Heavy purse syndrome: How your favorite accessory is hurting you

Here’s an experiment for you women out there.

Step on your scale and weigh yourself. (No, this isn’t going to be an article about weight loss… not yours, at least).

Now, step back onto the scale while holding your purse, the one you carry to work, when running errands, or anytime you need everything in it to be at an arm’s length away.

Now, the difference between your weight and the weight of your purse is how many pounds you’re lugging around every day.

If the number is six pounds or less, good for you. You’re right on track with what physical therapists and physiotherapists recommend.

But if you’re like most women, the number could be as high as fifteen pounds!

Even if you’re at the recommended limit of six pounds, it’s like carrying around a healthy infant on your shoulder for hours a day.

It might not seem like a lot now, but think about carrying that baby around while you walk to work, go shopping, wait for the bus …

You’ve probably not thought about what that sort of load is doing to your body. You just hike the bag back up on your shoulders and soldier on, right?

Well, here’s what it’s doing to your body, and why you need to lose some of that weight before it’s too late.

The weight on your shoulders

Using your purse as a back-up plan, a place to throw things “just in case” they’re needed during the day, is a recipe for muscle and nerve damage.

There are actually two problems here: how much stuff you’re carrying, and how you’re carrying that bag.

Dr. Sabrina Strickland, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, tells us that you could very well be damaging your spine, day by day, by carrying that heavy shoulder bag.

Related: The DIY low-back pain therapy way to a better back in 6 weeks

“When you carry a heavy bag on your shoulder, you kind of have to lift your shoulder or lean over to the other side, otherwise it’s going to fall right off. However long you’re holding that bag, you’re holding your spine in a curved way.”

When women develop back, shoulder, buttock or arm pain, or tingling in their hands, they often assume it’s their sedentary lifestyle that’s the cause.

While this is certainly a reasonable assumption, often they’re missing the true cause of their discomfort: the repetitive action of carrying a heavy purse every day.

How to lighten your load and prevent long-term health problems

Dr. Ayla Azad is a chiropractor and medical acupuncturist who has been teaching at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College since 1999. She says that the repetitive lifting of a heavy handbag can cause health problems including:

1. Upper neck and back pain
2. Poor posture
3. Muscle spasms
4. Sciatica (including nerve pain in the buttocks and down the legs)
5. Tendinitis of the elbow
6. Injury to the rotator cuff muscles in the shoulder
7. Tension headaches
8. Numbness or tingling in the arms, hands or fingers due to pinched nerves

Related: 3 simple poses for a strong, supple spine

Dr. Azad has some recommendations on the selection of a handbag, as well as how to carry it, in order to avoid these symptoms:

Choose a smaller bag. The larger your bag, the more stuff you’re likely to put in there.

Avoid chain link or skinny straps. Both of these will dig into your shoulder, irritating the small ligaments of the acromioclavicular joint, where your collar bone meets your shoulder blade.

A wider strap of five centimeters or more won’t pinch your shoulder and will distribute the weight of the bag more evenly.

Choose fabric over leather. Fabric or nylon bags are far lighter than leather. Also, choose a bag with several compartments to distribute the weight of the contents.

Go for the classic look. Metal links, tassels, and buckles just add to the weight of the bag.

Try a backpack. When worn correctly, using both straps, a backpack distributes the weight of the contents. Wear it snugly against your back.

Lighten the load. Your full purse shouldn’t weigh more than 10 percent of your body weight, so if you’re 140 pounds, your bag (and its contents) shouldn’t be more than 14 pounds.

If, after following these steps, you still have numbness or tingling in your hands, if your grip strength is weak, or if your back pain gets worse, it’s time to see a chiropractor, physiotherapist or your doctor, before permanent damage occurs.

Editor’s note: If you suffer from chronic pain and conventional medicine has let you down, or you just want to escape the potential dangers of OTC and prescription drugs even for occasional pain, you must read Conquering the Pain: An Alternative Doctor’s Fresh Look at the Newest and Oldest in Alternative Pain Therapies. Click here for a preview!

Sources:

1. Your Purse Is Too Heavy. Here’s Why You Should Care — Time
2. Gait Changes Caused by the Habits and Methods of Carrying a Handbag — The Journal of Physical Therapy Science
3. Why Your Purse Is Giving You Back Pain… And 11 Ways To Fix It — Huffington Post
4. Heavy-purse syndrome: What your bag’s doing to your back — Chatelaine