Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An important book, July 12, 2004
I have been working as a physician, combining acupuncture and ostepathic manipulation for many years. Stagnation is a major cause of disease in many areas of health and breast health is no exception. There is a strong negative correlation between bra wearing and breast health. Certainly in some social situations, modesty dictates that a bra be worn at certain times. But going braless when possible contributes to both breast health and firmness.Without meaning to deny the genuine discomfort of the more generously endowed women who have written in, comfort is NOT related to size. Not being able to go braless indicates a situation of restriction and stagnation in the breast. Many "large" women find that this pain goes away after a few days simply by going braless. In other cases, acupuncture and herbal therapy, and/or manual lymph drainage may be required to address the painful stagnation before going braless at home is comfortable. Of course, wearing exercise bras during exercise is appropriate for many if not most women. The double-blind study is the gold standard of western medicine, but common sense dictates that this standard is only applicable to drug therapy studies. To suggest that such a study is appropriate to assess this validity of the author's claims about breast cancer is ludicrous. How could you possibly design a study where neither the patient nor the doctor knew which patients were wearing a bra? I haven't met a women yet who can't reliably answer the question "Are you wearing a bra?" This sort of criticism cannot possibly be motivated by legitimate questions of scientific merit, so personal issues around sexuality are the prime suspect. The high school equivalency exam requirement is set by taking the average scores of eight graders - a clear admission that we do not expect students to learn anything useful in secondary education, such as understanding the term "double-blind study." A common theme in both osteopathy and traditional acupuncture theory is that lack of movement or stagnation is a major contributing factor in all forms of disease. The entire purpose of a bra is to restrict movement. A correlation between excessive bra wearing and disease is therefore self-evident. I can't imagine that any of the critical reviews written to date came from MD's - I would certainly hope that sufficient training imbues a certain humility with regards to the limits of our new fledgling system of medicine in the west. Interestingly, medical schools are compelled by accreditation standards to discard textbooks older than ten years old, as they are considered dangerously out of date. No such requirement is placed on textbooks relating to Chinese medicine in acupuncure schools, as this is recognized as a more mature system, having an unbroken written record for several millenia. We would be well served to look to the east with a bit more respect and sincere attempts at understanding ancient wisdom from a modern perspective. This book is an attempt to bridge that gap in one area of medicine. It may well have flaws, but it is worth further study.
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65 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
AN EMOTIONAL ISSUE, BUT LISTEN UP - THEY'RE RIGHT!, February 8, 2004
It's obvious from the reviews here that this book brings out strong emotion in readers. They either see it as a life saver or are furious at the authors for suggesting a connection between wearing a bra and getting breast cancer. While I agree with the people who say the book makes sense, I'd also like to add that for me it was great to see something posItive in print about going braless. Personally, I have always hated wearing a bra and the first thing I do when I get home from work is to take off my bra. On days when I am home all day, I don't wear one. I put one on when I'm wearing clothes that would make it too obvious that there was no bra underneath if I didn't wear one, but I also heavily avoid such clothing. I do not do this because I'm trying to avoid cancer, but because bras are uncomfortable and (in my estimation) they serve no purpose.The problem for me in more than 30 years of trying to avoid wearing a bra is the many conflicting ways other people interpret my behavior. In my younger years, my husband used to call it "the no-bra look" and that always made me angry. I would reply that it is not "a look" -- I am not trying to "look" like anything, I am merely trying to be comfortable. If I sometimes "jiggle' that can be interpreted as some kind of moral evil. Why? Are breasts evil? You might think so if you consider the fuss made over Janet Jackson's breast at the 2004 Super Bowl! To other people I suppose I just look like an uneducated slob -- after all, where do you see women without bras? In poor countries, in the pages of National Geographic magazine. Don't "civilized" women all wear bras? The authors point out that the bra is a fairly recent invention. For thousands of years of history, women got by without wearing bras. These authors are not the first to believe in a connection between bra-wearing and cancer. In 1983, I was in the hospital and the woman in the bed next to mine had cancer. She told me she got the disease from wearing a bra. Apparently, her doctor thought so. I have read of this in other sources as well. But since the cancer industry brings in Big Bucks for many institutions and individuals, this simplistic idea -- that taking off your bra will decrease your risk of getting breast cancer -- will not appeal to any of them. I found most poignant of all the authors' statement that not one of the organizations or individuals to whom they sent their research replied. This is just too emotional an issue for any of those organizations to even comment. The authors mention that one of the reasons that's been given for wearing a bra is the belief that your breasts will get saggy over the years if you don't wear one. I heard that argument many years ago too and now I've been avoiding bras long enough to have an answer to that by looking in the mirror. Nope, they don't sag! I won't go on a crusade to tell other women to quit wearing a bra, but I hope more women will think about why they wear one and if they find their bra uncomfortable, try taking it off. Believe me, not having anything cutting into your shoulders and mid-section is really wonderful. And it's nice to know I have been reducing my risk of breast cancer by doing what feels good.
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38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting theory, June 5, 2000
By A Customer
A very interesting theory that needs further workup. Unfortunately, don't expect the medical establishment to spend a dime researching it. There's no money to be made from telling women to take off their bras (not in this context anyway) so there will be no research on this issue. This book is it.The criticism that this book is not written by MDs wrings quite hollow, since MDs don't know what causes breast cancer. The medical profession continues to view cancer as a profit maker (see The Cancer Industry by Moss) and goes out of its way to persecute/prosecute anyone who would dare to cure cancer by a non-AMA approved method (see The Persecution of Gaston Naessens by Bird). The medical establishment certainly has no interest in a cancer cure that's free and doesn't require a doctor. The criticism that ths book does not adequately account for all variables is also hilarious since there are no medical experiments in the history of mankind that do so. Real life always throws more variables at a situation than can ever be accounted for in a controlled study. Controlled studies typically only control two or three factors. The criticism that bras can't contibute to cancer because some people need to wear bras is, at best, completely irrational. And yes, wearing tight shoes can cause numerous orthopedic and circulatory problems, so the relationship between bras and breast cancer may not be as strange as one might think.
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