Women who go braless may actually be better
off health wise, if results of a 15-year study in
France are anything to go by. The brand new
study shows that brassieres (bras) provide
virtually no benefits to breasts and, on the
contrary, may actually be harmful to breasts over time. Researchers spent all this time studying the
breasts of over 330 French women, and
concluded that wearing a bra does not prevent
sagging or ease back pain as commonly
thought and even warned that breasts do get
saggier with a bra. Taking measurements with a caliper, the
researchers found that by not wearing a bra,
muscles around the breast actually
strengthened and the nipple 7 mm per year
toward the shoulder. However, they did not
recommend all women abandon their bras since their muscles had probably already
degraded. According to Jean-Denis Rouillon, a professor
at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon,
“Medically, physiologically, anatomically, the
breast does not benefit from being deprived of
gravity.” In the study conducted at the university’s
hospital, Rouillon and others measured and
examined the breasts of more than 300
women, aged 18 and 35, taking note of how
the additional support provided by bras affects
the body over time. (It should be noted the study does not mention breast size.) Overall, they found that women who did not
use bras benefited in the long term, as they
developed more muscle tissue to provide
natural support. They noticed that in women
who went braless, the nipples gained a higher
lift, in relation to the shoulders. When bras are worn, the restrictive material
prevents such tissue from growing, which may
actually accelerate sagging, the study
concluded. A 28-year-old woman, who participated in the
research, found that she breathes easier
without the constraints of a bra. Initially, she
was a little reluctant to the idea of running
without a bra, but got started and after five
minutes, had no trouble at all. Despite the findings, the researchers said it
would be dangerous to advise all women to
take off their bras based on the study’s sample,
which may not be representative of the
population. They cautioned women who have worn bras
for a long time — several decades — from
following the recommendation since they
would not benefit from taking off their bras
now. Nevertheless, being braless is still largely seen
as the exception rather than the rule and most
ladies may not be as ready to throw away their
bras just yet. While going braless is fast becoming politically
correct and fashionable, the undergarment
industry has continued to come up with
increasingly structured and expensive designs,
raking up to $11 billion revenue every year
according to Business Week.