E-mails blaming bras or antiperspirants for the development of breast cancer have been popping up periodically over the past year.
Wendy Potts, helpline manager for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, often fields questions about these rumors. “People will forward the e-mail myths and ask if they’re true. We’ve been getting the bra one for years and the antiperspirant one for about a year. The Foundation finally had to write a responding to the antiperspirant myth.”
The and the also have addressed this myth in statements on their Web sites.
The bra rumor is based on the hypothesis set forth by a husband-and-wife team of anthropologists a few years ago in the book “Dressed to Kill,” in which they claim bras constrict the lymph system, causing toxins to accumulate in breast tissues, resulting in cancer.
They say this explains the high rate of breast cancer in Western cultures and the low rate in less-industrialized regions of the world, where women are less likely to wear bras.
“Biologically, this is just not a credible hypothesis,” Smith said. “The authors of this hypothesis published it not through the scientific literature but on their own in book form so that it bypassed all the conventional peer-review processes.”
A lack of blood supply or increased pressure is not what causes normal cells to become malignant, Glaspy added. “It is a series of mistakes that are made in the Xeroxing of genetic material when cells divide.”
The antiperspirant myth claims that while deodorant is safe, antiperspirant is the “leading cause of breast cancer.” According to the e-mail, by stopping perspiration, antiperspirant prevents the armpits from purging toxins, which are then deposited in the lymph nodes, where the toxins lead to cell mutations.
Experts, however, beg to differ with the science behind this theory.
“First of all, sweat is not a mechanism for eliminating toxins. That’s why we have kidneys and livers,” Glaspy said. “We wouldn’t need those if sweat did it. Sweat is a cooling mechanism for the body.
“There aren’t toxins or carcinogens in sweat,” Glaspy said. Plus, he added, people in cultures in which antiperspirant had not yet been introduced still developed breast cancer.
“There is no evidence that underwire bras or any kind of undergarment or antiperspirant or anything a woman would put in her armpit would alter breast cancer risk one bit,” he said.
Potts attributes the spread of these online rumors to wishful thinking. “If somebody hears that they can avoid the disease, they’re apt to believe it,” she said. “We’d all like to believe that we could avoid getting breast cancer.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3076845/from/RL.1/
um... so no we cant get canser from wear underwire bras or thats at least what i make out from reading this.