕人頭骨長角與過度使用手機相關

Horns Are Growing on Human Skulls Because of Phone Use

年輕人頭骨長角與過度使用手機相關

It’s no secret that your cell phone can disrupt your health. But here’s a potential risk of cell phone use you may not have seen coming: A new study suggests our skeletons are adapting to our handheld device obsession.

衆所周知，手機不利於人體健康。但或許你並不知道，使用手機存在這一潛在風險：一項新研究表明，我們的頭骨正在適應我們對這一手持設備的癡迷。

How so? By helping us adjust to a position that most of us who are constantly checking our emails are familiar with: phone in hand, head bent down.

怎麼會呢？因爲頭骨正在適應我們不時查看郵件的姿勢：低頭玩手機。

Researchers from Australia say cell phones might be the reason young adults are developing “enlarged external occipital protuberance” (EEOP). The occipital bone is at the lower part of the skull. What the scientists are saying is that our bodies are adjusting to worsening posture by growing a spike at the base of our skulls to relieve pressure induced by hours spent hunched over our phones.

澳大利亞的研究員表示，手機可能是導致年輕人患“擴大的外枕部突起”（EEOP）的原因。枕骨位於頭顱骨的後部分。科學家表示，我們的身體正在適應錯誤的姿勢，所以頭骨底部長出了尖刺以緩解長時間低頭看手機對頭骨造成的壓力。

Researchers wanted to know how prevalent this adaptation may be. Overall, 33% of the 1,200 men and women, ages 18 to 86, in the study exhibited EEOP. The researchers’ conclusions were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

研究員想了解這種適應的普遍程度。總體而言，在研究涉及的1200位18至86歲的受試者中，33%的受試者呈現擴大的外枕部突起。研究員的結論已發表在《科學報告》雜誌上。

The new report cites previously published survey results in a population of Canadian university students, faculty, and staff. The survey found that participants spend an average of 4.65 hours a day on a hand-held device. Sixty-eight percent of participating students reported having neck pain.

這篇報告引用了已發表的關於加拿大大學生和教職工的研究數據。研究發現：這些受試者平均每天玩手機4.65小時。68%的受試學生稱脖子疼。

“We hypothesize that the use of modern technologies and hand-held devices may be primarily responsible for these postures and subsequent development of adaptive cranial features in our sample,” the researchers wrote.

“我們猜想，使用現代技術和手持設備可能是受試者呈現此姿勢以及後續適應性顱骨特徵的主要原因，”研究員寫道。

They emphasize that the high prevalence of EEOP among young people might not be good news for the ways our skeletal and muscular systems (together called “musculoskeletal”) work. “Our findings raise a concern about the future musculoskeletal health of the young adult population and reinforce the need for prevention intervention through posture education,” the report says.

他們強調，越來越多的年輕人患擴大的外枕部突起，這可能不利於骨骼和肌肉系統（合稱爲“肌肉骨骼”）的正常運轉。我們的研究結果引起了大家對年輕人未來肌肉骨骼健康的關注，並強調通過姿勢教育進行預防的必要性。

The authors caution that poor health and disability due to musculoskeletal disorders impose “increasing physical, social and financial burdens on individuals and societies.” They don’t say, however, what specific preventative measures should be put into place.

作者警告稱，肌肉骨骼疾病導致的不健康和殘疾問題會“增加個人及社會的生理、社會和經濟壓力。”然而，研究員並未說明，應採取哪些具體的預防措施。