Change In Clothing Habits

Low Melatonin Level

The results of a study by Japanese researchers suggest that skin pressure by clothing (girdle and bra) could markedly suppress the nocturnal elevation of salivary melatonin, which resulted in an increase of core temperature. [Chronobiol Int 2000 Nov;17(6): pp.783-93 ] This confirms another study indicating that wearing a bra for extended periods increases the risk of breast cancer – and suggests that the connection may be through a depression in melatonin.

To view more detail regarding breast cancer, melatonin and restrictive clothing, please go to the Breast Disease Time Line article.

Insomnia

It seems that granny was right – a hot water bottle or a pair of bed socks are the best way to drift quickly off to sleep. According to Swiss researchers, you are more likely to fall asleep swiftly if your hands and feet are warmer than the temperature of the bedroom.

Dr Kurt Krauchi and his team at the Sleep Laboratory at Basel monitored the body temperature and functions of a group of young, healthy men as they nodded off. In every case, they fell asleep immediately after a shift in blood flow to hands and feet. The study, published in the journal Nature (Sept. 1999), appears to indicate that as we approach the threshold of sleep the body’s temperature regulation system redistributes heat from its core to our extremities.

The researchers say that a hot water bottle at the feet may not directly act on the central nervous system to cause sleep, but it can trigger widening of the blood vessels, which in turn switches the body’s sleep mechanism on. If the extremities are cold, inhibiting the free flow of blood, the sleep hormones fail to kick in and restless insomnia prevails. The scientists speculate that some sleep disorders associated with old age and illness may be caused by poor circulation and an inability to widen blood vessels in the hands and feet.

Increased Risk of Breast Cancer

Highly regarded studies, including one at Harvard, have shown that women who wear bras for extended periods are at much higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who do not. There is strong evidence that this is as a result of impaired lymphatic flow. Wearing a bra, especially a constricting one with underwires and/or tight straps, and especially to bed, prevents normal lymphatic flow and would likely lead to anoxia (lower than normal oxygen content), which has been related to fibrosis, which has been linked to increased cancer risk.

The logical conclusion is that bras should be used as little as possible, if at all. Breast movement should not be restricted. Scientific literature about lymphatic flow indicates that this may be as important as the constriction factor. Every subtle bounce of the breast while moving, walking, running, etc. gently massages the breast and increases lymphatic flow and thus cleans the breast of toxins and wastes that arise from cellular metabolism.

Of course, there may be other mechanisms for the damage that bras apparently cause. One such mechanism could be temperature. Breasts are external organs and have a naturally lower temperature, but this rises when a bra is worn. Cancers can be temperature-dependent; breast cancer is hormone-dependent; temperature can alter hormone function.

All these facts are well-established in medical literature. By whatever mechanism, someone will eventually explain why Singer and Grismaijer found a 125-fold difference in cancer rates between bra-free breasts and those constricted by 24-hour-per-day bra-wearing. They have written a book that is well worth reading, Dressed to Kill, Avery Press, 1995.

Singer and Grismajer suggest that you simply stop wearing one for two weeks and see how you feel. “Don’t sleep in your bra!“, pleads Singer. “Women who want to avoid breast cancer should wear a bra for the shortest period of time possible – certainly for less than 12 hours daily.”

Push-up and sports bras are much worse than loose-fitting cotton bras. You should be able to slip two fingers under the shoulder-straps and side-panels. The higher the side-panels, the more severe the restriction of major lymph nodes. Take your bra off at home. Massage your breasts every time you remove your bra.

To view more detail, please go to the Breast Disease Time Line article.

Breast Cancer

Highly regarded studies, including one at Harvard, have shown that women who wear bras for extended periods are at much higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who do not. There is strong evidence that this is as a result of impaired lymphatic flow. Wearing a bra, especially a constricting one with underwires and/or tight straps, and especially to bed, prevents normal lymphatic flow and would likely lead to anoxia (lower than normal oxygen content), which has been related to fibrosis, which has been linked to increased cancer risk.

The logical conclusion is that bras should be used as little as possible, if at all. Breast movement should not be restricted. Scientific literature about lymphatic flow indicates that this may be as important as the constriction factor. Every subtle bounce of the breast while moving, walking, running, etc. gently massages the breast and increases lymphatic flow and thus cleans the breast of toxins and wastes that arise from cellular metabolism.

Of course, there may be other mechanisms for the damage that bras apparently cause. One such mechanism could be temperature. Breasts are external organs and have a naturally lower temperature, but this rises when a bra is worn. Cancers can be temperature-dependent; breast cancer is hormone-dependent; temperature can alter hormone function.

All these facts are well-established in medical literature. By whatever mechanism, someone will eventually explain why Singer and Grismaijer found a 125-fold difference in cancer rates between bra-free breasts and those constricted by 24-hour-per-day bra-wearing. They have written a book that is well worth reading, Dressed to Kill, Avery Press, 1995.

Singer and Grismajer suggest that you simply stop wearing one for two weeks and see how you feel. “Don’t sleep in your bra!“, pleads Singer. “Women who want to avoid breast cancer should wear a bra for the shortest period of time possible – certainly for less than 12 hours daily.”

Push-up and sports bras are much worse than loose-fitting cotton bras. You should be able to slip two fingers under the shoulder-straps and side-panels. The higher the side-panels, the more severe the restriction of major lymph nodes. Take your bra off at home. Massage your breasts every time you remove your bra.

To view more detail, please go to the Breast Disease Time Line article.

Fibrocystic Breasts

Sydney Singer and Soma Grismaijer (authors of Dressed to Kill, Avery Press, 1995) suggest that some 80% of bra-wearers who experience lumps, cysts or tenderness will see those symptoms vanish, “within a month of getting rid of the bra.”

Upon discovering a lump, Soma began regular breast massage, going bra-less for all occasions, bicycle riding, vitamin and herbal supplementation, and drinking only purified water. Two months later, her lump disappeared. “At the first frightening sign of a lump,” Singer says, “women should take their bras off before they take their breasts off.

In year 2000, two breast surgeons started a study including 100 women at two breast clinics (all of whom had breast pain) and found that over half of the premenopausal women with pain found relief when they quit wearing bras for three months. For some the pain relief was very dramatic, changing their lifes. When they resumed bra wearing for the last three months of the study, the pain returned. Besides the pain data, the doctors also showed video thermography footage that dramatically demonstrated the heat build-up from bra wearing, and they discussed the possible connections with cancer causation.

They also made a documentary film that was shown on nationwide television in Britain.”

Male Infertility (Low Sperm Count)

An article in The Journal of Urology showed that there was no difference in either the semen analysis or the core testicular temperature between groups of men who wear boxers or briefs. Wearing tight pants, once thought to be a factor, turns out not to be important either.

Subsequent to this, another study has demonstrated that getting rid of tight fitting underwear does improve fertility. The researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield compared some 900 men with low sperm counts with 1,300 who had high sperm counts. They found drugs, tobacco, alcohol and weight had little effect. But boxer shorts did.

Smoking, drinking alcohol, using recreational drugs and being overweight are all listed in National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines as factors likely to harm male fertility. But research has found they make little difference – with one exception. Changing underwear style could improve a man’s chances of having a baby.

To make healthy sperm, the testicles need to be a degree or two below body temperature, which is why evolution has seen to it that they hang outside in their own sac, where it’s cooler. Tight Y-fronts risk reversing what millions of years of evolution have achieved.