Interesting new info about the danger of bras

[Aziara]

http://www.realfarmacy.com/ladies-its-finally-time-to-take-off-that-bra-for-good/ I very rarely wear one, and now I'm going to be wearing one even less. The thing that got me the most was the fact that women who don't wear a bra at all have the same rates of breast cancer as men!

[Echidna]

actually, I'm not convinced.
we have lymphatic vessels all over our body.
wearing tight pants, then, should totally up our risk for stomach cancer or something.
what kind of cancers would corset-wearing women have had if this were the case?

I'd wager it's not about the "tight fit" blocking the lymph nodes, but about the intake of toxins that our body soaks from textiles worn on the skin- aka, bras, underwear, that sort of thing.

most textiles are made with highly toxic materials, some of which will never wash out.
add deodorants to that, and the constant bombardment with toxins and stuff we breathe in, eat and drink (as it's everywhere now), and it becomes clear why cancer rates are escalating.

toxins will accumulate over time.
radiation adds to that- and today, we have lots more radiation than before the industrialisation (mobile phones probably being the worst contributors).

at any rate, in spite of famine and no medical treatments available, I'd wager people in the middle ages were a whole lot healthier than us nowadays.
and that's just sad.

[ShyMer]

I think I've seen this article before, but this time I decided to follow their sources to see what they had to say.

The first source is actually looking to see if cup size and your dominant hand side has any correlation to breast cancer. It does say in the abstract that they found that premenopausal women who did not wear bras were half as likely to have breast cancer over women who did wear them. They go on to say that women who did not wear bras were generally smaller, so bras aren't the only factor here. They're not really studying the affects of bras and breast cancer here. This is one of the studies shown as proof that bras cause cancer, by the way.

The second source is a article on an English language French news site. It talked about a 15 year study a professor conducted on 330 women to measure the effects of not wearing a bra. I wish they had included a source themselves, because I'm confused a little. He says that someone who has been wearing a bra a long time shouldn't stop wearing one and see the same effects. How long is a long time? At what age did his subjects start the test? Do you have to have small breasts to see improvements on your shape, or did women with large breasts see improvements too? What percentage of women actually saw an improvement?
I could probably look it up later if I feel like it. I guess what I'm feeling is that this isn't detailed enough to be a good source (they're just repeating a few points, not explaining in detail) and the author should have linked to the original study, not some french newspaper that doesn't give much info. Also, this article is not talking about cancer and bras, just whether or not bras are necessary for support.

The third source is a site for information about going bra free- it's biased. Partway down the site, in bolded letters, is a call to boycott Komen and the American Cancer Society until they recognize that tight bras could be contributing to breast cancer. I find that a little strange, personally.
Anyways, they do reference a few studies to support their ideas, and I will probably check up on that later because I'm curious now, but this is a a biased source- they're not looking at multiple factors, they're not looking at both sides of the argument. That doesn't mean it's not a good site to look for information, it just might not be the best source.

The fourth source is information about the lymph system. It looks to be a website for an obgyn practice in Maine that uses alternative and conventional methods, if that's important. There is one sentence where they suggest that tight clothing like bras, jeans and skirts can restrict lymph movement, and they go on to suggest that we should not sleep in a bra and try to go 12 hours a day without one. This might be good advice, but this isn't specifically about bras and breast cancer.


I guess my question would be how many of these women in these studies are wearing properly fitting bras? I saw tight bras being brought up numerous times in the sources as if this was the main issue. I know that before I understood how bra fitting worked, my boobs were always squished into whatever I could find that sorta seemed to fit. It's pretty uncomfortable and wasn't doing anything for my shape. Since I've been fitted, I've been much more comfortable, and I think my shape is better. I also sleep without a bra, so that probably helps.
I also know that many women are not wearing the right size bra (not just the bigger girls like me, either) so I would be interested in knowing what effect a poorly fitting bra has on breast cancer vrs. a properly fitting one. I would also be interested in knowing if chemicals left over from the dyeing process have an effect, like caltuna said.

I don't think that the idea that bras cause cancer should be ignored, I just don't think that this article is very good, and I don't like their sources. I would like to read more about the other studies that have supposedly proven that there is a link.

[Echidna]

there is also a genetic disposition.
it's very common for family members to suffer from the same types of cancer.

in my family, there has never been breast cancer so far, and all female family members have worn bras their whole life.
most of them lived into their 90s, too.

I'd rather like to see a study researching the correlation between amount of fat tissue and cancer, since it's also known that men who develop "man boobs" have breast cancer just like women do, and I doubt those men were ever wearing bras lol.

One could imagine the more fat, the bigger the chance for cysts and stuff to develop, as toxins usually are stored in fat deposits of a body.

Edit: as to the claim that breasts have better ligaments without bras, and don't need support, have a look at pictures from native tribes whose members go mostly unclad about their business.
I doubt you'll find a woman past her twenties among them with breasts that do not droop to her knees.
So much for "bras don't give support they're unneeded"

[MerEmma]

I think this thread needs this article--covering native tribes' breasts & the topic of bras causing sagging: http://www.thelingerieaddict.com/2013/11/last-time-tribal-african-women-proof-bras-prevent-breast-sagging.html :P

[Mermaid Galene]

Well, I haven't worn a bra regularly since high school, and I am 59. Are my breasts are perky as they were when I was 20? No, but I'm not stepping on them, either. ;-) I honestly think being braless for decades has done them no harm at all. (But then, they've never been very large, either.)

[PearlieMae]

Same here...I've avoided bras as much as I can and wear simple stretchy soft bras when I do. Then again, I've never been more than a B cup. Ann Landers once said that the indicator of whether or not you should wear a bra was that if you could hold a pencil under your breast, you should wear one. Suffice it to say, if I want to hold a pencil, I have to put it behind my ear...and I'm 54!

[Mermaid Wesley]

I could hold a pack of pencils and I'm 19. They are just so big! If i dont wear a bra I actually get acne under my boobs and they start hurting after about 2 days. Boooooobsss.

[ShyMer]

I'd rather like to see a study researching the correlation between amount of fat tissue and cancer, since it's also known that men who develop "man boobs" have breast cancer just like women do, and I doubt those men were ever wearing bras lol.

One could imagine the more fat, the bigger the chance for cysts and stuff to develop, as toxins usually are stored in fat deposits of a body.

I think that's what the first source is talking about, though I think I remember from the abstract that they didn't see a correlation between amount of fat tissue and cancer until postmenopause. I don't think they studied men at all. Still, I didn't read the actual document, only the abstract.
It makes sense. I would also like to read more on the subject.

I'm kinda annoyed that the lingerie addict article was saying you're racist if you consider the native tribes' breasts+ no bra thing. I guess she's targeting the attitude of eww, their breasts are saggy and they wear no bras, I'll be sure to wear my bra today. I hoped the author would say something about how many of these women have perkier breasts versus saggier breasts, but maybe that information isn't available. I guess I don't like being dismissed over what I feel like is an innocent observation (for some people anyway.)
I do like that she brought up that there are factors unaccounted for, like pregnancies.
Other than that one point I'm going to be fussy about, nice post, Emma.

Man, I envy you ladies who can get away with not wearing a bra if you want. I will say though, I rather like my lacy bras <3

[Echidna]

well, I disliked that article as it was just a rant about how racist, supremacist, european-centrist, etc, bras are (lolwut).
You also don't need to be an ethnicist (or rocket scientist) to conclude that without support, heavier breasts DO sag, especially when physically active.

the whining about "forcing western beauty standards on different cultures" reminded me of an interesting detail though.
In wide parts of Asia, large breasts are not considered pretty nor desirable (even though few women there do have anything what westerners would consider "large").

Especially when doing physical labour, the women would wear a breast-band that supported the breasts to prevent strain on the tissue and sagging.
It was very tight and not only held the breasts close to the body, it often was bound to make the breasts smaller or nearly invisible.
So, if tight clothing were to blame for cancer, all those women would have been candidates.

Thus, I'm pretty sure it's toxins in underwear (formaldehyde, dioxin).
Dioxin is also in tampons and other hygienic products...
and sure enough, since asian women have adopted the western fashion, clothes and lifestyle, cancer starts to prop up there as well.

[Mermaid Galene]

That's a very good point, Caltuna. Most modern industrialized countries are absolutely saturated in chemical toxins. One of the worst offenders is plastics - all plastics. A recent independent study group tested a huge sample of plastic containers - food tubs, water bottles, plastic wraps and bags - and all of them leached significant quantities of estrogenic chemicals. These chemicals have been linked to cancer and a host of other problems. If the materials that go into bras leach chemicals, over a long period of time there might be detrimental effects on health.

[Echidna]

urg, plastics.
there's almost no way to avoid them :(

we buy water in plastic bottles, which is probably not the best, but it's still better than using tap water which contains ALL the hormones, drugs, and stuff that people take or shower with (including nano plastics, nurdles) because it can't be filtered out yet :thumbdown:

and all of that adds up over the years.

[Mermaid Galene]

Yes, we have a well, and that water is pretty much liquid chalk, so we've been buying bottle water for 8 years. But the 3 gallon bottles we buy are made of one of the worst kinds of plastic. After reading about that study, I decided to try and remove plastic from our food and water supply as much as possible. We switched from plastic wraps and bags to parchment paper, and from plastic food tubs to glass. And now we filter our bottled water through a stainless steel filter. Amazingly, after two weeks of these changes, my weekly migraines decreased dramatically. I subsequently had 3 weeks and then 2 weeks with no migraines at all, which is practically unheard of in my 27 year battle with migraines!

[Echidna]

I have frequent migraines as well.
Definitely trying this to see whether it gets a bit better!