When I was considering topics to write for this blog period I discovered there was a lot of discrepancy over ways to contract cancer. There are a lot of fearful theories that can lead to people taking unnecessary drastic measures in their lives. For this reason I decided to create a three-part blog series on debunking cancer myths. Although there are many more than what I covered I decided to focus on some of the ones I was surprised by or have heard previously.

Part One: The Boob Wrangling Apparatus reffered to affectionately as the bra. 

Bras, they’re something all girls must deal with in their life. They can be annoying and uncomfortable and I think most girls would agree nothing feels better than taking it off after a long hard day. Recently my friend mentioned a rumor that she had heard, sleeping in a bra can cause breast cancer. I was intrigued and I found that in fact this a hotly debated issue. In fact this July a study was recently published discussing the issue. I thought since this month is breast cancer awareness month there would be no better time to share this information.

The study involved 1,500 post menopausal women, 454 diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, 590 diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma and 469 women who were controls and were not diagnosed with any kind of breast cancer. Through personal interviews about bra usage, size, and bra type the study has concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the theory that wearing a bra does not increase the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

Although I did have some problems with the experimental design overall I believed the study was done well enough to believe this conclusion. In addition to this study many other variations have been done with similar results, which caused me to affirm the conclusion this particular study had. I found it interesting that the study looked at the two types of breast cancer to conclude that a bra has no affect on any kind of breast cancer, rather than generalizing it and studying those with just one type of breast cancer. I found that the sample size was large enough and the study further explained how they used statistical formulas to providence a confidence interval for the data collected. The only problem I did have was that the study did not clarify whether or not the scientists considered confounding variables. It is well known that genes play a big part in a breast cancer diagnosis and the fact that they my not have considered this in those who were diagnosed with cancer and those who were not could skew some of the data. Obviously an experiment is preferred to an observational study but in this case I think the study was conducted properly for the most part and the conclusion is valid.

So good news ladies, although possibly uncomfortable sleeping in a bra will not increase your risk for breast cancer. There have been speculated health risks so if you do chose to sleep in a bra still be careful. If your bra is too tight it can cut off circulation to your breasts and cause cysts to form or fluid accumulation. If your lymph nodes under your arms are aggravated this could be a sign that your bra is causing circulation problems in your breast. (Huffingtonpost) In this case you should consider switching your bra to something with less padding or a softer underwire. So generally speaking sleeping in your bra is perfectly healthy as long as you are smart about it and listen to your body.

Works Cited

Chen, Lu, Kathleen Malone, and Christopher Li. “Bra Wearing Not Associated with Breast Cancer Risk.” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. American Association for Cancer Research, 15 July 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

Gorski, David. “One More Time: No, Wearing a Bra Does Not Cause Breast Cancer.” Science-Based Medicine. Science-Based Medicine, 8 Sept. 2014. Web. 18 Oct. 2014.

Kitchens, Simone. “Is Sleeping In A Bra Good Or Bad For You? (PHOTOS).” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Aug. 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.