Nobody these days is without a cellphone.
We all live through our cellphones. But like every other human innovation that comes to define our lives, there are side effects and problems caused that must be discovered after the new technology is introduced.
Cellphones stored in a bra are being shown to cause breast cancer. But is the cause of cancer the radiation from the cellphone, or is it the bra, or both?
Why are cellphones a problem?
Cellphones emit non-ionizing radiation that heats things around it, including the human body. There are also magnetic fields created. While heat and magnetic fields are something the body knows how to handle, the cellphone concentrates these energies to levels that could theoretically exceed body limits, resulting in disease. This can potentially include cancer, which has been associated with heated tissue.
However, the research on the impact of cellphone radiation on health is unclear, especially since there is so much invested in cellphone use in our culture. Given the money involved, and the potential for liability for damages caused by this technology, there will always be conflicting results.
So it is not surprising that the industry-influenced National Cancer Institute takes a non-committed approach on the actual harms caused by cellphone radiation. But they do say concerned people may choose to not hold their phones next to their heads, since radiation from the phone dissipates with distance.
This means using earbuds or the speaker would be a good idea if you are concerned about cellphone radiation, and don’t want to wait until the cellphone industry admits that their products are causing cancer.
But what about cellphones and breast cancer?
Recent research shows a clear association between cellphones and breast cancer, linked to storing the phone in a bra. You could see the tumors occurring where the phone was pressed against the breast.
There are now lots of articles on the Internet about the hazards of placing the cellphone in a bra. It seems like a no brainer once you think about it. But the research results are mixed, as you can imagine. The American Cancer Society, which accepts industry funding, refuses to commit one way or the other about this.
What about the bra?
But let’s step back a minute. We are talking about putting a phone in a bra. The bra has to be tight enough to hold the phone. But tight bras are a health risk by themselves, since they interfere with blood and lymph circulation in the breasts.
This means that the heat from the phone will not dissipate from the breasts as it would without a tight bra interfering with circulation.
Of course, if a woman were bra-free and she held a cellphone to her breast for hours, the heat from the phone radiation would be flushed away with normal blood and lymph circulation. The skin may get warm, but the temperature would not go too deeply into the tissues. However, applying a bra to hold the phone there will keep the heat in the breast longer.
Here is a thermographic image of a woman taken 15 minutes after she removed her bra. Note the shoulder grooves and indentations made by the bra, which are signs of compression and constriction. Note also the deeper red color between the bra straps, showing how the bra is altering circulation and increasing heat in that area.
Impaired circulation means toxin accumulation
We are exposed to poisons everyday in our polluted air, food, and water, as well as from medications and our own metabolic waste. These are normally flushed away from the breasts through blood and lymph circulation. However, compression and constriction of the breasts impairs this drainage system, resulting in fluid and toxin accumulation in the breasts.
This fluid accumulation in the breasts is common in bra-using women, over 90% of whom wear too tight a bra. The resulting backed-up lymph fluid causes pain and cysts. Over time, the cysts can become scar tissue and fibrous. This is how fibrocystic breast disease forms from the use of bras.
Failure to adequately flush away cancer-causing toxins due to the bra results in longer toxin exposure in the breast. This increases cancer incidence in the breasts relative to other, non-constricted organs where toxins are more adequately cleared.
There is another problem
Bras also can be toxic, depending on the fabric and the chemicals used in its manufacture, storage, and cleaning. Synthetic fabrics include polyester and nylon and all elastic clothing. Phthalates, parabens, formaldehyde, “forever chemicals”, and other toxic substances are used in the production of synthetic bra materials, and leach out of the material and onto the skin, which can cause rashes, allergic reactions, infections, inflammation, and even cancer.
The bra company knows this about synthetic bras, and tells consumers to not over heat them when washing or drying, since heat speeds up the breakdown of the fabric of the bra, making it deteriorate. Of course, this means the bra becomes more toxic as it breaks down and releases toxic chemicals.
However, there is another way to heat the bra besides washing and drying. How about heating it with a cellphone placed against it?
It is likely (although don’t hold your breath for the research) that the radiation emissions from the cellphone can heat and accelerate the leaching of chemicals from the bra, increasing the toxin exposure of the breasts.
This means that the cellphone not only heats the breasts, but it also heats the bra, and makes it deteriorate. The resulting heat and toxins are kept in the breasts for a longer time due to the bra.
But wait! There’s more!
A tight bra also prevents the immune system from attacking infections and cancer cells that are developing in the breasts. The lymphatic system happens to also be the circulatory pathway of the immune system, carrying white blood cells, as well as transporting important chemical messages from the tissues to the lymph nodes for an immune response. White blood cells, which are the immune system’s army, cannot mobilize and properly do their jobs in bra-impacted breasts that are constricted and congested with backed-up lymph fluid (lymphedema).
This means that any insult to the breasts is made worse by constricting the breasts with tight bras. It could be heat, or ionizing radiation from mammograms or non-ionizing cellphones, or chemical toxins, or a punch to the chest. Whatever the insult, the immune system is charged with fixing the problem and cleaning it all up, but can’t do its job properly when the breasts are constricted by bras.
Flawed research ignores bras
Getting back to the research on cellphones held in bras, there is a glaring problem. These studies do not recognize the impact of the bra on breast health, and ignore that variable completely. They tried to control for other variables that affect cancer incidence. But they ignored the bra completely, which is a big flaw.
As a result, they never asked the women in the study about bra material, whether the fibers are synthetic and toxic, or nontoxic natural fibers. They didn’t ask about bra tightness, which affects how much interference there will be with circulation and the ability to remove heat from the breasts. They didn’t ask about how long each day these women used bras, with or without a cellphone.
This is why research on breast cancer and cellphones is conflicting, as are other studies on lifestyle and breast cancer which ignore the bra. How long and how tightly a woman wears a bra has a major impact on breast cancer development, as studies around the world have shown.
You can’t study breast disease, including cancer, without considering bra usage, just as you can’t study lung disease without considering tobacco usage.
Cellphones are clearly a problem for the breasts when held in a bra. The cellphone-caused damage is exacerbated by the bra-caused impaired circulation. But the solution is simple:
- Never wear a bra or any garment that leaves marks or indentations in your skin. These marks mean it is impairing circulation, and over time will cause tissue deterioration.
- Only wear natural fabric next to your skin.
- Avoid bra usage as much as possible. This will also help eliminate breast pain, cysts, and help avoid breast cancer.
- Never sleep in a bra.
- If you don’t wear a bra, you will not be able to store your phone next to your breasts, so this helps you avoid the habit of storing your phone there. No bra, no phone holder on your chest.
- Don’t store your phone in your pants pocket, either. Try avoiding keeping it next to your body. How about storing it in a purse or backpack, instead?
- Don’t wait for the health authorities to come to your rescue. They will admit a problem only when they can no longer deny it. You can be dead by then.
In conclusion, your bra is a greater risk to the breasts than the cellphone. If you get rid of the bra, you eliminate this cellphone problem completely, and reduce your overall risk of breast cancer, and other breast diseases.
For those who want more on the bra-cancer link, here are some references.
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.