Big Bags, Uncomfortable fashion?

Bad for the bank balance, but are handbags bad for your back? With the trend for oversized handbags continuing into winter 2007, how much will this must-have accessory cost you in osteopathic treatments?

It’s a well known fact that women tend to carry many ‘essential’ items in their handbag and with the trend for oversized handbags continuing, is the weight of our handbag getting a little too much to handle?

It has been said that carrying an excessive weight on one shoulder (anything above10% of your body weight) can cause you to alter your balance and subconsciously ‘hike-up’ the weight-bearing shoulder causing the spine to bend towards the same side. This unnatural posture interferes with the normal upper body ‘swing’ which facilitates force transference between the arms and legs during gait.

Our reporter Rachel Knight asked our osteopaths “are you seeing more ‘handbag-related’ injuries since the introduction of the ‘oversized handbag?”

Adrian Steel, an osteopath at Redhill Osteopathy, Surrey says “no”, while laughing at the image the question evokes. However, he does explain how constantly carrying an “over-weighted bag on the one shoulder will cause stress down that same side of the body” which can lead to neck and shoulder problems.

Michelle Henfrey, an osteopath at Health in Hand in Bracknell also finds it difficult to link the trend to an increased number of consultations, but she does emphasise the tendency for women to “habitually carry their handbag on the same shoulder” which “can cause women to present with symptoms such as upper back aching and burning pain, pain into the neck and shoulder” sometimes even the arm, “and even headache”.

So, if you are suffering from a handbag-related injury, what do our osteopaths advise?  In  short the 3 top tips are: “spread the load”, “swap shoulders”, “switch to a small backpack”.

• Don’t overload your bag – if you do, spread the weight evenly, using all available pockets.
• Don’t always carry your bag on the same shoulder, switch sides regularly or if your shoulders are hurting after a long day, carry the bag in front of you.
• Keep your bag close to your body, not resting on your forearm ‘celebrity style’- this will only exacerbate the problem by causing forearm pain and may even lead to ‘tennis elbow’ type symptoms.

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Tags : headache, posture, RSI, shoulder, spine, stress, tennis elbow

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