Paleo Woman: BURN UR BRA

Perhaps this post officially launches me into crazy territory, but hear me out- while this may seem trivial, it has made a difference in my life and perhaps it could in yours. I would hope this issue gets more attention in the future so more studies can be done.

Why am I doing a post about bras? Well, a few months ago I was hit by terrible neck and back pain. Coincidentally, at this time my friend confessed to me that just doesn't wear a bra, which I never even noticed because of the type of clothes she wears. I did some research and found that they can cause back and shoulder strain.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the part played by drag on the pectoral girdle muscles of women in the production of pain in these muscles from breast weight being carried at the shoulders through the brassiere straps. DESIGN: When patients presented with pain in the pectoral girdle musculature, breast weight was recorded. The sites of pain and tenderness were also recorded because tenderness in the trapezius has been shown to correlate well with muscle ischemia. The patient was then asked if she would be willing to remove breast weight from the shoulders for two weeks, as a trial, to see whether pain was relieved. The Student t test was used to determine whether breast weight was significant in producing symptoms and signs in the pectoral girdle musculature and, if so, where these sites were located. SETTING: Private surgical practice with patients initiating the consultation randomly. INTERVENTION: Removal of breast weight from the shoulders for a period of 2 weeks. The choice of method was left to the patient. Most chose brassiere removal; only one patient chose a strapless brassiere. RESULTS: Presence or absence of muscle pain after the trial period. Long-term outcome was presence or absence of muscle pain and tenderness. Seventy-nine percent of patients decided to remove breast weight from the shoulder permanently because it rendered them symptom free.

With my sedentary job, the last thing I need is extra strain. So I pretty much just stopped wearing them. I'm a 100 lb woman and well...let's just say I'm not really hanging out much (unlike some lucky people, when I lost weight on paleo I lost much of it in my breasts). I also own some shelf bra tanks and dresses and figured those were OK since they don't seem to prevent me from moving naturally. Thinking back, my old bras did. When I was slightly overweight I started wearing bras with tight straps, tough protective cups, and hard under-wires. I don't really need them any more, if I ever did. They made me look great in a t-shirt, but I don't wear much of those anymore.

My back pain is totally gone and I actually feel much more comfortable overall. My body seems to cool itself better too and this is very important to me because I don't do well in hot weather. I own some shirts that look...umm, questionable without a bra and am considering buying some minimalist cover ups so that everyone in the entire world doesn't see my nipples (most of Austria and Finland has already seen them thanks to their obligatory nude saunas).

In some ways the breasts are like testicles- they hang away from the body and in a state of nature would naturally be cooler than the rest of the body. Plenty of research has linked tighty whities to testicular issues. The NYTimes was really dismissive of the idea that bras could be linked to cancer, but there really isn't much research on the subject.

Some studies show sports bras prevent tenderness during exercise, but maybe having breasts that are like delicate hothouse flowers is a BAD idea. In Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives author Wenda Trevathan theorizes "Excessive breast tenderness and associated pain with breast feeding may well be products of modernization and the over-protection of women's breasts from exposure. It seems unlikely that this would have been a problem in the past when women wore nothing across their breasts or covered them loosely." Many modern women have pain when they try to breastfeed and give up. In the paleolithic this would have been maladaptive to say the least, since it wasn't like they could go to the grocery store and pick up some formula for the poor starving baby.

There is also NO evidence that not wearing a bra leads to ptosis, AKA breast sagging, although it can certainly mask it.

If you can wear a camisole with just a little support instead of a giant super duper protection system, why not? I understand many women have, um, larger issues at hand, and I do have the luxury of working at a place where half the women are braless... but if you are having back/shoulder pain, it's an option to explore. Thinking evolutionarily to solve health problems is an approach I strongly believe in, but in the end it's about making your own life better, not following any rigid "paleo" principles.

"Breasts were fine before the invention of the brassiere. ... This is similar to the myth that women supposedly need corsets to support their stomach muscles...wearing a bra...has no medical necessity whatsoever. ... Except for the women who find bras especially comfortable or uncomfortable, the decision to wear or not wear one is purely aesthetic — or emotional ... If you don't enjoy it, and job or social pressures don't force you into it, don't bother. ... A mistaken popular belief maintains that wearing a bra strengthens your breasts and prevents their eventual sagging. But you sag because of the proportion of fat and tissue in your breasts, and no bra changes that. ... If you don't like wearing a bra, don't wear one." Dr Susan Love