Your Backpack and Demanding School Curriculum Is Making You Shorter

I remember back when I was in elementary and middle school how the teachers would give us these really thick, heavy textbooks to learn from. It was often neccesary to carry all those books around for convenience reasons so that we don’t become late to a class due to going back to a locker to pick up the books.

The fear in the 4th grade for many people was that they would develop scoliosis and a hunched back from putting so many books in their backpacks. There was always the motherly concern that their son or daughter would have stunted growth from carrying such a heavy backpack in school. Of course those old “wive’s tales” could never be proven to be true.

Well I found evidence that apparently putting such a high load on a growing kids’s back does indeed stunt their growth. As an adult, the same type of load will also make them shorter.

Now I admit that the study showed the children putting a load that was upwards of 50% of their total body weight and the decrease was just 1-2 millimeters, but the effects was that the IVD in the L4-L5 region was consistently squeezed.

That may not be much, but the effects can result in lower back problems later in life which will manifest when the children grow up to their 40s and even as early as 30s. The L4-L5 IVD is the one which is the most commonly ruptured disc when we did research on herniated discs, and bulging discs.

Thank god that the younger kids are moving away from the crazy heavy backpacks and towards tablets and ultra-books which are much easier on the back.

Of course, there is always a net downside. With the increase in kids using more and more computers for learning and less need to use paper books, they may not be developing back problems and become shorter, but their eyes are becoming more and more strained with more problems with mental health due to computer addiction.