Smartphones and your health: Experts warn of potential dangers

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Experts are warning people who use smartphones at excessive rates of their dangers on the body.

Everything from the head and neck area to your hands and fingers wear down with every check of a text or Facebook.

Here are some ways prolonged smartphone use affects different parts of your body:

Hands and fingers

Naturally, these body parts aren't just integral to holding your phone. Hands are more important than you think.

Doctors say a break every once and a while to stretch your fingers can help in keeping your digits from aching. After all, outside of smartphones, hands and wrists face abuse from other things like manual labor or repeated taps of the computer keyboard.

Neck

It can be natural to look down or rest your head to the side on a bed to view your DMs. Still, doctors urge you to hold your phone at eye level.

The reason is all in the neck. When you next use your phone, take notice of whether your neck feels strained. That means you'll need to take a new approach to sending your emojis.

Stress

It's not just the physical toll. Experts have observed how certain content, especially on social media, have affected people's thoughts and emotions.

What you can do to combat the psychological toll is take breaks, turn off your phone and check it only every few hours.

A slow but incomplete detox of your phone may help.

Vision

According to doctors, we normally blink about 15 times per minutes. But this rate decreases by half when we are staring at a smartphone.

Taking regular breaks might help in getting back into your normal blinking pattern. Doctors offer the "20-20-20 rule," which consists of breaks every 20 minutes.

Phantom vibrations

It's freaky but certainly real. Since cellphones have become one with our lives, people can sense vibrations even when the phone is off or on silent.

When you start noticing these vibrations, frequent breaks from your phone will help.

Texting and walking

While we can see the comedy of other people taking a spill or walking into objects while using their phone, experts believe phone use while in movement will get worse.

They say the reliance on texting over talking on the phone is putting people at risk while on the move.

In general, doctors believe frequent breaks from your phone can help in the short term when physical and mental issues arise.

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