Yesterday, October 13, was set aside as the ‘National No Bra Day’. It is a day set aside for women to let off their bras at home in order to raise awareness for breast cancer.

Since the emergence of bras, it has come in handy for women across the world. While majority of them use it as a tool to look ‘firm’ and shield the boobs from dangling all around unnecessarily, a smaller divide of the woman race wear bra for other different purposes, all best known them. However, a notorious research on bras and breasts came out a couple of years ago.

According to iflscience, a sport science researcher and a professor, Jean-Denis Rouillon, conducted a 15-year research on the effect of bras on 330 women aged 18 to 35 and the outcome was mind boggling! The research was geared towards knowing the changes that occur to the breasts yearly when a bra is worn regularly and otherwise, using a slide rule and a caliper.

The research opined that when a young girl wears a bra from an early age, it does not help support the chest, reduce back pain or prevent breast sagging, as against popular belief. “Medically, physiologically, anatomically – breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity. On the contrary, they get saggier with a bra,” Professor Rouillon told France Info in an interview. According to the research, young women get toned breasts and supporting breast tissue if no bra were used. Women who did not wear wear in the research experienced a 7-millimeter (0.3-inch) lift in their nipples compared with their other counterparts. This is because it is claimed that bras have a way of slowing down circulation and reduce breast tone with time.

However, a doctor who was not a part of the research, Stafford Broumand, also confirmed the research, saying: “For younger women, not wearing a bra will lead to increased collagen production and elasticity, which improves lift in a developing breast.” 

However, the research team cautioned on drawing general conclusions from the research, saying that the women in the study are not a representative of the population as a whole.