Awful News for Everyone who Carried a Heavy Backpack in School: It Made Us Shrink

Mic.com—October 19, 2015

Mic.com looks at a study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) that found that the constant weight of a backpack on children was causing spinal cords to compress and cause significant back pain.

"Schoolchildren these days are carrying these huge backpacks with around 40 to 60 pounds of weight," said Dr. Harvinder Sandhu, orthopedic spine surgeon at HSS. This can be nearly 40% of your body weight if you are a high school student, which is twice what the study estimated as fit for testing. "One of the best things ever created, in my mind, are rolling bags."

"I frequently see people going back to work and delaying their recovery by carrying heavy bags," Dr. Robert Marx, sports medicine surgeon at HSS, told Mic.com. "It can cause the operated knee to swell or become sore and make physical therapy more challenging."

Read the full article at Mic.com.