Fact Check: Can wearing a tight or wired bra cause breast cancer?

Hyderabad: Several posts have gone viral on social media claiming that wearing a bra that is tight or wired is vaguely linked to cancer.

A viral Facebook post about the topic reads, “These two types of bra’s are unhealthy for these various reasons. (sic)” Then the user posted a link to an article published on Green Living Tribe in the comments titled, “These Two Types Of Bra’s May Not Be The Healthiest To Wear – Along With Other Health & Breast Issues.” The article also asks, ‘Is there a missing link between bra use and cancer?’

Similarly, in a YouTube video, a speaker called Barbara O’Neill, who was called ‘a disgraced wellness coach’, claimed that wearing a wired or right bra causes breast cancer. Her comments on bras and cancer can be seen at the 54:10-minute mark in the video.

Fact Check

Newsmeter found that the claim is false as the latest scientific research shows that the type of bra has nothing to do with cancer.

A quick glance through the article on the Green Living Tribe shows that the claims in the article have been debunked by other fact-checkers. For more information to debunk the claim, we searched through legitimate scientific articles.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines breast cancer as a disease in which cells in the breast grow out of control. There are different kinds of breast cancer. The kind of breast cancer depends on which cells in the breast turn into cancer. Breast cancer can begin in different parts of the breast.

According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, “No matter what the type, bras do not cause cancer. There is no evidence to support the myth that lymph fluid is restricted when wearing an underwire bra (which sparked this myth decades ago) or any other type of clothing, although bras that do not fit well can cause discomfort and swelling. Likewise, no evidence supports the idea that going braless reduces the risk of breast cancer.”

A 2014 study also could not find any relationship between cancer and a bra of any kind or no bra. It said, “No aspect of bra wearing, including bra cup size, recency, average number of hours/days worn, wearing a bra with an underwire, or age first began regularly wearing a bra, was associated with risks of either invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) cases and 590 invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC).

The National Center for Health Research acknowledges several persistent internet rumours about potential causes of breast cancer. One of them is that wearing a bra or wearing an underwire bra, causes the disease.

The article states, “The idea that bras may cause cancer was fuelled by the 1995 book called Dressed to Kill by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer. It claims that women who wear underwire bras for 12 hours a day have a much higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who do not wear bras. They maintain that bras restrict the lymph system, which results in a build-up of toxins in the breasts.”

However, according to the American Cancer Society, there is no evidence that compression of the lymph nodes by bras causes breast cancer; in reality, body fluids travel up and into the underarm lymph nodes, not towards the underwire. Similarly, there is no sufficient evidence that going braless will help reduce your risk of developing breast cancer.

Mayo Clinic says even researchers have identified hormonal, lifestyle and environmental factors that may increase your risk of breast cancer. But it’s not clear why some people who have no risk factors develop cancer, yet other people with risk factors never do. It’s likely that breast cancer is caused by a complex interaction of your genetic makeup and your environment.

Hence, wearing wired or tight bras or even wearing a bra or not does not correlate with developing breast cancer. Rush to your nearby doctor, the moment you feel any growing lump in your breasts. Get yourself examined.