For most women, there is no better feeling at the end of a long day than returning home and taking off their bras. But most women are still wearing them, because we think that it can keep breasts young and healthy. However, scientists have recently proved that there’s no solid reason to do so.
Professor Jean-Denis Rouillan, of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Besancon in France, revealed that bras are not necessary for women’s breast health. According to his study, a bra is not necessary anatomically, medically, or physiologically. Instead, bras actually prevent breasts from growing or achieving their natural lift.
Research Background and Results
In the study, 330 volunteers aged 18 to 35 had their breasts measured over 15 years. The results showed that women who did not wear a bra had a 7-millimeter lift in their nipples each year. In addition to this, the breasts of the women who did not wear bras also showed fewer stretch marks. Their breasts were even firmer than those of women who regularly wore bras.
Professor Roullin’s study is a contradiction to this conventional wisdom. According to the study, not wearing a bra actually protects your breasts from gravity. This is because it forces women to have better posture. It also forces the body to develop the muscles that lie underneath the breasts, which aid breast support and lift.
One woman in the study said that after forgoing her bra for two years, she could breathe better, had better posture, and had less back pain. This is despite the fact that bras are historically designed to improve posture and lessen back and breast pain.
Scientific Reasons VS Social Norms
Bras are divisive amongst women because no one really knows what to do with them. For some women, they are essential to daily life. For others, they are nothing but a hassle. For all women, they are expensive and fickle. Whether you love them or hate them, it can be impossible to find the right fit at the right price.
For young women who are only just beginning to wear bras, science says there is no reason to push them. In fact, not wearing a bra is far better for young women because it supports the growth of breast tissue, according to Professor Rouillan’s study. This is in addition to supporting muscle tissue growth in the area.
This means that there is little reason for mothers to force their 10-year-old daughters into wearing a training bra. These bras serve aesthetic purposes that serve only cultural norms and local beauty standards. Rather than supporting a girl’s development, these bras stifle it and force them into a lifelong sentence of bra wearing.
Limitations
Professor Rouillan noted that his study only included women between the ages of 18 and 35. Because these women are young, they have not depended on a bra their whole lives. This is not true of the rest of bra-wearers, particularly those over the age of 35 or 40. These women have been wearing bras for decades. As a result, taking them off full-time would likely lead to more discomfort than it would in younger women.
The results of this study are not revolutionary. There is no need to cut up your Victoria’s Secret Angels card just yet. Researchers are not using this study to tell women to stop wearing their bras.
This is because the sample size involved in the study is not representative of women as a whole. There are also huge gaps in the information about the biometrics of bouncing of women’s breasts during physical activity.
In reality, they are saying that there is no scientific reason to start wearing a bra.
Featured photo credit: bra/Misty Pittman via stocksnap.io
