Bras and possible health effects (cancer, clinical breast pain, fibrocystic breasts, and backache)

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Note:
For companies offering bras that are specifically designed to avoid or minimise adverse health effects, see Bodywise Bras (Australia - with mail order to other countries) or Decent Exposures (Seattle).

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'From The 'Primitive Droop' To The 'Civilised Thrust' :
Towards A Politics Of Body Modification'

On Bras and health: Beth Spencer

[this is a footnote to the essay 'From The 'Primitive Droop' To The 'Civilised Thrust' :
Towards A Politics Of Body Modification' presented at the Body Modifications conference, Macquarie University, April 2003, and submitted as part of my PhD thesis for the University of Ballarat (see side panel).]

9.

Regarding bras and backache, for instance, see letter from Dr Edward Ryan to the Medical Journal of Australia, November 1992, cited by Kaz Cooke in Real Gorgeous (Melb: Penguin, 1995) 97; and Ryan, E. L. 'Pectoral girdle myalgia in women: a 5-year study in a clinical setting.' Clinical Journal of Pain 2000 Dec;16(4):298-303.

In Dr Ryan's study women presenting to a clinic with muscular pain were invited to remove the weight of their breasts from their shoulders for a two week trial either by going bra-free or wearing a strapless bra (all except one chose the former). The results were that 'Seventy-nine percent of patients decided to remove breast weight from the shoulder permanently because it rendered them symptom free.'

For the possible link between bras and breast cancer, see Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras. (USA: Avery Books, 1995), with a brief update by the authors at The Herbal Advisor, 'Bras Still Cause Breast Cancer: Are Your Patients Dressed To Kill?' 2 Apr. 2007.

In this study the two medical anthropologists questioned over 4,500 women -- half of whom had breast cancer -- about their bra wearing habits. The results suggested a high correlation between wearing bras for more than 12 hours per day and a significant increase in the incidence of breast cancer; with those wearing their bras 24 hours a day having the highest incidence.

While there are obvious limitations with this kind of study, the results were striking enough to warrant further investigation.

Indeed, according to the authors' analysis, the apparent increased risk of breast cancer in the bra-wearing group compared to the non-bra-wearers was somewhere between four and twelves times greater than the known increased-risk for lung-cancer for cigarette smokers over non-smokers.

One theory for a possible correlation is that wearing a bra may restrict the functioning of the lymphatic system, which is very close to the surface of the skin and can be affected by even quite light pressure, and thus impede the regular elimination of toxins from the tissue around the breasts. The lymphatic system also works best when there is body movement, and it could be that immobilising breasts throughout the day also causes it to function less effectively.

There are also suggestions that bras might raise the temperature of breast tissue in a way that could be harmful if it occurs consistently over long periods, and the continued strong skin contact with elastics is another possible problem.

For a summary and review of Dressed to Kill, and a range of links and scientific references of related interest, see Ralph Reed, 'Bras and Breast Cancer', Natural Health and Longevity Resource Center, accessed 10 Mar. 1999 <http://www.all-natural.com/bras.html> and Reed's comments at http://www.breathing.com/articles/brassieres.htm.

On the importance of lymphatic flow: see for instance (Dr) Michael Schachter, 'The Prevention and Complementary Treatment of Breast Cancer', Health World Online, 7 Mar. 2006 <http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=533>. Also see the description of the lymphatic system by osteopath Katherine Harkin at the Bodywise Bras website.

Regarding clinical breast pain and fibrocystic (lumpy and/or painful breasts), see Ralph Reed, 'Prevention and Treatment of Fibrocystic Breast Disease' <http://www.all-natural.com/fibrocys.html> (accessed 10 Mar. 1999), which includes personal stories or testimonials by women who experienced dramatic relief from fibrocystic breasts and breast pain when they stopped wearing bras.

See also Doris Lane, 'Lumpy Breasts? Burn Your Bra!' August 10, 2000 (linked from The Ultimate Bra Page, accessed 30 Jan. 2001[website no longer active]; and Bras: the Bare Facts, documentary produced by Dispatches, Channel 4, broadcast in the UK, November 2, 2000. For information about this documentary and a partial rough transcript see http://www.007b.com/bras_bare_facts.php on the 007Breasts website.

For 'official' responses to Dressed to Kill - see 'Critics are cool to theory linking bras, breast cancer', accessed 11 Dec. 2002 <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/07-95/07-10-95/0710ONScancerside.HTML>, and 'American Cancer Society response to bras and breast cancer study' cited on Break the Chain website, accessed 11 Dec. 2002 <http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/bracancer.html>.

There have been many dismissals like this of the premise underlying Singer and Grismaijer's book, however I am yet to see a considered refutation. Furthermore, apart from the BBC documentary, as far as I know there has to date been no follow-up studies that attempt to test (or disprove) their extraordinary preliminary findings.

For more comments on Dressed to Kill, from a range of people including a physician, see the reviews at Amazon.com. Also see a review at the Chiropratic Journal, and two very different reviews (one critical and one positive) at the Breast Cancer Action website.

*

http://www.bethspencer.com/body-as-fiction.html
Phd thesis, University of Ballarat, Australia, March 2006

The Body as Fiction / Fiction as a Way of Thinking:
On Writing A Short (Personal) History
of the Bra and its Contents

Beth Spencer
email: beth [at] bethspencer dot com

or click here if you'd like to leave some comments on this topic

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The Body as Fiction /
Fiction as a Way of Thinking

Beth Spencer

PhD thesis
University of Ballarat
submitted
31 March 2006
/ awarded
18 December 2006

Abstract

Frontice pages (includes summary, acknowledgements &contents page)
[pdf file - 6 pp]

Introduction
[or pdf file - 6 pp]

Chapter 1: Writing On, About, and Through Breasted Bodies [pdf file - 16 pp]

Chapter 2 :
Post-structuralist Feminism and the Body [pdf file - 11 pp]

Chapter 3: The Matter of Bodies and the Paradigm Shifts of
Post-structuralism, Quantum Physics, and Ecological Spirituality
[pdf file - 35 pp]

Chapter 4: Thinking Beyond the Mind/Body Split:
Writing, Reading and Thinking with the Heart
[pdf file - 23 pp]

Chapter 5: Historiography and Method: Putting it into Practice
[pdf file - 22 pp]

Conclusion
[or pdf file - 5 pp]

Select Bibliography
[pdf file - 48 pp]

Part Two:Samples from
A Short (Personal) History of the Bra and its Contents
(a novel in progress) --
coming soon

Note: page numbers for the text of Part One have, where possible, been kept the same as in the submitted thesis, but each pdf file here also includes the endnotes for that chapter, whereas in the thesis these are placed after the Conclusion.