Is the bra causing health issues?

What is a social factor?  Why would a social factor affect someone’s health? 

          

  Social factors are anything that influences human behavior.   For example; the fashion trend is a social factor. The type of clothes you wear changes with the view of society.    How a person picks their friends are a social factor. Friends change with the many changes a person goes through during the different life cycles. Your Religion is a social factor. Religion dictates what acceptable behavior is and what is not acceptable. Social factors are anything that has to do with how you present yourself to others. 

            

Why would a social factor affect someone’s health?  Religion can be a great influence on mental health.   Side by side, a person who is not religious might have depression more often than a person who receives the sense of belonging and social support the church provides.  Having friends act similarly.  If your friends are supportive and understanding, your mental health will be much better than if you chose friends that were constantly pulling you down, talking you into doing things that could be harmful, or illegal. 

           

 There's always more than one side of things to consider when looking at how social factors affect one’s health.  Take fashion for instance.  One might ask how what we wear and what we look like affects the health. 

         

   It is a social norm that women wear certain garments in public.  It is women who wear high heels to make themselves feel and look more appealing.  It is also more likely that they will fall down and hurt themselves because of these types of shoes.  So, it is a choice that women wear high heels.  It is not required, and it is not frowned upon if they don’t wear high heels.  What is frowned upon, however, are when women are in public without wearing undergarments; specifically the bra.  The question now is, do women wear bras for medical reasons, meaning to help support the breast, or does the bra help deter breast cancer?  Or is the bra used for sexual attraction and every day appearances.

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           Some new research shows the complete opposite.

“Bras do nothing to help support a woman’s breasts and could even be causing damage, research has found…  Professor Rouillon said: “Medically, physiologically and anatomically, breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity.’…The study found that breasts were firmer and sagged less in the women who did not wear a bra, and such women were no more likely than others to suffer from back pain…Professor Rouillon suggested that breasts become “dependent” on lingerie support once women start wearing it, meaning that supporting muscle is under-used and degrades more quickly…Some of the women who took part in the experiment, carried out at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (University Hospital) in Besançon, said stopping wearing a bra had even helped ease back pains."  (http://www.yenghana.com/tag/professor-jean-denis-rouillon/)

Who would have thought that the bra was damaging.  But if it is thought about, any other muscle in the body that is not used starts to atrophy, so why wouldn't the breast muscle as well?  From that point of view, it makes sense.  So what social factor keeps us from not wearing the bra? It might be the fact that the study was only done on 18- 35 year old women?  It is probably because we, as a society expect women to wear the supporting device and if they choose not to, then they become labeled as a not so nice of a person; which then brings on other medically sociological effects. 

            In our society, it is a must to wear our underwear.  Whether it has medical reasons or not, if one chooses not to wear them, it could cause other medical implications that would not happen if one would just put some underwear on!

References:

Yen Ghana.http://www.yenghana.com/tag/professor-jean-denis-rouillon/.  Retrived 4/23/2013. 

Picture 1: Annaharborchronical.com/ Google images

Picture 2: Emmaloiuselayla.com/ Google images