The American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen Foundation may insist it's not true, but according to the irrefutable results of a half dozen credible studies conducted over the past two decades, wearing a bra significantly increases your chances of getting breast cancer.
The problem is that bras -- especially ill-fitting, too tight ones -- limit the flow of lymphatic fluid, preventing toxins from moving about the body and keeping them pent up in the breasts.
These findings aren't new but they've somehow been swept and kept under the rug -- an issue that doesn't sit well with Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer, authors of 1995's "Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras." Their book maintains that wearing a bra for more than 12 hours a day "dramatically increases the risk" of developing the disease. Also, women who wear brassieres all day, every day are 125 times more likely to contract it and if you sleep in one, you have a 75 percent chance of being diagnosed with the oft-deadly cancer.
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A study conducted at Harvard University way back in 1991 echoes the same findings: wearing a bra greatly increases incidences of breast cancer. Period.
The kicker is that for twenty years, both Komen and the ACS have been peppered with these studies and yet refuse to budge from their position that bra wearing is un-related to breast cancer --
despite there being
zero reports or analyses that prove otherwise.
All Singer and Grismaijer are looking to accomplish is to have the two organizations -- the go-to resources for breast cancer -- advise women to remove their bras at the end of their day. The authors are asking people to, "boycott these organizations until they stop dismissing the bra-cancer link, and begin educating doctors and women about the cancer hazards of wearing tight bras."
How can you show that you stand behind the research and want it better publicized? Singer and Grismaijer have come up with a creative way. "Whenever the ACS or Komen Foundation ask for a donation, send them your bra, instead! This will give them the message, and help you prevent breast cancer at the same time."
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