Bras Safe, do not Cause Breast Cancer: Study

Bras do not have any role in breast cancer, American researchers reveal.

The study on more than 1,000 breast cancer patients in Seattle found no risk associated with wearing bras, irrespective of the total time they were worn in a day, type of bras a woman used or the age she started wearing bras.

"Our study found no evidence that wearing a bra increases a woman's risk for breast cancer," Lu Chen, a researcher in the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said in a statement. "The risk was similar no matter how many hours per day women wore a bra, whether they wore a bra with underwire, or at what age they began wearing a bra."

For the study, researchers interviewed nearly 1,044 women, aged between 55 and 74, who were diagnosed with either invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) or invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), between 2000 and 2004. Women provided information about prevalence of breast cancer in the family, demographics, reproductive details and their bra wearing habits. Researchers also interviewed 469 women without breast cancer.

At the end of the study, researchers couldn't find any link between the deadly disease and bras. The findings back expert opinion. The NHS UK, said that underwired bras are safe for women and noted: "Women need not be concerned about wearing any type of bra."

However, the new findings reported in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention contradict countless studies that have exposed hidden risk associated with excess use of bras.

The so-called bra scare started with a 1995 book titled "Dressed to Kill." Bra use interferes with disposal of lymphatic fluid and increases the risk of the toxins getting dumped in breast tissues, according to authors Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer. The authors studied 4,000 women and found that women who wore bras the whole day (24 hours), had three out of four chances of developing breast cancer than others, Mercola.com reported.

A study released in May found that regular use of cleavage enhancing bras placed women at higher risk of breast cancer. The tightening under wired bras can leave a negative effect on breast tissues and lymphatic system, according to the study published in the online edition of the European Institute of Oncology's journal. Researchers also found that shaving and excess use of deodorants also posed similar health risk to women.