Tech gadgets can cause real health problems

WASHINGTON – If your iOS 7 iPhone or iPad give you migraines or nausea, it may not be your imagination. It’s just one consequence of living in a hi-tech world.

“That has totally happened to me,” says CNET’s Dan Ackerman.

He says that Apple has issued a fix after users complained that the mobile operating system was making them queasy. But you’re own your own for phantom-vibration syndrome, Ackerman says.

“You think that your phone is buzzing and you hear any little sound and you think…oh, is that my phone, is that my phone?” he says.

Research suggests as many as seven in 10 cellphone users experience it and it gets worse with stress. Maybe time for a cellphone time out.

Medical books list “laptop thigh” as a real condition, referring to an ailment that can happen with laptops that run hotter than most at 110 degrees. It can leave your legs pockmarked and discolored.

To help resolve back and neck problems, Ackerman suggests tilting your laptop all the way up, so you don’t bend over too much. That’ll help your posture.

But he warns about the new Oculus Rift for video games.

“3-D goggles that you slip over your head and it puts you in a kind of virtual world,” Ackerman says.

Ackerman tried them but they made him feel sick.

“They took the goggles off of me and I was not right for the rest of the day,” he says.

He said he hopes the developers create a fix before the goggles hit the market.

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