by Bonnie O’Sullivan from "Road to Health" newsletter
A 2 1/2 year study (see footnote) involving 4,730 women found that women who wear bras more than 12 hours a day are at least 21 times more likely to develop breast cancer than those who wear their bras less than 12 hours a day.
Incredibly, women who wear a bra all the time, including to bed, are 125 times more likely to get breast cancer than women who donīt wear a bra at all!
Although the authors of the study, Singer and Grismaijer, obviously havenīt read The Cure For All Cancers because they state "the root cause of breast cancer remains unknown", they are aware that the bodyīs lymph system is involved and that wearing a bra too long each day can result in the build-up of cancer-causing toxins in the breasts.
They go on to say that the Lymph system is part of the immune system, which cleanses the body of toxins. Levels of these toxins, e.g. pesticides found in our food and cancer-causing substances in the air, have increased over past decades.
The cleansing of toxins is especially important for breast tissue, because many toxins concentrate in body fat - and the breast is made up largely of fatty tissue. But if a woman wears a bra, especially a tight one, it can constrict the breast tissue; and in the breast, the lymph vessels are particularly close to the surface of the skin. They are easy to constrict, preventing the lymph system from cleansing toxins from the breast.
So, many women who wear bras may be constricting their lymph vessels and keeping toxins within their breasts for as long as 18 or even 24 hours a day. Meanwhile, the toxins are doing their best to transform normal cells into cancer cells.
Over the years, this takes its toll - overburdened, the immune system is beaten and some breast cells become malignant.
To test this theory, Singer and Grismaijer set up the Bra and Breast Cancer (BBC) study in May 1991. It ended in November 1993. The research took them to five cities - San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas and New York. They interviewed a total of 2,056 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and 2,674 women had no known diagnosis of the disease.
They gave each woman a questionnaire that included queries such as, "How long do you wear your bra each day?" and "Does your bra ever make red marks on your skin or cause irritations?"
In the case of women with cancer, they asked for their attitudes about bras and their bra-wearing habits BEFORE they were diagnosed with the disease.
When the data was collected and analyzed, the results were astounding. The most startling finding was that women who wore their bras the longest - all the time, including to sleep - had 125 times the breast cancer rate of braless women.
They also were 113 times more likely to get breast cancer than women who did wear a bra, but for less than 12 hours a day.
Most women in the study did not wear their bras to sleep but they did wear them more than 12 hours a day. And these women were still 21 times more likely to get cancer than women who wore them less than 12 hours! And even women who wore their bras for LESS than 12 hours a day had a 10 percent increased risk of cancer compared to braless women.
Other Findings of the Study:
Women who developed cancer had been nearly twice as likely to see red marks on their skin or suffer irritations due to wearing a tight bra, compared to the cancer-free women. Before their diagnosis, 99 percent of the cancer-stricken women had worn their bras for more than 12 hours daily, compared to 80 percent of the other women.
Among women in the cancer group, 18 percent had worn their bras to sleep; among cancer-free women, just 3 percent.
While 5 percent of the women without cancer did not wear a bra, only a tiny .24 percent of the cancer-stricken women had gone braless.
The results of Singer and Grismaijerīs research are significant and clear: Women who want to avoid breast cancer should wear a bra for the shortest period of time possible (if at all) and certainly for less than 12 hours a day!
Hereīs what women who wear bras can do to lessen their risk to breast
cancer:
A) Reduce the time spent wearing a bra (if you insist to wear a bra). Put it on as late as possible before leaving the house and remove it as soon as you return.
B) Never wear a bra to bed. Sleeping braless gives your breasts a much-needed rest from constriction.
C) Avoid bras with underwires or other breast-shaping components. Also avoid push-up bras, which typically compress the breast.
D) Avoid strapless bras for more than occasional use. These bras are especially tight around the armpits and are more constricting.
E) Take care not to buy bras in too small a size. If the bra leaves red marks or grooves on your skin, it is too tight.
F) If you experience breast size fluctuations during your menstrual cycle, select different size bras for different times of the cycle.
G) Try to massage your breasts every day as soon as you remove your bra. This will help the Lymph system drain toxins from your breast.
Note: One other aspect to consider - and it not a minor one at all - is the high probability that women who wear a bra (and synthetic underwear in general) continually wear a TOXIC SKIN PATCH! Now that is a daring statement and we explain...
Most modern laundry detergents are still alkaline-based with fancy ingredient names such as washer protection agents, processing aids and brightening agents. Simply put, however, the main ingredients are salt, sand and acid.
The water softeners are aluminosilicates which are aluminum-based salts. Aluminum has been identified as a likely contributor to breast cancer!
Frequently-found "processing aids" are sodium sulfates which are a salt derived from sulfuric acid - an effective drain cleaner. That is why washer protection agents such as sodium silicate is included because it protects your machine's porcelain and metal from being eaten up by the "processing acids".
Now, imagine what is happening to your clothes. Rinse water cannot be 100% effective in removing these toxic ingredients because some of them - such as fabric brightening agents - are formulated so that they can't be rinsed out! Since your clothes are in direct contact with your skin, whatever they contain can be transferred into your body through the skin and that is why clothes become a big, toxic dermal patch throughout your entire life!
What can one do about this?
The first step would be to either change to a different, less toxic, laundry detergent or to eliminate detergents and shampoos entirely and wash with Borax. You simply buy Borax (very inexpensive) at your local grocery store or super market and dissolve 3 table spoons in a pint of hot water. Tighten the lid on the container and swish the water around for a minute or so. Most of the Borax will dissolve in the water until a saturated solution is created. The surplus Borax settles to bottom of the container. When your supply of Borax solution runs low, just add some hot water, allow the Borax to dissolve or add a little more when there is no more at the bottom. This substitute shampoo is fantastic, rinses well, leaves your hair soft and manageable without conditioners and is entirely non-toxic. Your clothes will be equally soft and clean at a fraction of the cost of laundry products and without the toxic danger.
Dr. Hulda Clarke's insistence that solvents allow parasites to proliferate in the human body get support from the following article:
Fabric softeners contain numerous chemicals, many with serious side-effects: alpha-terpineol causes central nervous system (CNS) disorders; benzyl acetate has been linked to pancreatic cancer; benzyl alcohol [derived from Toluene] and camphor associated with CNS disorders; chloroform is neurotoxic and carcinogenic and is on EPA's hazardous waste list.
For a full report:
The Chemical Injury Litigation Project, P.O. Box 2785,
San Rafael, CA 94912.
Source: Well Being Journal - Jan/Feb 1996 issue.
The Lymph system is the body's cellular waste removal system.
One potent way to stimulate the Lymphatic system and to ensure that its circulation is adequate is to do the following:
a) Every day, do 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour of brisk walking where you energetically swing your arms back and forth, practice deep breathing and come back home somewhat out of breath and thoroughly warmed up. This is necessary because the lymphatic system has no ‘pump' like the heart is for the circulatory system and therefore the lymphatic fluid must move by sheer stimulating reflexes.
b) Another way is to mentally divide your body into two parts with the belly button being the dividing line.
1) On the upper half of your body, including the arms, you brush your dry skin energetically with a soft natural bristle broad brush (check with a healthfood store - they often carry brushes with a convenient long handle as bath brushes) in a long stroke that always ends at a location close to your collar bone. Do the left half of your upper body towards the left collar bone and the right half towards the right one. Encircle each breast, stroke the breast tissue gently but firmly - always towards the respective collar bone. This is the general area where the lymph fluid re-enters the blood circulation for ultimate filtering by the kidneys and eventual recycling.
2) On the lower body, including the legs, you would brush your dry skin with long strokes towards the inguinal lymph nodes in each groin i.e. where each leg joins the main trunk towards the front lower part of your abdomen. This is where the largest and most important lymph nodes are located and where a large part of the lymph toxins are ‘digested' and conditioned. This action will stimulate to a great extent the efficient flow of the lymph fluid and therefore ensure an effective waste removal action.
Footnote:
1 - Dressed To Kill, The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras by Sydney Ross Singer the director of the Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Disease in Hawaii, Soma Grismaijer, 1995, published by Avery Publishing Group is a book worth reading.
This information was provided by Bonnie O'Sullivan in her "Road to Health" newsletter.