More on Breast Cancer Causes Cancer – Practice Qigong w/o a Bra?

note: It is speculated that the major benefits of qigong to health are from increased lymphatic circulation, which requires slow circular movement to optimally stimulate the lymphatic vessels. This article reinforces the notion that qigong for women would be more effective if practiced withOUT a bra. Love to hear form women who experiment with and without and see what they notice…..Michael

BRAS STILL CAUSE BREAST CANCER: ARE YOUR PATIENTS DRESSED TO KILL?
By Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer
theherbaladvisor.com
April 2, 2007

http://www.theherbaladvisor.com/Healthy_Living_35/Bras_Still_Cause_Breast_Ca
ncer_Are_Your_Patients_Dressed_To_Kill.shtml

When we first announced our theory and research linking breast cancer with
the wearing of bras, we were laughed at, ridiculed, or simply ignored. “How
can a foundation garment lead to disease? Absurd. It’s too simplistic. There
is no scientific evidence.”

That was back in 1995, when our book Dressed To Kill: The Link Between
Breast Cancer and Bras (Avery/Penguin Putnam 1995; ISCD Press 2002)
<http://bit.ly/ELsXw> was published. We had expected an open-minded, if not
enthusiastic reception to our research showing that bras are the leading
cause of breast cancer. We were naïve. Breast cancer is more than a disease.
It is a cultural phenomenon.

Dressed To Kill described our 1991-93 Bra and Breast Cancer Study, examining
the bra wearing habits and attitudes of about 4,700 American women, nearly
half of whom had had breast cancer. The study results showed that wearing a
bra over 12 hours daily dramatically increases breast cancer incidence.
Bra-free women were shown to have about the same incidence of breast cancer
as men, while those who wear a bra 18-24 hours daily have over 100 times
greater incidence of breast cancer than do bra-free women. This link was 3-4
times greater than that between cigarettes and lung cancer!

Our theory explaining these findings is that the bra, an elastic garment
designed to alter breast shape, applies constant pressure to the soft breast
tissue, compressing and constricting lymphatic vessels. Evidence of this
constriction are the red marks and indentations in the skin left behind by
the bra. Since the role of the lymphatics is to flush out toxins and debris
from the tissues, impairment of lymphatic flow can lead to the toxification
of the breast tissue. These toxins include endogenous toxins resulting from
the consequent tissue hypoxia, as well as the exogenous toxins that
contaminate our food, water and air in our petrochemically polluted world.
Many of these toxins are carcinogenic. The bra concentrates these in the
breast by preventing the lymphatics from flushing them away.

Of course, this means that the cause of breast cancer is not the bra, per
se, but the toxins that the bra concentrates in the breast tissue due to
lymphatic impairment.

Interestingly, when you look at the worldwide statistics on breast cancer,
it is clear that it is only a problem in cultures where bras are worn. No
bras, and men and women have about the same low incidence of breast cancer.
And the bra link also explains various breast cancer risk factors, as we
discuss in Dressed To Kill.

While more research is clearly needed to further study this link, we believe
it is prudent medicine to recommend women abstain from bra wearing as a
precaution. There is no reason for wearing a bra, apart from fashion. The
human body was not designed with a flaw that requires modern lingerie for
correction. Like the absurd and destructive fashion of foot binding in
China, women in the West bind their breasts. Surely, we believed, once women
understood how this practice is threatening their health and lives, they
will stop wearing bras.

However, it wasn’t that simple. Women are cultural beings, and in this
culture female identity and body image are tied in with breast shape and
size. Bras help define a woman’s sense of self. Changing bra wearing habits
is akin to changing one’s self image.

Dictating that image are the garment and fashion industries that define
acceptable breast shape and the clothing women must wear that require that
shape. And for those who cannot fit the mold, plastic surgeons are standing
by to help women better fit their clothes.

And while nobody would say they want women to get breast cancer, the fact is
that the culture has become invested in this disease. That is the nature of
a culturogenic disease. It becomes embedded in our way of life. The bra
industry is a multi-billion dollar enterprise. And billions of dollars are
spent each year researching and treating this disease. Ironically, ending
breast cancer can cause financial hardship for many people.

We have become a breast cancer culture. As a result, our information was
seen as a threat to that culture. Sometimes a disease is less threatening
than change.

But then something happened that we had not foreseen. Some courageous women
who had heard our message tried going bra-free and reported their
experiences to us. Within weeks, if not days, most of these women
experienced a profound change in their breast health. Breast pain and
tenderness virtually ended. Cysts that had needed regular aspirations
disappeared. We began to realize that fibrocystic breast disease, common in
bra-wearing cultures, should be called “tight bra syndrome”.

It all made perfect sense, of course. The bra was causing secondary
lymphedema of the breasts due to constriction of the lymphatics. The
accumulated fluid caused increased tissue pressure with associated pain and
tenderness, and eventually developed into cysts. While the fibrous tissue
that develops in long standing cysts takes more time to resolve, relieving
the pressure by eliminating the bra allowed the cysts to drain, alleviating
the pressure and discomfort. (This also explained by many women have breast
myalgia near the time of their menstrual period. Estrogen levels are
elevated at this time, increasing overall body fluid retention and
increasing breast size. However, women typically wear the same size bra all
month long, making it particularly tight at these times, increasing breat
pain. Once bra-free, this syndrome usually stops.)

The results are fast, impressive and transformative. It was this link with
fibrocystic breast disease that helped keep our bra-cancer theory alive.
While it didn’t prove the cancer connection, it did show that the bra was
damaging the breasts, adding support to our claims.

We then did a follow-up study to our first US study. This time we went to
Fiji, where half the population is bra-free. We approached the Health
Ministry and asked for their assistance. Once we told them our theory, they
exclaimed, “That explains why our working women are now getting breast
cancer! They are the ones who wear bras!” Over the next few months we went
from village to village and obtained over 20 case histories of breast
cancer. All were in women who wore bras. We found that, given women from the
same village (genetically related), with the same diet, the ones who
developed breast cancer were the ones who wore bras.

We began getting support from naturopaths, chiropractors, massage
therapists, and some allopaths. But the allopathic authorities were not
willing to consider the issue, and, as you know, they control the media and
the government medical agenda, (another culturogenic cause of various
diseases). To date, the American Cancer Society states on its website,
“Internet e-mail rumors and at least one book have suggested that bras cause
breast cancer by obstructing lymph flow. There is no scientific or clinical
basis for that claim.” And they don’t have any interest in doing research
into this claim, either.

Meanwhile, a recent Japanese study (J Physiol Anthropol Appl Human Sci. 2002
Jan; 21 (1): 67-74) has shown that bras impair the autonomic nervous system.
It concludes, “Our data indicate that the higher clothing pressures exerted
by a conventional brassiere have a significant negative impact on the ANS
activity, which is predominantly attributable to the significant decrease in
the parasympathetic as well as the thermoregulatory sympathetic nerve
activities. Since the ANS activity plays an important role in modulating the
internal environment in the human body, excess clothing pressures caused by
constricting types of foundation garments on the body would consequently
undermine women’s health.” Two other studies from Japan found similar
results.

Why is this research coming from Japan and not the U.S.? Japan has not been
a bra wearing culture, until recently. In fact, Japan has been the only
first world culture that has been relatively spared breast cancer, because
traditional Japanese attire did not include the bra. Now, however, the
Japanese have adopted the West’s obsession with breasts and bras, leading to
increased breast cancer rates there.

Also interesting is a study done in the year 2000 by two breast cancer
specialists in the UK for a television documentary. The study followed 100
women with fibrocystic breast disease as they went 3 months bra-free. The
results were astounding, and nearly created a panic. The documentary, “Bras
The Bare Facts”, made international news in the British Commonwealth, but
was completely ignored in the U.S.

It takes personal integrity and a commitment to health for women and the men
in their lives to stand up and say no to the bra. Fortunately, ending the
bra habit is really easy and gives immediate health benefits. All women
really need is the encouragement.

The naturopath treating a patient for breast disease needs to keep in mind
the cultural issues that compel women into wearing bras, as well as the fact
that the bra habit is addictive, physically and emotionally. You may want to
discuss the issue with the patient’s partner, as well, since men are often
the reason why women wear bras in the first place. In fact, it would be
ideal to offer women a support group while they break the bra habit. Some
women fear harassment at work, or feel naked in public without a bra. They
need to express these concerns with other women who have realized the health
benefits of being bra-free, and have learned that these culturally
programmed fears are really unfounded.

Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer
Medical Anthropologists
Directors, Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Diseases
http://www.SelfStudyCenter.org