the bra/breast cancer connection

[Carboholic]

i read the other long thread on bras, and thought this might interest someone =) i came across it by accident when reading one of my usual pregnancy websites. this is a link to a review of a book studying the connection between bra wearing and increased incidence of breast cancer (up to 125 fold increase depending on daily wearing time, thats a 12,500% increase).

http://www.all-natural.com/bras.html

i took a lot of personal interest in this as i am a "non-wearer". i only wear bras when i go out in public, which isnt often as i stay at home and dont work outside the house, and only because my cup size is so big due to being heavy and pregnant, not to mention having pregnant/nursing-giant-nipple-syndrome. despite being in the DD category, my breasts do not sag that much (what sag is there i got from my first pregnancy and breastfeeding despite wearing a bra constantly when they grew 3 cup sizes in 9 months), and i can only think that going braless has helped them in that regard.

Erin
atkins since 12/2/02
preggo and lcing!

[teelbee]

That was interesting; but I have to observe that I've read a lot of - um - "not mainstream" theories on the high rate of breast cancer over the last few years.

One asserted that wearing antiperspirants was a prime cause of breast cancer as it blocks the draining of waste products from the sweat glands in the armpits. And, since the lymph glands in the pits are so close to the breasts... ergo, breast cancer.

Another school of thought holds that frequent mammograms and needle biopsies are responsible for many malignant breast cancers. The theory for this is that there are many tiny breast cancers that are completely encapsulated, and thus harmless. They are too small to be detected by mammograms. The excess compression from the mammogram machine burst these otherwise harmless tumors so that they start spreading. Also, the radiation from the mammogram machine itself is thought to contribute to the formation of breast cancers.

And, there's lots more, including tons of dietary related theories. Years ago, an American Cancer Society journal for clinicians put forth that obesity and/or a high fat diet were implicated. But, most of the affected women I know (quite a few, sadly) were quite slim.

I have gotten to the point where I don't know what to believe. I'm more comfortable with a good fitting bra (I hate the jerking feeling of bounce, jounce or swing), so I'll keep wearing my bras. And, I'll keep putting on antiperspirant (whew! I know everyone's relieved by that one). But, I may just forgoe those nasty mammograms

~~~Teelbee

174 (Mar. 2002, highest weight), 164 (Jan. 2003, begin LC)
164/135/137-134
remember, amateurs built the Ark, professionals built the Titanic

[Maggie]

Just moving this to the women's forum, where it will get the most replies!

Maggie
5'1" ~~ Atkins since '98 (160)/Maintaining nicely (110) ~~ Redhead until further notice!

[redsoxfan]

Okay, there were several things wrong with that "study". The author did not mention age of the participants - breast cancer risk and diagnosis both increase with age. The author did not mention whether the woman studied were menopausal, post-menopausal, or pre-menopausal - again cancer risk/diagnosis both increase once a woman is past menopause. Whether they had taken hormone replacement therapy at any point in their lives - recent studies have shown that certain regimines of hrt can increase a woman's lifelong chance of developing breast cancer.

Nor did the author mention the size of the chest of the woman in the study - larger breasted woman (who tend to wear bras more frequently than smaller breasted woman for the comfort/support factor) have a signifigantly higher incidence of cystic breasts. While have cysts in your breast does not directly correlate with a higher chance of developing breast cancer, they are implicated in certain types of breast cancer.

It is VERY important when reading any 'study' to remember this - Corrolation DOES NOT equal Causation. Meaning just because something seems to cause something else, it doesn't actually mean that it does. A good example to remember is the ice cream/drowning "corrolation". It can be shown that as the as the consumption of ice cream rises, the number of drowning deaths increases as well. One could prove that they are statistically related. Thus leading to the conculsion that eating ice cream causes drowning. But when you look at this logically, its probably not really true. And in fact, when other mitigating circumstances are taken into account, the ice cream/drowning corrolation becomes weaker and weaker. The best example is that both ice cream eating and swimming increase in hot weather. So if you drown its more likely to be because its hot out and there's a greater overall chance that you'll be swimming. It has nothing to do with whether you've eaten any ice cream or not.

__________________________________________________ _____

"The passion that comes from the true Sox fans, and you know who you are, is unparalleled in baseball. Fanatics? yes. Lunatics? yes. Insane? you bet. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's a crazy ride, but it's our crazy ride and we'll take it and enjoy it or keel over trying!" ~ thisistheyear.com

[Carboholic]

i actually put this in the other forum purposefully, because of the long bra thread that has been there for weeks =) generally those talking about wearing bras would be interested in breast cancer research, as they have the body parts in question =P

the link i provided was not a "study" =) it was a short book review. i havent read the book myself, but i imagine it goes into greater detail on what exactly was looked at in the research. i dont think a true critique of the research can be done unless the entire book is read in full.

one thing i did find interesting tho is the amount of risk increase seen with long bra wearing. it is true that there are many things associated with breast cancer, however most of them do not come anywhere close to giving a 125 fold increase in risk.

Erin
atkins since 12/2/02
preggo and lcing!

[Grace]

Carboholic, I've read several studies on this subject. I have fibrocystic breast disease and one year ago I stopped wearing bras (except occasionally when a lighter blouse requires). I do wear loose camisoles just because I'm a big chested woman and want something to hide the no bra wearing look. Since doing this one year ago, I have no breast pain anymore. When I wore bras, the act of taking it off caused excrutiating pain and my breasts hurt constantly. It hurt to exercise, sleep, be touched, you name it, it hurt. Now I work out with no pain, it doesn't hurt to do anything! I don't know if I've lowered my cancer chances but just losing this pain is worth not wearing one!