informative

Its that time of year again; the mornings are cooler, the days are shorter and kids are trotting back to school backpacks and all. And for many of us adults, although school has been out for some time, our morning commutes also require some form of a backpack to tote our work items to and fro. Unfortunately, the adult versions of backpacks are not so ergonomically friendly as the one for the kids.
There are key items to look for when choosing a backpack:
 1) light weight material
2) two wide padded shoulder straps
3) padded back support
4) waist support
5) and numerous compartments.
When all these factors are put together, the child is less likely to have issues with poor posture when carrying the backpack, better circulation and less nerve interference at the shoulder level, and decrease the risk of falling with an evenly placed load. BOTH straps need to be used, no matter what the ‘cool’ kids are doing!!
You also want to make sure the child is only carrying necessary items in the backpack and/or only bringing homework home that is due the next day. No more then 10-15% of the child’s body weight should be carried in the backpack. Carrying excessively heavy backpacks may increase the risk of injury to the spine, including misalignments of the vertebra in the spine leading to back, neck and shoulder pains.
These tips also need to be applied to what you are using to tote your work related items to and from work. You want to make sure that your bag is light weight, has two straps, some form of additional support and multiple compartments to disperse the bag’s load.
Now, I am aware that there are not too many professional style backpacks and that messenger bags and large hand bags are the usual ways to carry our stuff. Continually using only one shoulder or side to carry our bags on will cause us to lean to the opposite side to offset the weight, putting a compression-like pressure on our lower back and middle back regions. As the old adage says, "as the twig is bent so grows the tree". The way that I myself off set this imbalance is by carrying the bag on the left side to work and the right on the way home. Although the postural woe is still there, at least there is an attempt to even it out.
Another item to focus in on the work bag is what we REALLY need for work each day and also in our handbags in general. By eliminating excess weight from the bag, there is less struggle to pick up and bag, decrease load on the back/shoulder, and less leaning to offset the weight of the bag.
There are alternatives to the large handbag or messenger bag that includes the rolling bag and a smaller more sophisticated backpack style bag that can help minimize the likelihood of back pain associated with carrying items to work and/or school. For more information on this topic, please check out our website www.chicagochiropracticcenteronline.com, the Back Pack Safety of America Inc., and the website www.lessontutor.com.
 
Best of Health, Dr. Renee Zimmerman, D.C.