For years women have feared that wearing a bra might contribute to developing breast cancer. However, this belief has been disproved by a recent study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention.
The study, conducted by Lu Chen, Kathleen E. Malone, and Christopher I. Li and entitled "Bra Wearing Not Associated with Breast Cancer Risk: A Population Case-Control Study", involved over 1,500 women as participants. Information was gathered on everything about these women's lingerie use, such as number of hours of bra-wearing per day, cup size, number of bras with underwire, age when they began wearing a bra, among others.
It was discovered that there was no association between these factors and breast cancer. The research data also revealed that 75% of the participants wore a bra at least eight hours each day.
Such discovery is in contrast with that of a similar study conducted in 1991, wherein the analysis revealed that women who did not wear bras exhibited lower risks in developing breast cancer. This finding led the authors to attribute the likelihood of having cancer to bra-wearing habits. However, it has been argued that other factors could have gone into play, such as weight and obesity.
Despite the fact that this 1991 study was the first of its kind, with this 2014 study as the second one (according to records), the myth that wearing a bra can cause cancer spread so easily. Although the American Cancer Society (ACS) has been adamant in confirming that there is no such scientific and empirical basis for claiming that bras can cause cancer, majority of the population still believed it to be true.
Lu Chen, an author of the 2014 study, said that other risk factors should be examined, suc h as lack of physical activity among women, exposure to carcinogens, and being overweight.