aShion Notes

• FASHION NOTES - Overview •

 “Wearing A Bra Causes Breast Problems!”

By Ken L. Smith                                                                                                                                                             November 2017

I received this note and was very pleased to see that Patricia had found some relief from her breast condition. I was especially pleased and amazed to hear that it was her doctor that suggested that she remove her bra and allow her own body to heal the condition that the bra, in his opinion (and in mine as well), had caused in the first place.

Our doctors that we have all over the world are wonderful people, and we entrust our health… and literally our lives… to them. Sadly, there are some instances when doctors do not agree with opinions of or discoveries by researchers that seem to “go against” the earlier or “popular” medical opinions. It may be a lack of medical training, or it may be a difference of opinions, or maybe it is because they have just not had time in their busy lives to dig into the matter and find out what the real, current truth is. I hate to say it, but there is evidence that for some medical personnel, opinions tend not to change if it will mean a modification of financial considerations or the availability of grant monies.

Anyway, since Sydney Singer and Soma Grismaijer published their infamous book that told the results of their early 1990’s studies of nearly 4,600 women (“DRESSED TO KILL – The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras”), there has been a concerted effort by the medical establishment to ignore their findings, even though they themselves have done no studies of their own to show otherwise. And at least five other studies have supported the Singer/Grismaijer studies.

Just how wide-spread is the philosophy that the wearing of a bra increases one’s risks for breast cancer? To find out how prevalent it is ‘out there’, last evening I Googled the words: “Women that eliminated their bra”, and there were nearly 100 pages of article titles and websites listed that were somewhat connected to that statement. Not all were worthy of our attention, of course, and many were listed multiple times, but here are some of them, listed in the order in which they came up, along with a brief comment about what they discussed:

1. “Fifteen Reasons Why Women Aren’t Wearing Bras Anymore” by Hetty Tullis on The Premium Network http://www.thetalko.com/15-reasons-why-women-dont-wear-bras-anymore/     “New research is showing that women do not need to wear bras. In fact, there is now evidence showing that not wearing a bra is better for our overall health. A 15-year study in France shows that there is no health benefit to wearing a bra and that our breasts are actually better off without them.”

2. "Ladies It’s Finally Time To Take Off That Bra…For Good!” by Alanna Ketler on Collective Evolution http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/04/16/ladies-its-finally-time-to-take-off-that-bra-for-good/  “According to the American Cancer Society, there is absolutely no evidence that wearing a bra can lead to breast cancer. No studies exist which show such a link, they argue, yet they themselves have made no effort to disprove the theory, either. However, several studies have been conducted which indeed show a correlation between wearing bras and the development of breast cancer.”

3. “Why I Never Wear A Bra In Public, And I’m Sorry I’m Not Sorry” by Sheena Sharma on Elite Daily   https://www.elitedaily.com/women/never-wear-a-bra/1185241   “Removing a bra should not be the best part of my day. But it is. It’s more satisfying than exercising. It’s more satisfying than eating. And you know why? Because when I unhook that pesky little clasp, I can actually breathe again.”

4. “The Purpose of the Bra” by Ken L. Smith on BreastNotes.com  http://breastnotes.com/aware/aware-bra.htm   “In our society today, most breasts are bound in bras, and thus are supported from their earliest signs of development in the "training bras" mentioned earlier, which prevents their ligaments and connective tissues from ever developing beyond a minimum amount (from puberty onward). This means the ligaments are not prepared to do their natural job.”

5. “Why the Best Thing About a Bra is Taking it Off” by Kara Maria Ananda  http://karamariaananda.com/blog/2013/6/11/why-the-best-thing-about-a-bra-is-taking-it-off  “A woman's breasts are naturally designed to move, bounce, and jiggle as she moves. This is the way that evolution has crafted women's breasts over thousands and millions of years to support optimal health and human lifestyle. Bras inhibit the natural movement of the breasts, and this interferes with the way the breast is designed to optimally function.”

6. “French Study Suggests Younger Women Should Stop Wearing Bras” by Michelle Castillo of CBS News    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/french-study-suggests-younger-women-should-stop-wearing-bras/   “Professor Jean-Denis Rouillon, a sports medicine specialist from Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Besancon in Besancon, France, published a study on Wednesday that shows that wearing bras may not prevent women's breasts from sagging, and may in fact increase it. ‘Our first results confirm the hypothesis that the bra is a false need,’ Rouillon told France Info. ‘Medically, physiologically, anatomically, the breast does not benefit from being deprived of gravity. Instead, it languishes with a bra."

7. “Do the Natives Wear Bras?” by Ken L. Smith of BreastNotes.com http://breastnotes.com/aware/aware-bras%20on%20natives.htm    “If I don’t wear a bra, my breasts will look like those I saw in the National Geographic Magazine!” How many times have we heard a woman say this? How many times have we ourselves said it? So, is it true? Will our breasts really look like those of the natives in Africa and the Pacific Islands and primitive Central America if we don’t wear a bra?”

8. “Droop Phobia, The Bra, and Breast Cancer” by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, Medical Anthropologists, of the Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Disease  https://www.naturistsociety.com/tns/images/DroopPhobia.pdf  “The female breast was not designed with a flaw that requires 20th Century lingerie to correct. It is also important to get past droop phobia. It’s nothing but a cultural con; an artificial need created to sell an artificial support. Plastic surgeons eager to stuff and cut breasts into fashionable dimensions add to the pressure to conform. Breasts are big business. So is cancer. The link is the bra. Now that bras have been busted over droop, there may be some progress in ditching the bra and ending this breast cancer epidemic.”

9. “Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Wear A Bra, According To Science” by Alfredo Carpineti of IFL Science! http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/no-bra-day-special-are-bras-bad-you/  “The researchers believe that young women would gain more tone and supporting breast tissue if no bra were used. In the study, women that stopped wearing bras – through choice, not as a requirement of the study – had a 7-millimeter (0.3-inch) lift in their nipples when compared with regular bra users. Bras, they claim, could hamper circulation and reduce breast tone over time.”

10. “What is Fibrocystic Breast Disease?” found on 007b.com http://www.007b.com/fibrocystic_breast_pain.php “An easy experiment to reduce pain: take your bra off!Fortunately there is an easy solution that works for many women in reducing breast pain and fibrocystic lumps: many women have found that by wearing undergarments less restrictive than bras (camisoles, tank tops, etc.) they can dramatically reduce or eliminate fibrocystic cysts and pain. Medical anthropologists Sydney Singer and Soma Grismaijer, and also Dr. Gregory Heigh, have found that around 90% of fibrocystic patients improve when they quit wearing bras.”

11. “ ‘I’m Bra-Free’ – Personal Stories” found on BreastNotes.com http://breastnotes.com/aware/aware-bra-free.htm  Comments from those that have chosen to be Bra-Free.

12. “Braless vs Breast Cancer” by Prof. Dr. Gayane Dolyan Descornet with Women Health & Lifestyle https://www.women-info.com/en/braless-vs-breast-cancer/   The author cites nine studies: 1978 – California – associating breast temperature, breast cancer and bras    1993 – Harvard – women not wearing bras had 60% less breast cancer    1991 – Japan – proving wearing a bra increases breast sagging… especially larger-breasted women   …and six other studies.

13. “Women, it’s Time to go Braless” by Elyane Youssef of Elephant Journal  https://www.elephantjournal.com/2015/03/women-its-time-to-go-braless/  the author addresses major questions women face when deciding whether or not to remove their bra.

14. “Why Wear a Bra?” found on 007b.com http://www.007b.com/why_wear_bras.php  another well-written article that addresses the “reasons” women wear a bra, but points out how a bra is not the sole answer.

15. “Can Your Bra Cause Breast Cancer?” found on Health Extremist  https://www.healthextremist.com/can-your-bra-cause-breast-cancer   “Bras are designed to alter breast shape, they apply constant pressure to the soft breast tissue and result in compressing and constricting lymphatic vessels. You can observe evidence of constriction from the red marks and indentations in the skin caused by the bra. Research shows that wearing a bra regularly can increase your risk of developing breast cancer. Bras prevent lymph drainage and circulation. Both the lymphatic and circulatory systems provide vital nutrients and allow for the elimination of toxins. This lack of nutrients or the excess in toxins can lead to the development of cancer. The lymphatic’s systems role is to flush out toxins and debris from the tissues. An impairment of the lymphatic system’s flow can lead to the toxification of the breast tissue.”

16. “Could wearing a bra be doing your figure more harm than good? Controversial study says underwear 'is not needed'” by Sophie Borland, Larisa Brown, and Peter Allen on DailyMail.com   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307278/Women-better-bras-say-scientists-took-FIFTEEN-YEARS-inspect-womens-breasts.html  “Bra shopping often feels like more trouble than it’s worth. And according to a French scientist, it actually is. Jean-Denis Rouillon claims that bras ‘are not needed’, and might actually be doing women’s figures more harm than good. His controversial research concluded that a bra could ‘prevent supporting tissues from growing’, and that breasts might be less likely to sag without one.”

17. “Women no longer burning their bras — they’re just not wearing them” by Lauren Pelley of TheStar.com   https://www.thestar.com/life/2016/09/06/women-no-longer-burning-their-bras-theyre-just-not-wearing-them.html     “Amanda Johnson is a 40-year old attorney from Seattle, Wash., and an “early adopter” of the bra-free trend. She ranges from a DD to an H cup, and says she endured terrible back pain and indentations on her shoulders from wearing a bra for years. Ditching a bra has lessened her back pain, and now she only wears one to court, or around her teenage nephews. “

18. “Bras Are Quickly Losing Women’s Support” by Leah Bourne with New York Post   http://nypost.com/2015/12/14/bras-are-quickly-losing-womens-support/   Jessica Simpson made fashion waves during a recent trip to New York City, but it wasn’t because of the skintight black cocktail dress and stiletto sandals she was wearing – it was because she was noticeably not wearing a bra.

19. “Give Your Boobs A Break – Lose The Bra”  by Piper Hoffman of Care2 Causes    http://www.care2.com/causes/give-your-boobs-a-break-lose-the-bra.html   “So — how great would it be not to have to wear a bra? The question is more urgent in the face of a brand-new study finding that bras do not prevent back pain or saggy boobs. To the contrary, they cause them. Lead researcher Professor Jean-Denis Rouillon said “medically, physiologically, anatomically, the breast does not benefit from being deprived of gravity. Instead, it languishes with a bra.” Rouillon calls bras a “false necessity.” So much for brassieres’ noble purposes.”

20. “Welcome to BraFree.org, where we celebrate healthy breasts” on BraFree.org  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.

These twenty articles and websites are just from the first ten pages of the search… a sizeable number. They are all trying to tell us all that there is some serious concern about what the bra is doing to our breasts.

Be Aware!! When women with larger breasts sat they “cannot go bra free” because their breasts are too large, if you count yourself as one of those ladies and want to try being bra-free, go bra free an hour each day, and increase that time period by an hour each week. That will allow your breast ligaments to develop as they should have done, but did not do, because your bra did the job for them. After a matter of weeks or several months, you will not feel the soreness and tension in your breasts and shoulders.

Patricia’s doctor is ‘right on target’. We can be thankful for those doctors like him that are knowledgeable enough to realize that we have been doing a lot of damage for a lot of years to a lot of women. Last year (2016) 252,710 women were diagnosed with breast cancer in the US. If the bras caused even 60% of them (a conservative percentage suggested by some of the above listed studies), eliminating bras could have saved one hundred fifty-one thousand, six hundred six women from the heartbreak of breast cancer… and forty thousand, six hundred ten women would still be with us. That’s a lot of misery… just because society does not want breasts to …wiggle!  Those are the same people that tell you that if you don’t wear a bra, you are not “descent”.

Don’t let your life be run by other people’s ideas of fashion, style, or morality!