Borrowed
from
www.susunweed.com
A few highlights of the history of research on bras and
breast disease:
1. In the 1930s a paper was published
making a connection between corsets and
increased breast
cancer rates.
2. 1978 An M.D. in California
pubished an article in a medical journal
linking bras with elevated breast temperature, and he
suggested that this might have a connection
with breast cancer. He
studied several hundred women in a medical
practice and 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.
3. 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 "Breast
size, handedness and breast cancer risk")
4. 1991 Researchers in Japan pubished
a study on
bras and sagging, in which they proved 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. ("Breast Form Changes Resulting
From A Certain Brassiere" Journal of Hum.
Ergol.(Tokyo) 1990 Jun; 19(1):53-62.
Ashizawa K, Sugane A, Gunji T Institute of
Human Living Sciences, Otsuma Women's
University, Tokyo, Japan)
5. 1995 Sydney Singer and Soma
Grismaijer of the Institute for the Study of
Culturogenic Disease published 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. They found that the more
hours per day that a bra is worn, the higher the
rate of breast
cancer and that
women who do not wear bras have a
dramatically reduced rate of breast cancer. Singer
and Grismaijer havea website at: http://www.selfstudycenter.org/
6. 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
7. 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. (Lancet 1999 May
22;353(9166):1742-5 "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.")
8. 2000. Two British breast surgeons conduct clinical trials
at two breast clinics in England and Wales. They
study 100 women to see if going brafree
(a more positive term the physicians used
for braless) 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.
9. 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 2000
Nov;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
2000 Apr;15(2):637-47). Recent research (J.
Hansen, "Light at Night, Shiftwork, and Breast Cancer Risk" 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.
10. December 2000. A medical doctor published
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 2000
Dec;16(4):298-303, "Pectoral girdle myalgia in
women: a 5-year study in a clinical setting.")
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