Handbags 'among out most costly fashion mistakes'

While many people who lived through the Eighties may cite a bad perm or legwarmers as their worst fashion mistake, most overlook the one that could cause severe health problems in the long run, a chiropractor has claimed.

In an interview with the St Louis Post, Todd Hackney of O'Fallon Chiropractic Clinic in Illinois said that oversized handbags could create a legacy of headaches, as well as back and neck pain and are as bad for the body as walking with only one shoe.

Mr Hackney said that if women must carry handbags, they should stick to three rules.

Firstly, the bag should weigh no more than ten per cent of the carrier's body weight and should preferably be under five pounds.

Secondly, the user should switch arms often to decrease stress on one side of the body.

Finally, the chiropractor said, people should buy smaller bags so they are not as inclined to carry too many possessions.

On average, a woman will carry 5.2 pounds in weight in her handbag, thanks to an increase in gadgets such as mp3 players and laptops.

The expert's advice could be particularly useful in the UK, where NHS Direct reports that back pain is the largest single cause of sickness absence from work.