During the day many women are fantasizing about what they are going to do as soon as they get home. They are going to reach their hands up and under their shirts, and grab onto their… bra clasps! And rip their bras off! Letting their breasts be free! Unrestricted and able move around, jiggle and wiggle freely. This is such an amazing feeling of freedom, but it kind of makes me wonder, if bras are so uncomfortable, why do so many women wear them so often? Is this feeling of discomfort that results from wearing these restricting bras a sign from our bodies that we have been ignoring?
According to the American Cancer Society, there is absolutely no evidence that leads to the correlation between wearing a bra and contracting breast cancer. The apparent reasoning behind this is that there have been no conclusive studies done to show that there is a link, they themselves have not conducted studies to disprove this. However there have been several studies done that do show a correlation between wearing bras and the development of breast cancer. In the 1930’s there was “no link” that proved that cigarettes caused lung cancer either, in fact, doctors were still promoting cigarette smoking in the 1950’s. It wasn’t until 1964 when the American Cancer Society finally mentioned that there was a direct link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. If they would have found out the link to cigarettes and cancer sooner, just think of all the money that would not have been made for the sale of cigarettes -and the treatment of cancer. Perhaps someday in the future, this will be the story of the bra, and people will say “I can’t believe they didn’t realize that there was a link between wearing bras and breast cancer!’
Another noteworthy piece of information is that much like the cancer industry, there is a huge bra industry as well. When you think about how many bras each woman is buying every year, this is a multi-billion dollar industry in the US alone.
Right now, we do not know for sure that wearing bras causes cancer, but at least we can look at some of the evidence, and from there make an informed decision for ourselves.
Evidence To Support The Claim
Wearing a bra can restrict the extremely thin lymphatic vessels, by compressing the vessels, which then can lead to a build up of toxic fluid, which would otherwise be drained through this system. When these vessels are closed there is less oxygen and nutrients delivered to the cells while toxic waste materials are not being flushed away. Is it possible that this build up of toxins is linked to fibrocystic cysts? Fibrocystic cysts are fluid filled sacks that can appear as hard lumps in the breasts, medical research connects these cysts with increased risk of breast cancer.
In a study that was conducted by Syd and Soma Singer in May of 1991, 4000 women in 5 major U.S. cities were interviewed. All of the women who were studied were of Caucasian descent and mostly of “medium income,” their age ranged from 30 to 79, almost half had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The majority of the women who were interviewed said that they were unhappy with the shape and size of their breasts and wore a bra for appearance only. 3 out of 4 of these women who wore their bras to sleep contracted breast cancer, and 1 in 7 women who wore their bras for more than 12 hours a day did too. This study concluded that just 1 in 168 women who did not wear a bra contracted breast cancer, which is the same amount as men (who do not wear a bra. :P)
While keeping this in mind, what can you do to potentially minimize your risk of developing breast cancer?
Minimize Your Risk
For me personally, on a day-to-day basis I do not wear a bra. I haven’t for about 4 years now. However, I will wear one for certain occasions and depending on what I am wearing, but this is very minimal. Up until about a year ago I had no idea of this potential link to breast cancer, but I stopped wearing one for the mere fact that it was extremely uncomfortable. I know a lot of women with big breasts are thinking that this just isn’t possible for them, but did you know that when you wear a bra all the time you are actually weakening the ligaments of the breasts? If you keep your breasts free of support for a period of time, these ligaments will grow stronger and then your breasts will support themselves a bit better. A French study done by Professor Jean-Denis Roullion used calipers to measure changes in the breasts of 330 women over a 15-year period. He found that bras didn’t do anything that they were purported to do, and they didn’t alleviate back-pain, but rather intensified it! Also, they didn’t do anything to prevent breast tissue from sagging. In his opinion the bra is a “false need.” The findings of the study suggest that breasts would gain more tone and support themselves if no bra were used because as researchers explain, bras limit the growth of supporting breast tissue leaving the breast to wither and degrade quicker. Further, the study found that women who took off their bras experience an average of 7mm lift in their nipples from each year they didn’t wear a bra- amazing! An important thing to note is that Roullion suggests that if you are over the age of 45 not wearing a bra would do very little, if anything to lift the breasts.
I do think that a huge reason why women wear bras is because of what society tells us that our breasts should look like. If they are small, we should wear really tight push up bras, if they are too big, we should wear really tight bras to make them appear smaller and less saggy. There are plenty of women whose breasts are so small that they wear a bra for literally no reason, but only to make it appear as if they had larger breasts, if only they knew the risk they were taking, all for aesthetic purposes only. In societies eye, all breasts should be completely round and perky, but lets face it, for those women who still have natural breasts, this isn’t very likely. As of late, more and more people are adopting more natural habits and practices and before we know it, natural shapely breasts will be back in style!
If you must wear a bra, consider ones with no underwire and aren’t too tight. Try to wear the bra for as short of a time as possible, and give your breasts a good rub and massage after they’ve been released! By no means should you ever be sleeping in your bra. If you are worried about your nipples showing, maybe consider wearing a camisole under your shirt, but even if they do show, it’s not the end of the world.
Sources
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1827274
http://www.connexionfrance.com/Bra-support-damage-professor-Rouillon-back-pain-nipple-14626-view-article.html
http://www.brafree.org/bra_free.html
https://www.womentowomen.com/detoxification/the-lymph-system-and-your-health-2/2/
http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/breast-cancer-bras-lymph-nodes.html
http://chealth.canoe.ca/channel_condition_info_details.asp?disease_id=245&channel_id=136&relation_id=1578
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