Picking her oversized green leather purse up from where it rests in her shopping cart, she admits she welcomes being able to store her carryall in front of her and not on her shoulder as she shops.
“Yes, it's heavy, but it looks cute,” Moore says with a laugh. What does she keep in her purse that weighs her down?
“My phone, my camera ... my wallet and make-up bag,” she says, taking a peek inside. “Oh, and here's a library book. I was wondering where that was.
“I don't even know what all is in here,” she adds.
Initially designed to hold coins and ladies' necessities such as handkerchiefs and calling cards, handbags and pocketbooks have grown in size and price, with some of today's styles resembling small luggage. Studies show that the average woman carries around more than 5 pounds of bag and “necessities,” adding to growing posture problems and damage to spinal cord tissue.
According to the American Chiropractic Association, a pocketbook should weigh less than 10 percent of an individual's body weight — meaning someone who weighs 140 pounds should carry a bag that weighs no more than 14 pounds. Even that, they say, is too much, primarily because the weight isn't evenly distributed.
“Women carrying these heavy bags tend to lean to one side to compensate for the weight,” says Dr. Cate Donaldson of Gentle Chiropractic Wellness Center in Albany and Tifton. She says one of the first things she does when a woman comes in complaining of pain in her back or shoulder is to check
the weight of her pocketbook. More often than not, the
pocketbook is too heavy, she says.
“I tell them, if there's something they need that badly that weighs that much then they should keep it in their car and get it out when they need it,” Donaldson says.
|
