A sports medicine physician suggests that carrying a heavy purse is the number one culprit when it comes to neck pain, spasms, and headaches among women.

“Even though it may seem like a pretty benign activity, it can actually cause a lot of musculoskeletal issues. The most common ones that I’ll see are neck and back pain. Basically, when there’s an asymmetric load, it changes our gait, it causes overcompensation on the other side,” says Dr Jocelyn Szeto, from Memorial Hermann IRONMAN Sports Medicine Institute/UT Health, in a news story from Click2Houston.

She adds that if women don’t change their habits, they run the risk of developing chronic arthritis in their necks.

To combat the risk of heavy purses, she suggests that women regularly switch shoulders upon which they carry their bags, consider cross-body bags or backpacks to disperse the weight, and keep bags no heavier than 5% to 10% of their body weight.

She also recommends than men switch the pockets where they carry their wallets.

[Source: Click2Houston]