Smartphone addiction leads "Nomophobia" !

Looking down the cellphone ?

Looking down the cell phone (source)

Around the 7 billion people on the earth, there is roughly 6 billion people owning a cell-phone. How is these kind of gadget changing the life of a person ? When you look down at the cell phone, the spine happens to be bent down in such angle that certain condition erupts when people become older. On an average, people spend 4.7 hours daily on their cell-phone. This has led to certain medical condition like myopia or nearsightedness to most of the people.

Children mostly play game. As for example, when people play candy crush , and gets some victory or goals, the brain is rewarded with some dopamine hormones. Along with this, even some contents are unlocked and rewarded which again gives some burst of dopamine, making a compulsion loop. This loop is similar to the behaviours that of the nicotine or cocaine. Around 93% of the teenagers are addicted to phone for avoiding boredom. This has given rise to the condition of "NOMOPHOBIA" (No Mobile Phobia). The signals sent and received by the phone can hamper the alpha and gamma waves signaled by the brain. It can disrupt the sleep of the person.

To most of the parents who are more concerned with the son's or daughter's addiction towards the phone should be serious enough. Think:

Is your children sticked to the phone ?

Are they always on the social media, online, looking to the videos ? If these prevails, then say you have grounds to worry about . According to the consumer survey, 82% of American own a smartphone, where around 78% use while eating, 92% while shopping and maximum 42% while crossing the street. For the teenager, around 75% own cell-phone where 90% of them goes online every single day.

(source)

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For the children and people who are addicted to cell phone and access to the internet have certain hormonal imbalance and chemical imbalance in their brains. This can lead to certain medical condition such as Depression and Anxiety. There is more danger in the addiction and a waste of time sharing the meme and viral videos around.

When one uses or reads their smartphone at night, they have harder times falling asleep and produce low melatonin which is a hormone regulated for sleep-wake cycle. Harvard medical school as even advise to the people that they should be technology free for 2-3 hours before going to sleep.

Teenager addicted to the smartphone are more likely to be depressed :

When examined with the Magnetic resonance Spectroscopy (MRS), which is a certain type of technology that allows the researchers to evaluate various levels of available chemical in the brain. The higher the score in the test, more severe the addiction. Patients with more sever internet and smartphone addictions developed problems with depression and certain anxiety. They even developed certain sleepiness and impulsive behaviors.

Reward in brain (source)

What's the chemical imbalance and hormonal imbalance in the brain ?

By the use of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, the levels of Gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamine (GlX) was measured in the brain.

GABA is a type of neurotransmitter which is inhibitory in nature. This interacts in the synaptic cleft of neural synapses where it slows down the signaling between the brain cells. While Glx stimulates in the synaptic cleft. This has some excitation effect which speeds up the signaling nature and effect in the brain.

These kind of GlX and GABA has some major role in certain medical condition like mood disorder such as depression and some kind of anxiety.

Dig: Dopamine use (source)

In the anterior cingulate cortices of the children and youth using cell-phones and smartphones, GABA levels are considered to be the associated factors with damaged cognitive and emotional processing in the brain.

So, the increased GABA levels and disrupted balance in between the glutamate and GABA in the anterior cingulate gyrus and cortex contributes in understanding the pathophysiology and even the treatments associated with the addiction.

This is all for today in the blog. Hope to see you on another blog.

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