Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

Ladies Beware of Big Handbags!

I’m sure you’ve heard that the thing for this season, and for a while now have been heavy bags, but could these fashionable bags be causing some of our health problems and we don’t even know it until it’s too late? Well, the American Chiropractic Association says yes. We worry about what compliments our outfit so much more than about if this outfit is healthy for our everyday well being. 

One of the main reasons big bags tends to cause health problems is because larger bags tend to allow women the luxury of overstuffing. They figure they can carry everything, even the not so important items, so why not. The why not is because, it’ll cause more pain that you should need or have to suffer though and won’t be good for you in the long run. 

Lower back problems are caused by leaning with the bag. You might be doing this and not even know it. You lean because one side of your body is slightly heavier than the other and at the end of the day your back is hurting and you don’t know why. You might think, “oh, well the leaning and the pain is not enough to be noticed on a everyday basis.” Well, after a while, adding to the everyday stress of your body in addition to the strain that is already being caused will make it travel up to your neck, Since you’re busy, you don’t realize that the muscles and nerves are now affected until your hand spasms and you have trouble writing. This is because nerves from the lower neck supply the shoulder all the way down to the hand. 

What Can We Do? 

Well, first off keep this simple rule in mind, never carry a bag that weights more than 10% of your body weight. Once you hit the 10% back problems are a guarantee and will restrain your everyday movement. You should stick to well below 10% of your body weight. 

Next, select a purse with a wide adjustable strap. The best would be if the strap is long enough so that you can place it over your head to be used like a messenger bag. This will help the weight of the bag to be evenly distributed across preventing leaning. 

Another tip is when carrying a heavy bag periodically switch sides to that each side gets a break from carrying the heavy load. 

This next tip I highly recommend: LADIES TAKE TIME TO EMPTY UNECESSARY ITEMS FROM YOUR BAG. We all know we have little things that have been in there for gosh knows how long, take them out! Even the little items add up in weight! 

Finally the American Chiropractic Association recommends to “Place all necessary items- such as wallets and cellular phones- in the front pockets of the bag. Stretching around to reach for your wallet can result in a pulled neck or back. If you are driving or sitting for long period of time, remove your wallet or card holder from the back of your pants.” 

You can find more information on Fashion and Health Problems at the American Chiropractic Association at this link: http://www.amerchiro.org/content_css.cfm?CID=73. 

So ladies, do a favor for your back…it’ll love you for it!