The Bra and Breast Cancer - a Dangerous Relationship

Breast cancer has been steadily increasing in prevalence over the past many years. Breast cancer causes more deaths in women than any other condition annually. Over two hundred thousand cases of breast cancer are reported every single year in the US alone. As such, the latest statistics indicate that nearly one in every nine women in the coming generation might contract breast cancer at some age in their life. This is, therefore, a time to take into the consideration the different factors that increase the pre-disposition and risk of breast cancer.
While many factors have been highlighted and singled out as possible risks for breast cancer, none have been able to account for the increasing number of cases that lack many of these, and sometimes, all of these factors. Even genetic studies have failed to establish why so many women have been affected by breast cancer when they lead healthy lifestyles with no history of cancer in the families. The panic that this increasing prevalence has caused in the medicinal worlds has led researchers to many newer studies, which indicate something shocking – the length of time you wear a bra, and possibly the type that you wear can drastically increase the risk of breast cancer.
A study reported that wearing a bra for 12 hours or so a day increases not only the risk of breast cancer, but also of other diseases such as cystic breasts, breast pain, breast tenderness and tight-bra syndrome. With the numbers that the study has reported, wearing bras for 18 hours or more a day can increase the risk of breast cancer by over 50 times of going without one, and about 3 times that of smoking. As such, it's somewhat of a shock to many people and companies who argued that bras help maintain good posture and reduce pain in back and shoulders.