Going braless will lower breast cancer risk dramatically, says a medical anthropologist. There’s now enough information on bras and breast cancer to startle any woman. The bras and breast cancer link theory can’t be ignored. The bras and breast cancer link is no longer mythical. To uncover how a bra can lead to breast cancer, I interviewed Sidney Ross Singer, a medical anthropologist, director of the Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Disease, and co-author of “Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras.”
After reading his information on bras and breast cancer here, you will have enough knowledge about breast cancer and bras to lose some sleep wondering about your own bra wearing and breast health. I first asked how Singer arrived at a link between bras and breast cancer.
Singer: We were in Fiji doing research unrelated to breast cancer when Soma (Singer’s wife) discovered a lump in her breast. We returned to the U.S. After the long flight she took off her bra, and suddenly realized that she had red marks and indentations around her breasts left by the bra. These marks and indentations, which she frequently had but ignored over the years, now were seen for what they were — signs of constriction.
And the first thing that gets constricted is the lymphatic system, since its tiny lymphatic vessels are known to be easily compressed. Since the lymphatic system is responsible for removing toxins from the tissues, preventing this disposal by compression from the bra could cause accumulation of toxins within the breast tissue. It would also result in fluid accumulation, or edema, and lymph blockage is known to cause some types of cancer.
Explain lymphedema more.
Singer: This is why so many women have fluid-filled cysts, pain and tenderness in their breasts. The bra is causing a backup of lymph. This results in tissue degeneration, as the cells sit in their own waste. The oxygen level gets dangerously low. Since cells need oxygen to function properly, this lowers all cellular functions. Tissue damage is the known result of lymphedema.
Because the lymphatics cannot remove toxins from the breast issue effectively due to the bra-caused constriction, the tissue accumulates these toxins. By toxins, we are referring to cancer causing chemicals that pollute our air, food, and water. These chemicals course throughout the body and are delivered to the breast tissue by the bloodstream. It is then the job of the lymphatics to remove them from the tissue. However, impaired by the bra, the breast lymphatics are not up to the task, and the cancer causing toxins stay in the breast tissue.
Is there research backing up the connection between lymphedema and cancer?
Lymphangiosarcoma is a recognized cancer outcome of lymphedema. For example, see Rev Med Suisse. 2007 Dec 5;3(136):2802-5.
For an excellent presentation, see Lymph-Stasis The Precursor of Cancer, by Dr. W. Sampson Handley, M.S., F.R.C.S., in the November 1929 Journal of the Canadian Medical Association. (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=381504)
For a more recent medical discussion, see the article, Cancer…Does It Begin with Lymph Congestion?
(http://www.worldhealth.net/news/cancer_does_it_begin_with_lymph_congesti)
Explain your research.
We conducted our 1991-93 Bra and Breast Cancer Study looking at the bra wearing habits and attitudes of over 4,700 women in the U.S., about half of whom had had breast cancer. After that, we returned to Fiji to do a follow-up study in a culture where half the women are bra-free, and discovered that, given women from the same village, with the same genetic background and diet and environment, the women who had to wear bras for work were the ones getting breast cancer. We found 24 case histories of breast cancer and all were in bra wearing women. Breast cancer, in fact, was unheard of in Fiji before Western fashions brought the bra.
Also of interest is that the native women of New Zealand, the Maori, are completely westernized in their dress style, including wearing bras, and these women have the same high breast cancer rates as white New Zealand women. However, the Aborigines of Australia are not as westernized, do not wear bras, and have no breast cancer.
International statistics show that breast cancer is only a problem in cultures where there are bras.
Any statistics on American women who don’t wear bras and breast cancer incidence?
The bra/cancer issue is being ignored and suppressed by the medical industry, so these statistics are not yet known.
This makes me think of the tobacco industry. It took decades for the medical profession to finally realize the connection between smoking and lung cancer. The tobacco industry still tries to suppress facts and denies any link between smoking and lung cancer. So it makes sense that the bra and breast cancer idea — only in its infancy — is being criticized. But what’s keeping research into bras and breast cancer suppressed?
Breast cancer detection and treatment is a huge income producer for the cancer industry. Billions of dollars are made each year by this industry.
The prevention of this disease, especially without drugs or surgery, would be a financial catastrophe for this industry. This is why the link between breast cancer and bras is being suppressed and censored by the ACS. Not only is there no profit in telling women to stop wearing tight bras to prevent this disease, it also is an embarrassment to the cancer research and treatment industry.
Admitting the bra/cancer connection invalidates most breast cancer research for ignoring the most important factor affecting breast health and disease. It’s like studying foot disease and ignoring shoes. This is why, despite billions in research and decades of studies, the “experts” still say they don’t know what’s causing 70% of breast cancer cases. The bra explains that other 70%.
I still don’t understand why well-meaning researchers and physicians wouldn’t want to explore every possibility.
The bra/cancer link challenges the current theory and practice of breast cancer experts, who feel threatened by this challenge to their authority. Their instinctive response is to deny, even to themselves, that the new information could have any possible merit. It took 30 years for experts to open their minds to the smoking/lung cancer link, so we probably have another 18 years for them to accept the bra/cancer link.
But WHO or WHAT is stopping the research?
Researchers have personally told me they do not want to be blacklisted and lose drug money funding as a result of looking into the bra/cancer link. Government funding sources are also controlled by drug companies. And the bra industry is fearful of class action lawsuits.
Given the high stakes and resistance, researchers are afraid to enter the fray. And since nobody makes money by women going bra-free to prevent breast cancer, there is no financial incentive to further research.
I feel certain that the bra industry, which has reacted sharply and defensively to our research, has conducted their own research to see if we are right, and they know we are. The fact that nothing has been published or announced does not mean no research has been done. It means no research is being announced. (There are now several new, patented bras designed to aid lymphatic flow to reduce the damage caused by regular bras. They probably don’t do what they claim, but the fact that they exist, and refer to our research in their patents, shows the industry is reacting.)
What happened with Soma’s lump?
Soma’s lump disappeared months after getting rid of her bra. Get rid of the bra before you have breast cancer.
What about breast cancer striking women who DON’T wear bras?
A small percentage of women have a genetic predisposition to breast cancer, as do some men (About 1,500 U.S. men are diagnosed every year with breast cancer). The bra is not the only cause. However, these other causes are minimal compared to the bra, which is why breast cancer is a 20th century epidemic paralleling the use of 20th century lingerie.
How would going braless change breast cancer rates?
We live in a breast binding culture. Breast damage from decades of bra wearing will not completely reverse overnight. However, if a new generation of young women go through life bra-free, their breast cancer rates would probably be as low as male rates. So, we may never get rid of breast cancer altogether, but we can reduce its incidence, making it a rare disease that would be mostly genetic in origin
Medical Doctor’s Take
I asked a board certified surgeon who specializes in breast disease about the idea of lymph system compression and breast health. Kerry Bennett, MD, MPH, FACS, is a breast surgeon at Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston.
Dr. Bennett explains: “I do agree that bras can compress the lymphatic system. Toxins are thought to deposit in the fatty tissue of the breast. The blood and lymphatic system are integral to removing toxins and bringing in healthy nutrients and oxygen. If these systems are blocked, toxins theoretically could increase and possibly cause genetic damage to the cells. Cancer may come from toxins ‘hitting’ the genetic makeup. Many practitioners believe that cancer comes from a multiple-hit theory in which toxins damage genes and the genes produce abnormal cells.”
She adds, “One of the reasons people don’t want to explore this (bra and breast cancer link) is that it would be quite difficult to do a randomized trial to study this link at this point.”
Dr. Bennett continues: “Bras could increase the toxin damage to genes in theory. There is no good scientific data to substantiate this. It is only a theory. I recommend that women wear bras that fit properly (which most don’t), and minimize or eliminate underwire bras. I believe that women should have bra-free time each day.”
For additional information, see this study out of Harvard that found bra-wearing women had much higher rates of breast cancer than bra-free women. (Hsieh, C.C. and D. Trichopoulos, D. Eur. J. Cancer 27:131-5 1991)
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1827274?ordinalpos=3&itool;=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed. Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum)
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