Braless

Okey ladies. I'll provide you with some information about breast health and everything that follows. 

The saggy myth

Number one tip for breast health is to ditch the bra, as much as you possibly can. First of all, if you put your arm in a sling, and let it sit there for weeks, months or years, your arm would become anaemic, weak and saggy. The same thing happens to our breasts when supported by a bra as they are not being able to develop natural support. 

A lot of women are misinformed, and think that if they don’t wear a bra, their breasts would get saggy, but it's actually the opposite, your breasts are becoming weaker and weaker by the day, as you wear a bra. It's shown that women who did not use bras benefited in the long term as they were developing more muscle tissue to provide natural support, and my own experience is just the same.

I try to always look at what's most natural, when it comes to health and wellness. We were certainly not created to wear a bra, from mother nature's perspective, and I would say that using one, throughout our whole lives, does not benefit us. Becoming bra-free has made a big difference for both me and for other women in my life. Years ago, before going braless, I could never do any activity braless without feeling pain and tenderness in my breasts and I felt naked, uncomfortable and weird going without one. Now, I never use one. I actually stopped using one as I couldn't take the pressure over my heart, but as my breasts and mind changed, going without felt so much better on all levels. Today I can even go for a run without one, and I must say that my breasts has become more firm and "perky", which is explained by stronger muscle tissue in and around the breasts. I'll do sports bras whenever I need to, and a wireless bra every blue moon, other than that, nothing. The transition from using one everyday, almost day and night, to walking around without one was fairly easy I must say. Everything is a habit, and as I started walking around without, that soon became the new normal. If it hurts going without, it just means your breasts are weak and not supported by its own - yet. Start changing the habit, allowing your body to change and you'll feel the difference. 

I also know a lot of women who has had great pain around the neck area, in their backs and especially on top of their shoulders, which is where the bra straps are pressuring the most. When you use a bra, you essentially carry the weigh of the breasts on your shoulders, instead of allowing your breast to develop enough strength so that they can carry themselves. This also applies to those of you with bigger breasts, in some cases, going bra-free might make an even bigger difference when having big ones, because the bigger the boob, the more pressure on your shoulders. 

How bras restricts circulation

The second thing is that bras actually restricts lymphatic fluid from draining. Our lymphatic system is an important part of the immune system, and it also works like the garbage disposal for the body as it flushes out toxins. Unlike our cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system does not have a pump to move the fluid. Instead, the lymphatic system is dependent on external stimuli like movement to keep the circulation going. This means that the movement of our body is fully responsible for flushing toxins through lymph. Yes, that means breasts are supposed to bounce. 

The lymphatic system works to protect us against threats, such as various types of microbes, infections, bacteria, toxins and cancer cells we come into contact with every day. Lymph nodes are a part of the lymphatic system, acting as filters. Inside the lymph nodes, these substances such as bacteria are attacked by the immune system, then filtered out. 

There are several groups of lymph nodes throughout the body, many of which are located underneath and around the armpits where they are more concentrated. A big portion of our body's clean up processes happens here, which is why a propper circulation around the lymph nodes areas, like around the armpits, are crucial for propper detoxification function. 

Like mentioned, our lymph system works in our body as a detox, carrying all the toxic waste, in which are eliminated from our bodies through sweat, urin or dumped it in our colon to be expelled further. Our armpits are responsible for eliminating many toxins floating around in our lymph system, since a lot of the toxins comes out through sweat. But when the lymph fluid just sits there, restricted by a bra, it gets stagnant and full of harmful substances. A lot of bras are really tight, and so they are actually also restricting blood flow and circulation in that area. A bra will because of this cause toxins to build up not just in the breasts, as a bra prevents movement of breast tissue and cause the lymphs to gather toxins, but also around it as it restricts the lymphatic system to work propper. 

To get better circulation you can massage or bounce your breast to aid lymph flow, wear a bra as little as possible and never sleep in a bra, as the detox processes of the body is most active at night. We need to support that natural detox by keeping the breast tissue unconstricted. If wearing a bra, try using non-underwire bras.

How bras prevents mobility and causes muscles weakness 

The underwire in a bra creates a unhealthy pressure against the muscle serratus anterior, which is located on the surface of the 1st to 8th ribs at the side of the chest. This muscle acts as a stabilizer and rotator of our shoulder blade, and on most people, the underwire will hit and add pressure on the trigger point of this muscle, causing irritation and pain and not allowing the muscle to work properly. If your muscle are inhibited by the underwire, you will most likely respond by raising your shoulders which can contribute to a increased load on your neck and shoulders muscles, causing further pain in and around your neck and head.