Horn-Like Bones Growing on Skulls of Young Adults, Says Study

A new research by the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, suggests that young people are developing horn-like spikes at the back of their skulls, according to a report published in Clinical Biomechanics.

The research also suggests that these are caused by tilting the head forward for long hours to look at mobile phones and other handheld devices.

The researchers say that these horn-like spur are developed due to the shift of weight from the spine to the muscles on the back of the neck which results in the growth of adjoining tendons and ligaments.

Researchers suggest that to stop these horn-like spurs from developing, giving up technology is not an option, pointed out The Washington Post, citing the same study.

David Shahar, the paper’s first author, a chiropractor who recently completed a PhD in biomechanics at Sunshine Coast, suggested that the solution for this is to improve one’s posture.

He also suggested that schools should teach simple strategies to students to improve their posture. He said that people who have to use technology during the day should try some strategies to improve their posture at night.

They claim that their research is the first documentation of physiological adaptation by the human body caused by modern day technology.

The researchers had considered 1,200 samples of X-rays of subjects for the study. These subjects aged from 18 to 30. They found that bone growth was found in about 33 percent of the subjects. Another interesting thing they found was that this bone growth decreased with age.

One of the researchers explained that such developments take time to happen. The researcher said that if people had developed the spurs at a young age, it meant that they had been straining their necks since early childhood.

It was found that these spurs were an act of adaptation by the body. Bending the neck for long hours would put a strain on the muscles at the back of the skull to hold the neck from falling on the chest. This strain led to this adaptive process.