Body Electric Part 4: Below the Belt

TED Radio Hour

NPR

Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Science, Technology

4.4 • 21.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In part four: host Manoush Zomorodi explores the connection between our posture and our mood. A lot of us associate our neck and back pain with spending hours hunched over our phones and laptops. But what if that hunched posture is also making us feel tired, stressed, and anxious? Neuroscientist Peter Strick discusses his groundbreaking research on why exercising our core muscles lowers our stress.

Also in this episode: how a faulty, incorrect study went viral — claiming smartphones were causing people to grow horns on their backs. Science journalist Nsikan Akpan sets the record straight. Later, writer Paul Ingraham shares his daily strategy for doing movement snacks and strength building while balancing deadlines.

Click here to find out more about the project: npr.org/bodyelectric

Are you signed up for Columbia's study, or following along with the series? We want to hear from you! Send us a voice memo at [email protected]. Talk to us on Instagram @ManoushZ, and on Facebook @tedradiohour.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from NPR sponsor, Barclays Corporate and Investment Bank,
0:05.0	Powering Sustainable Growth in a Changing World,
0:08.0	Powering Financial Solutions that Transform Industries.
0:11.0	Barclays Corporate and Investment Bank, Powering Possible.
0:16.1	Okay, I hope this isn't TMI, but for the last several years I have seen a rotating cast of professionals
0:22.2	including an orthopedist, physical therapist, chiropractor,
0:25.7	acupuncturist, massage therapist, and pelvic floor specialist.
0:30.6	All for my aching back, actually I should specify my sacriiliac joint dysfunction.
0:38.0	Sometimes they've helped, sometimes they haven't, and so I have also spent hours online, usually before bedtime,
0:46.8	googling and trying to find the source of my discomfort. One night in 2019, I came across a story that wow peaked my interest.
0:59.0	So there was this article that had gone viral from the Washington Post about how smartphones
1:05.8	are making millennials grow horns on the back of their neck.
1:08.8	And experts think it's from using our phones so much.
1:12.3	All kinds of news outlets
1:13.8	were reporting the story all around the world.
1:16.4	You might say your kids act like little devils,
1:19.0	but what if their phones are actually
1:21.3	causing them to grow horns.
1:23.0	They're really bone spurs.
1:24.3	The researchers speculate.
1:25.3	They're caused by the way the head tilts toward forward
1:28.6	when using a cell phone or similar device.
	...

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