How Bras Are Linked To breast Cancer

[Guest guest]

Information and Resources for Better Health through Bra-free Living

 

 

Remember when you were told tobacco was safe? Remember when you were

told fast foods were healthy? Have you been told bras are good for

you? Well, it seems the truth is out there, and it's something we all

need to hear.

 

http://www.007b.com/bras_breast_cancer.php

 

The number 007 is normally connected with the thought of intelligence

work and spies. Here at 007b.com the " B " doesn't stand for " Bond " but

for Breasts. Our goal is to get people to use their intelligence, so

as not to fall prey to the typical " 007 James Bond " type of thinking,

which is so prevalent in many countries of our world today. A 47 year

old woman who suffered from childhood sexual abuse and debilitating

chronic illness in adulthood commented, " If you live long enough, you

will be sick or something will be wrong with you. You'll lose a job.

You'll have a serious accident. You'll get sick. You'll gain weight.

How do we deal with this in a culture that worships perfection and

youth? "

 

How Bras Are Linked To Breast Cancer

Many allopathic medicine advocates say that bras causing breast

cancer is just a myth. It is true that bras do not cause breast per

se, but they are linked to its formation since they can prevent your

body from excreting dangerous cancer-causing chemicals. The main

reason why bras are bad for breast health is because they restrict

the lymph flow in your breasts. There are numerous lymph pathways and

lymph nodes in the armpits, under the breasts, and in between the

breasts. Normally the lymph fluid washes out waste materials and

other toxins away from the breasts, but bras (and especially push-up

bras) inhibit this action, so toxins can start to accumulate in the

breast, and that can help cancer to develop. In other words, bras

inhibit the way our bodies normally cleanse themselves and get rid of

cancer cells and toxins like PCBs, DDT, dioxin, benzene and other

carcinogenic chemicals that cling to the body's fatty tissues like

breast. In fact, if you find a lump in your breast, it may very well

be filled with lymph fluid that was not able to move away from the

breast tissue.

 

Bra wearing may also be connected to cancer in other ways. Wearing

bras slightly increases the temperature of the breast tissue, and

women who wear bras have higher levels of the hormone prolactin. Both

of these may influence breast cancer formation. The first

comprehensive study on this subject was done by medical researcher

Sydney Singer, after his wife Soma Grismaijer discovered a lump on

her breast. She got rid of hers in two months by quitting bra

wearing, doing regular breast massage and exercise, drinking only

purified water and taking some herbs and supplemental vitamins and

minerals.

 

Singers noticed that the Maoris of New Zealand integrated into white

culture have the same rate of breast cancer, while the marginalized

aboriginals of Australia have practically no breast cancer. The same

was true for " Westernized " Japanese, Fijians and other bra-converted

cultures. In the early 1990s Singers studied 4,500 women in 5 cities

across the U.S. about their habits in purchasing and wearing bras.

Though his study did not take into account other lifestyle factors,

the results are too striking to be denied:

 

3 out of 4 women who wore their bras 24 hours per day developed

breast cancer.

 

1 out of 7 women who wore bras more than 12 hour per day but not to

bed developed breast cancer.

 

1 out of 152 women who wore their bras less than 12 hours per day got

breast cancer.

 

1 out of 168 women who wore bras rarely or never acquired breast

cancer.

So the difference between 24 hour wearing and not at all was 125-

fold! The lymphatic system in the breast only develops fully during

pregnancy and breastfeeding, so women who wear bras everyday and

postpone having children, and those who do not breastfeed, could be

at higher risk of breast cancer.

 

http://www.femail.com.au/bra.htm

Women Evolved Bra-free

by Mavis Davis

Did you know that in Sub-Saharan Africa, the death rate from breast

cancer is 3 per 100,000, compared to 20 per 100,000 in industrialized

countries? Guess which part of the world wears bras? " Breasts don't

need support to be held up in the air. That's not what thousands of

years of evolution did to the female body, " says Sidney Ross Singer,

medical anthropologist in Why Bras Cause Breast Cancer.

 

The lymphatic system consists of tiny, thin-walled vessels that drain

from the breast tissue, removing toxins, cell debris, cancer cells

and other products. Unlike arteries and veins, these vessels have no

internal pressure and are therefore easily compressed. Bras subject

breasts to pressure, closing off the lymphatic pathway from the

breast to the nodes. This causes fluid build-up, swelling, tenderness

and cyst formation. A bra-constricted breast cannot adequately flush

out toxins, resulting in toxin accumulation in the breast that

increases the chance of breast cancer.

 

Lymphatic circulation in many tissues is highly dependent on

movement. Women evolved under conditions where there was breast

movement with every step they took when they walked or ran. Every

subtle bounce of the breast while moving, walking, running, etc.,

gently massages the breast and increases lymphatic flow and thus

cleans the breast of toxins and wastes that arise from cellular

metabolism.

 

When you sit for a long time on an airplane flight, your feet and

ankles can swell because lymphatic circulation goes to near zero.

Wearing a bra, especially a constricting one with underwires, and

especially to bed, prevents normal lymphatic flow and would likely

lead to anoxia (lower than normal oxygen content), which has been

related to fibrosis, which has been linked to increased cancer risk.

 

http://www.brafree.org

This web site isn't about women's liberation. It's about liberating

women. We're not anti-bra. We're pro-breast. We believe healthy

breasts can support themselves, free of wires and hardware. We

believe there are no known health benefits from wearing bras — but

there are disturbing parallels between wearing bras and the incidence

of fibrocystic disease and breast cancer.

 

— From the website of Dr. Elizabeth Vaughan, MD, bra-free, board

certified physician in Greensboro, NC

 

What to Wear

from Elizabeth Vaughan, MD

In Western society, we've settled on the bra as a way to shield

irrationally-sensitive observers from nipple phobia. That phobia is

theirs, not yours. If you trash your bra, you may have to find

another way to hide your God-given assets, so as not to offend the

easily offended.

 

Try camisoles. A camisole under a sweater will hide all but the most

aggressive nipples.

 

If you're going for one layer of cloth only, try breathable surgical

tape. Put a small patch on each nipple. To avoid skin irritation, put

the tape on vertically one day, horizontally the next. Brands include

Dermaform, Dermalight, Medipore Soft Cloth Surgical Tape, and Cover-

Roll stretch by Beiersdorf AG.

 

Often, I wear a camisole with an over-blouse, a long-sleeved shirt

that gives me a loose second layer.

 

Obviously, a suit jacket solves all problems.

 

A thick sweater, perhaps with a loose camisole underneath to prevent

scratching, also works.

 

And there are bras that are less restrictive. They've available. One

brand name that many women like is Barely There.

 

Be creative. Throw a scarf around your neck and drape it over your

chest. Wear a shirt with pockets.

 

Many women feel more comfortable wearing bras in public because they

either minimize or accentuate their breasts with bras. Worst case, if

you're in a situation where only a bra will do, then wear one if that

makes you comfortable. But, you make that decision. Don't let someone

else make it for you. And, the very minute the event is over, get

that bra off. Bras are not good for breasts.

 

Quotes from Elizabeth

" Healthy breasts don't need support. Noses don't, either. Or ears. Or

arms. If you put your left arm in a sling for six weeks, on the first

morning of the seventh week, you'd need `support' for that arm,

because it would have lost all muscle tone. "

 

" In exploring the possibility that bras relate to breast cancer, we

are about where we were in the 1950s with respect to cigarettes

causing lung cancer. Doctors began to see men present with lung

cancer who had a long history of smoking. It took 20-30 years

to " prove " the connection and 40 years to prove causation. Many

physicians — perhaps most physicians — and the American Cancer

Society assert that no link has been positively demonstrated between

bras and breast cancer. But, then, we waited 50 years for someone to

demonstrate a positive link between cigarettes and lung cancer. "

 

" Nipples scare insecure people, but they don't scare babies! "

 

Bra/Disease Research Timeline

A few highlights of the history of research on bras and breast

disease

Around 1930. A paper is published making a connection between corsets

and increased breast cancer rates.

 

1978. An M.D. in California publishes an article in a medical journal

linking bras with elevated breast temperature and suggests that this

might have a connection with breast cancer. After studying several

hundred women in a medical practice, he also observed that the

heavier the bra material, the hotter the breast, and that bra-free

women of all sizes had cooler breasts. (The Lancet, November 4, 1978,

P. 1001 Dr. John M. Douglass, Department of Internal Medicine, S.

Calif. Permanente Med. Center Los Angeles, California). See also item

#8 for more about breast temperature.

 

1991. Researchers at Harvard University publish a medical journal

article on breast cancer risk. As a side issue of their paper, they

mention that the women in their study that did not wear bras had a

60% lower rate of breast cancer than the women who wore bras. (Hsieh,

C.C. and D. Trichopoulos, D. Eur. J. Cancer 27:131-5, 1991.

& ldqou;Breast size, handedness and breast cancer risk " )

 

1991. Researchers in Japan publish a study on bras and sagging, in

which they prove that a bra can actually increase breast sagging,

rather than the opposite. This effect was most noticeable in larger

breasted women. They compared bras to foot binding in their

discussion section. ( & ldqou;Breast Form Changes Resulting From A

Certain Brassiere " Journal of Hum. Ergol. (Tokyo). Jun, 1990; 19

(1):53-62. Ashizawa K, Sugane A, Gunji T. Institute of Human Living

Sciences, Otsuma Women's University, Tokyo, Japan)

 

1995. Sydney Singer and Soma Grismaijer of the Institute for the

Study of Culturogenic Disease publish their book Dressed to Kill: The

Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras, Avery Press. Their study

included almost 4600 women, half of whom had breast cancer and half

of whom did not. (In their study n=2056 for the cancer group and

n=2674 for the standard group). What Singer and Grismaijer found was

that the odds of getting breast cancer dramatically increased with

bra-wearing over 12 hours per day. The Singer and Grismaijer website

is http://www.selfstudycenter.org.

 

1995 through the present. Many women who had concerns about breast

cancer risk and/or breast pain, quit wearing bras and then found that

their pain and cysts of fibrocystic breast disease was dramatically

decreased or eliminated. Several of these women wrote their own

personal case histories, which appear on the web at http://www.all-

natural.com/fibrocys.html

 

May 1999. A landmark study was published in the prestigious British

medical journal The Lancet. This study showed that pre-menopausal

women with fibrocystic breast disease have an almost 6-fold higher

risk of future breast cancer. This study firmly refutes the advice of

some doctors who have said that fibrocystic carries no increased

risk. In all, there are now over 30 published medical and scientific

research articles showing a connection between fibrocystic and

increased breast cancer risk. (The Lancet. May 22, 1999; 353

(9166):1742-5. & ldqou;Risk of breast cancer in women with palpable

breast cysts: a prospective study. " Edinburgh Breast Group. Dixon JM,

McDonald C, Elton RA, Miller WR. Edinburgh Breast Unit, Western

General Hospital, UK.)

 

2000. Two British breast surgeons conduct clinical trials at two

breast clinics in England and Wales. They study 100 women to see if

going bra-free (a more positive term the physicians used for bra-

less) could lessen breast pain. Their study concluded that the

majority of pre-menopausal women found decreased pain during a three-

month bra-free study period. The women were instructed to not wear a

bra for three months, and instead to wear a loose and non-restricting

camisole if they desired an alternative undergarment. For comparison,

they then returned to wearing bras for the another three months. For

additional study control, another group of women did the reverse and

were bra-wearers for three months, then bra-free for three months. A

half-hour documentary was filmed in conjunction with the studies and

was shown on nationwide television in England in November, 2000 on

Channel 4 UK. Several of the women were interviewed and discussed the

life-altering improvements in their breast health, such as being able

to now pick up their children or hug their spouse without pain.

(Simon Cawthorne, M.D., surgeon at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol,

England and Prof. Robert Mansel, M.D., Surgery Dept. Head, University

of Wales Medical School, Cardif, Wales.)

 

Doctors interviewed in the film commented about how breasts in bras

are hotter than bra-free breasts and the possible connection of this

breast heating with breast cancer. Prof. Hugh Simpson discussed his

published research, which has previously proven that pre-cancerous

and cancerous breasts are both hotter than normal breasts. The

documentary included video thermography of women with and without

bras, proving that bras cause localized heating of breast tissue.

 

2000. A group of researchers in Japan published their studies showing

that wearing a girdle and bra lowers the levels of the hormone

melatonin by 60 percent. (Chronobiol Int., Nov 2000;17(6):783-

93. " The effects of skin pressure by clothing on circadian rhythms of

core temperature and salivary melatonin. " Lee YA, Hyun KJ, Tokura H,

Department of Environmental Health, Nara Women's University, Japan.)

 

Melatonin is intimately involved with sleep cycles and is used to

prevent jet-lag. Numerous published studies have suggested that

melatonin has anti-cancer activities, that it is an antioxidant and

can prevent DNA damage, and that it is intimately involved in the

immune system and can bind directly to T helper cells. Researchers in

Spain have published an article outlining the possible use of

melatonin in breast cancer prevention and treatment (Histol

Histopathol, Apr 2000; 15(2):637-47).

 

Recent research (J. Hansen, " Light at Night, Shiftwork, and Breast

Cancer Risk.%rdquo; J Natl Cancer Inst. 2001; 93: 1513-1515) has

shown that nighttime exposure to light is associated with increased

rates of breast cancer. This builds upon previous research that

showed that light at night suppresses melatonin production.

 

December 2000. A medical doctor publishes his findings on shoulder

pain treatment in women with large breasts. In this five-year study,

it was suggested that patients remove the weight from their shoulders

for a period of two weeks, either by going braless or by wearing a

strapless bra. Only one woman chose a strapless bra and all the

others went braless. Quoting the article, " Long-term outcome was

presence or absence of muscle pain and tenderness. Seventy-nine

percent of patients decided to remove breast weight from the shoulder

permanently because it rendered them symptom free. " (Ryan, EL, Clin J

Pain. Dec 2000;16(4):298-303, " Pectoral girdle myalgia in women: a 5-

year study in a clinical setting. " )