This Just In: Bras Bad For Boobs

Women of the world, take off your bras! I’m not being a pervert here, a 15-year study shows that they’re actually harmful to your breasts.

A French study published Wednesday from folks whom MSN Now calls the “most dedicated boob scientists in the field today” says that bras don’t do anything to reduce back pain, and that “chest supports” will actually cause your breasts to sag even more over time.

Basically, you should forget everything you’ve ever been told about over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders.

If any study would know these things, it’s this one. It’s probably the most comprehensive study on bras ever, taking place over an epic 15 years. Jean-Denis Rouillon of the University of Besançon in eastern France led the study, and can pretty authoritatively say that conventional wisdom about bras and back pain isn’t all that practical after all.

Rouillon, a sport science expert, says quite frankly that the preliminary results of his experiment show that “bras are a false necessity.”

“Medically, physiologically, anatomically – breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity. On the contrary, they get saggier with a bra,” he said on Wednesday.

Rouillon spent years meticulously measuring changes in the breasts of 130 women with a simple slide rule and caliper at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (University Hospital) in Besançon for his study.

One 28-year-old “subject” of the in-depth study took off her last bra two years ago and hasn’t looked back once.

“There are multiple benefits: I breathe more easily, I carry myself better, and I have less back pain,” she said.

Are you convinced? Should women abandon their bras? I suppose there is still the cosmetic benefit.

[Image via: Aleksandr Doodko, Shutterstock.com]