I love my bras. I love the support they provide me. I love the way they “secure” my “assets”. In fact, I love my bras so much that for years I have worn them to bed because it was more comfortable. And besides, how many girls want to risk gravity taking its toll a few years too early and leaving you with saggy breasts? But my views and habits with my bras are quickly changing. A year ago I had a breast cancer scare. My doctor found a lump in my breast during my annual exam. I was scared to death. Luckily, it turned out to be a benign cyst, but I found out that I have very fibrocystic breasts. The Mayo Clinic defines it as such: Fibrocystic breast disease is a very common, noncancerous (benign) breast condition. Women with fibrocystic breast disease have lumpy, painful breasts. While the Mayo Clinic believes that it does not lead to breast cancer, other studies determine otherwise. Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer conducted a study of 5000 women which they documented in their book “Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras”. Not only are women who wear bras 24 hours a day more likely to have fibrocystic breasts, but they are 113 times more likely to develop breast cancer than women who wear bras less than 12 hours a day. Harvard University researchers also stated in a 1991 medical journal that women are 60% more likely to get breast cancer if they wear bras, than if they don’t. The theory is that lymphatic fluid in the breasts is constricted and not able to move freely. If the lymphatic fluid is not able to flow freely, then pockets of toxins form and remain in the breasts. Now, this isn’t to say that all those toxins and chemicals released into the environment and into our food sources aren’t also a cause of Breast Cancer. But it’s looking like the body is in many cases, able to rid itself of these toxins in the breasts through the free flow of lymphatic fluid. Looks like I need to start taking better care of my body, and letting the ladies go free once in a while. Sorry bras.