Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer in women, and despite decades of research into the genetics and biochemistry of this disease, little progress has been made in prevention. This is mostly due to the lack of knowing the cause. You can’t prevent a disease without knowing the cause.
However, we believe we discovered a new anatomical structure that can cause breast cancer. It is an anatomical structure that has been overlooked by medicine, since not everyone has it. It is an epigenetic factor that is variable between women, but which affects the health of her breasts.
We believe this new anatomical structure is the product of cultural evolution, and it can disappear as fast as it appeared. When women do have it, it can interfere with adjacent tissue, leading to compression and constriction of the extracellular matrix. This can cause many problems, including cancer.
What is this new anatomical structure?
It is a type of ligament. Ligaments are a type of tough connective tissue that serves to connect body structures and support organs. And this new ligament affects the breasts.
The Cooper’s ligament helps create the structure of the breasts on the inside. However, this new anatomical structure is not an internal ligament, or an “endo-ligament”. This new structure occurs on the outside of the breast skin, so it is an “exo-ligament”.
Biology knows that some creatures have a skeleton on the inside, as humans do, which is called an endoskeleton. However, some animals with shells, such as clams or lobsters, have an exoskeleton.
Medicine has not yet recognized that there are exo-ligaments. But you can see them everywhere on people.
When you look at an atlas of human anatomy, you will see a naked body, with no apparent ligaments on the outside of the skin. However, real people wear clothing, and some of it is tight and intimately associated with the body.
This clothing becomes an extension of human anatomy.
Whenever anyone wears a “supportive” garment, the garment is acting as a ligament, since ligaments support body structures.
In the case of the breasts, you often see them “supported” by bras. This means the bra serves as a ligament to hold the breasts elevated and firmly against the chest. This is what a ligament does, except this one is on the outside of the breast.
Bras, then, are exo-ligaments. And as with all ligaments, they have a biomechanical impact on the body. That is, these fabric-based exo-ligaments alter how the body functions.
Biomechanics is a field that studies the mechanical forces of gravity, pressure, tension, torque, and other mechanical forces as they relate to biological systems. When applied to medicine, biomechanics is used extensively in orthopedic medicine when repairing bones and joints, and in physical therapy.
Some biomechanics researchers study the impact of clothing on the body. Their goal is to come up with garments that are better suited, or more ergonomic, for the human body, trying to develop garments to enhance function. They study the way compression from clothing changes circulation and movement. And they are even studying the architecture of the tissues and how cells are arranged in a matrix that adapts and changes, called the extracellular matrix, and how clothing affects the form and function of this architecture.
In addition to impacts on the extracellular matrix, if you support the breasts from the outside, then the internal ligaments will not be used, and these can atrophy and weaken. This means the bra makes the breasts reliant on it for support, and making the breasts droopier without the exo-ligament.
Of course, supporting the breasts from the outside compresses the bra to the chest. That is different than supporting the breasts from within the tissue, where the breasts are anchored in place to the chest wall by the natural, internal suspensory ligaments.
Being anchored to the chest from the inside does not lead to compression, but being smashed to the chest from the outside does cause compression.
What happens when you compress the breasts, which is evident by marks left in the skin by the bra?
Well, consider the lymphatic system. It is the circulatory pathway of the immune system, and is responsible for removing fluid and toxins from tissues. The tiny, easily compressed lymphatic vessels carry the lymph fluid from the breast tissue to the lymph nodes, mostly in the armpits. The lymph nodes contain immune cells which scan the lymph fluid for infections or cancers, and mounts an immune response if needed.
And yet, despite this system’s importance, it is easily compressed. Tight clothing is a common cause of lymphatic impairment, which is why people with lymphedema are told not wear tight clothing. People need to be told that tight clothing can cause lymphedema and other constriction and compression problems for everyone, not just for people with existing lymphedema.
The problem is that there is little research into the biomechanical impacts of tight clothing. It is a biophysics issue, not a biochemistry one, and modern medicine focuses almost exclusively on biochemistry to develop drugs for treatment.
However, there is no drug to give that reduces the constriction and compression of the breasts from a tight bra. And there is no surgical procedure for excising a bra strap, although if they bill this as the removal of an exo-ligament they may be able to get paid for it.
Despite the lack of research on the impact of tight clothing, medicine uses compression garments as a therapy. Sometimes they prescribe an exo-ligament to compensate for a damaged endo-ligament. For example, if you have a weak shoulder you may wear your arm in a sling. The sling is an exo-ligament to compensate for a weakened internal suspensory system. However, this is a temporary therapy. You would not want to wear a sling day and night for the rest of your life. And if you did, your internal ligaments will atrophy from nonuse, and you would become dependent on the exo-ligament for support.
Of course, that is what women do with bras. From puberty onwards, women wear exo-ligaments on their breasts, some 24/7. Until these women get breast cancer, their doctors will not mention bras, except to remove them for mammograms and surgery. And after surgery, these women will be offered breast prostheses with a mastectomy bra.
What else can happen from using an exo-ligament on the breasts? When lymph fluid drainage from the breasts is impaired, fluid backs up forming lymphedema and tissue pressure. This leads to breast pain, cyst formation, tissue toxification, and increased cancer incidence.
Compression from bras can also impair blood circulation, depending on the bra tightness, amount of time worn daily, and degree of breast congestion with backed-up lymph fluid. Pressurized breast tissue from lymphedema adds resistance to blood flow.
This pressure has been shown to interfere with the autonomic nervous system, too. Tight bras have been shown to cause slower digestion, longer menstrual cycle, lower core body temperature, lower melatonin levels, and reduced breathing. They also compress nerves, especially in the shoulder area where some women have deep grooves from the bra strap shifting the weight of the breasts to the shoulders. This also causes headaches, backaches, and tingling in the hands.
Clearly, this issue goes beyond bras and breasts. Any clothing that is used for “support” is an exo-ligament that can alter the anatomy and physiology of the body to which it is connected.
Clearly, the medical study of anatomy should not be limited to the biological body. Cultural impacts must be considered, since they alter our biology. Anatomy books should show the naked body with and without various exo-ligaments we use that alters the natural anatomy.
Keep in mind that structure and function go together in biological systems. When you change the structure, you also alter the function.
There are other examples of cultural-caused alteration of the human body due to clothing. Feet are distorted by tight shoes, which are put on people when they are infants and are worn daily, for life. This even affects how people walk and move.
Not all alterations of the body require genetic mutation. Altertions are easily created by tight clothing. Our culture is creating mutated feet, breasts, and waists with exo-ligaments like shoes, bras, and corsets.
And it’s not just clothing that the culture can use to alter the human body. Some cultures use knives to alter their bodies, as when doctors perform circumcisions on boys and girls. Body piercing and tattooing also alter the body and how it works. Our culture wants to redefine the human body. But what is the cost to health?
Of course, doctors will happily put implants inside the breasts, too. They have not yet considered the biomechanical impact of bras on breasts, but they sometimes tell their newly breast-implanted patients to avoid tight bras, since this can damage the implant! Of course, the implant is compressing nearby lymphatic vessels as it pushes against the internal breast structure. A bra worn outside the breasts with an implant inside the breasts creates a two-sided compression of the breast tissue, which obviously can’t be a good thing.
Clearly, clothing is an extra skin, and when tight, an extra-ligament. Maybe medicine will pay attention to tight clothing when they think of it as a exo-ligament, which is an anatomical term. (But probably not.)
Fortunately, you don’t need surgery to remove these exo-ligaments. It is a non-surgical procedure that you can do at home. You won’t need any expensive equipment. Just use your fingers. There is probably a YouTube video on how to remove a bra if you need help. Then get rid of the tight jeans, the tight shoes and socks, the tight panties and underwear, the tight belts, and the tight neckties, hats, and jewelry.
Sometimes you don’t need a physician; you just need some common sense, a body sense, and a will to survive our insane culture and what it does to our bodies.
References:
Extracellular matrix biomechanical roles and adaptation in health and disease. https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/febs.16938
SOME STUDIES THAT SUPPORT THE BRA-CANCER LINK
- 1991 Harvard study (CC Hsieh, D Trichopoulos (1991). Breast size, handedness and breast cancer risk. European Journal of Cancer and Clinical Oncology 27(2):131-135.). This study found that, “Premenopausal women who do not wear bras had half the risk of breast cancer compared with bra users…”
- 1991-93 U.S. Bra and Breast Cancer Study by Singer and Grismaijer, published in Dressed To Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras (Second Edition, Square One Publishers, 2018). Found that bra-free women have about the same incidence of breast cancer as men. 24/7 bra wearing increases incidence over 100 times that of a bra-free woman.
- Singer and Grismaijer did a follow-up study in Fiji, published in Get It Off! (ISCD Press, 2000). Found 24 case histories of breast cancer in a culture where half the women are bra-free. The women getting breast cancer were all wearing bras. Given women with the same genetics and diet and living in the same village, the ones getting breast disease were the ones wearing bras for work.
- A 2009 Chinese study (Zhang AQ, Xia JH, Wang Q, Li WP, Xu J, Chen ZY, Yang JM (2009). [Risk factors of breast cancer in women in Guangdong and the countermeasures]. In Chinese. Nan Fang Yi Ke Da Xue Xue Bao. 2009 Jul;29(7):1451-3.) found that NOT sleeping in a bra was protective against breast cancer, lowering the risk 60%.
- 2011 a study was published, in Spanish, confirming that bras are causing breast disease and cancer. It found that underwired and push-up bras are the most harmful, but any bra that leaves red marks or indentations may cause disease.
- 2015 Comparative study of breast cancer risk factors at Kenyatta National Hospital and the Nairobi Hospital J. Afr. Cancer (2015) 7:41-46. This study found a significant bra-cancer link in pre-and post-menopausal women.
- 2016 Wearing a Tight Bra for Many Hours a Day is Associated with Increased Risk of Breast Cancer Adv Oncol Res Treat 1: 105. This is the first epidemiological study to look at bra tightness and time worn, and found a significant bra-cancer link.
- 2016 Brassiere wearing and breast cancer risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis World J Meta-Anal. Aug 26, 2015; 3(4): 193-205 This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the association between 8 areas of brassiere-wearing practices and the risk of breast cancer. Twelve case-control studies met inclusion criteria for review. The meta-analysis shows statistically significant findings to support the association between brassiere wearing during sleep and breast cancer risk.
- 2018 Lymph stasis promotes tumor growth Journal of Dermatological Science “(t)hese findings come as no surprise to us who for a long time have been aware that alterations in regional lymphatic flow may produce dysregulation in skin immune function and consequent oncogenesis. In fact, since 2002, our team has held the view that lymphedematous areas are immunologically vulnerable sites for the development of neoplasms as well as infections and immune-mediated diseases. In recent years, increasing evidence has confirmed this assumption.”
- 2018 How Bras Cause Lymph Stasis and Breast Cancer Academic.edu “Recent studies are showing that lymph stasis causes cancer by reducing immune function. This article draws on these studies to further explain how constriction from tight bras results in lymphatic impairment in the breasts and an increased incidence of breast cancer.
- 2019 Wearing Brassiere – A Less Well Known Factor Associated with Breast Cancer in Women Nurs Midwifery J 2019, 16(12) 891-901. Wearing of brassiere is also a lifestyle-related habit that has sparked many debates today as a risk factor for breast cancer in women. This study was conducted to determine the behavioral Habits of wearing brassiere in women with and without breast cancer. Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed differences in some behavioral habits of wearing brassieres in women with and without breast cancer. So, in preventive interventions for breast cancer, women’s education should be considered in order to be aware of the proper behavioral habits in wearing brassieres.