Health News / March 2007
In the Bag
Fashion isn’t for sissies. Policemen learn early in their careers that a woman and her handbag are never parted willingly. Women have chased muggers through moving traffic to recover their purse and the suspect who suggests that a women “must have just left her purse” in his car, is always the one that gets busted. But, the diminutive drawstring bags of the 1900’s and the slim petite pocket books that Jackie O. tucked under her arm have been supplanted by increasingly heavy, increasingly large, increasingly complicated bags that are as burdensome as they are fashionable. Once the neat depository of a lipstick, a compact and the carkeys, handbags have become ever more voluminous, and women fill them with necessities.
Women really love those bags. So much that it hurts.
Reports of shoulder soreness and stiff necks are on the rise and doctors, massage therapists and chiropractors are tailoring treatments for the bag-obsessed.
Medical practitioners are seeing the same kinds of issues with adult women that they had become accustomed to seeing with kids who carry heavy backpacks on one shoulder. According to Karen Erickson, a chiropractor who is also a spokeswoman for the American Chiropractic Association, “They’re experiencing neck pain-not just while they’re carrying their purses, but all the time. A lot of women even get bad headaches. Lately, when a patient comes in complaining of these symptoms, I walk over and pick up her purse. Without fail, it weighs a ton.”
The holidays simply exacerbated the problem for most women, who were carrying more and more in their already huge bags and then received new, even bigger bags as gifts.
Massage therapists say they are busier than ever and big bags are the reason. Old and new clients come to their offices staggering under the weight of huge purses, complaining of neck pain.
A common side effect of the handbag handicap is that one shoulder becomes slightly higher than the other. Many women also talk on their cell phones while they’re carrying their bags, which only intensifies the problem, because in addition to balancing too much weight on one side, they’re lifting their shoulder at the same time.
Women who turn to chiropractors and sports medicine clinics are often prescribed weekly massages for the pain. Gentle stretching and warm baths with Epsom salts can help big baggers.
Telling women to ditch their designer handbags has not been successful, and most practitioners, have given up trying to convince their clients to give up their fashion sense for common sense.
They admit it is just as unrealistic as telling women to quit wearing high heels.
So, some doctors and therapists just advise patients to clean out their purses once a week, and to use all the pockets so that the weight is dispensed evenly within the bag.
At the end of the day, they say, handbags have been one of the biggest culprits for back pain this past year. Patients come in with giant purses and complaints of soreness, and until the big bag trend goes out of style, they can only sympathize and treat the symptoms.
Local spas report an increase in massage clients with bag-induced back pain. Many women have found relief in the deep tissue treatments of a sports massage. Some, have even required cortisone treatments to alleviate the problem.
For years, women complained that designer bags were too small to hold anything. Designers finally listened. Yves Saint Laurent, Prada, Tod’s, Chanel and Hermès all carry mini, regular and oversize versions of the same bag. But, oversize bags are carrying the day, along with everything a woman might need to get through the day. By next season, perhaps bags will come with wheels or, better yet, caddies.
Copyright © 2007 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
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