In my earlier post on this topic I gave a link to an article suggesting that the idea that bras contributing to breast cancer is a myth.
Fact or Fiction? Underwire Bras Cause Cancer: Scientific American
The "experts" were responding to results of a study which found that:
- Women who wore their bras 24 hours per day had a 3 out of 4 chance of developing breast cancer
- Women who wore bras more than 12 hour per day but not to bed had a 1 out of 7 risk.
- Women who wore their bras less than 12 hours per day had a 1 out of 152 risk.
- Women who wore bras rarely or never had a 1 out of 168 chance of getting breast cancer.
- The overall difference between 24 hour wearing and not at all was a 125-fold difference.
Their reasons are as follows:
" Bra-caused breast cancer theory is not supported by sufficient evidence. Scientists say the research of Singer and Grismaijer failed to exclude confounding variables such as the presence in some women of known risk factors for breast cancer. Thus, the notion of a correlation between wearing a bra and breast cancer does not appear to hold up."
I have to comment on this because it is such a rediculous criticism yet may apear valid. It is not. The fact that Singer and Grismaijer did not control for known or accepted risk factors only represents a problem if it is reasonable to believe that the apparent correlation was actually caused by one or more confounding variables(risk factors). This could represent a valid problem if the women who wear bras at night have an extremely higher tendency to be older, and have other risk factors, than those who do not wear a bra at night.
But is it reasonable to believe that the average age of women who wear bras at night is so much higher than the average age of those that don't? Enough to account for the one group being 125 times as likely to develop breast cancer than the other? I think
that theory is more absurd than the theory that wearing a bra at night can be a contributing factor. Or maybe women with mothers and sisters that have had breast cancer are 125 times more likely to wear bras at night.
Another reason given is the following:
"It just really is not logical in terms of what would increase your risk of breast cancer," says Louise Brinton, chief of the hormonal and reproductive epidemiology branch of the National
Cancer Institute. Brinton, who has been doing research in the field for 30 years, says commonly accepted breast cancer risk factors are generally things that affect endogenous hormone levels.
Not logical? Thats good evidence.
Susan Love is president and medical director of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation in Pacific Palisades, Calif., and a former breast cancer surgeon as well as author of
Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book, now in its fourth edition. Love agrees that the bra myth comes from the frustration of not knowing what causes the disease, coupled with a desire that the disease should come from the outside, from something a woman can control.
Whats this
experts explanation? Evidence that bras may contribute to breast cancer should be completely disregarded because women are frustrated and want to think there is something they can do about breast cancer. Um. that logic makes perfect sense.
She continues:
"You find people less wanting to think about birth control pills, hormone replacement therapy and fertility drugs," she says, "and more about pesticides, bras and deodorant. We don't know what causes breast cancer, and the majority of the risk factors that we know about do not explain it. However," she adds, "I don't think bras—or the lack thereof—are the secret answer."
One fallacy is that critics insist on looking at the question as "do bras
cause breast cancer?" But no one is suggesting that. Old age doesn't
cause breast cancer either but it is considerred a "risk factor". Why are these people so reluctant to call wearing a bra more than 12 hours a risk factor?
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