Ladies, why wear a bra?

How can anything that leaves these types of marks every day be good for you?

There is an excellent website called http://www.007b.com/ and this site challenges women to review their relationship with their breasts with one of the articles on the site dealing extensively with the question of wearing bra's.

From the 007b site:

Over 90% of North American women wear a bra, many without ever asking why. This article talks about different reasons women give for wearing a bra. Interestingly, bra wearing is not a necessity for most women for their breasts' sake; it is worn for cultural reasons.

That's an interesting statement I thought that the bra was needed to support breasts?

According to the site:

This is largely a myth: "...wearing a bra... has no medical necessity whatsoever", says Susan M. Love, M.D in her "Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book". This is similar to the myth that women supposedly need corsets to support their stomach muscles.

Now, large-breasted women may need the support from bras. Jogging and other active sports may be painful even for medium-breasted ladies. This is, however, an individual thing, so do what is comfortable for you.

In one study, large-breasted women removed the weight of breasts from their shoulders for two weeks, either by going braless or by wearing a strapless bra. Only one woman chose a strapless bra and all the others went braless. The researchers monitored the women for muscle pain and tenderness. Seventy-nine percent of patients decided to remove breast weight from the shoulder permanently because it rendered them symptom free!
(Ryan, EL, Pectoral girdle myalgia in women: a 5-year study in a clinical setting. Clin J Pain. 2000 Dec;16(4):298-303.

So again we have been conditioned that clothing or certain items of clothing are a necessity when really it is just a societal construct!

This site does women in particular and the population in general a great service by presenting a large number of photographs that demonstrate, what Naturists have discovered by practicing our lifestyle, that there is a huge range of breast shapes and sizes and all are normal.

In our clothes compulsory society where the body is constantly hidden from view, except in the hands of advertisers and pornographers, people have lost the idea what is a normal body shape.

We, as a society, have allowed the the female body and body parts to be sexualised and objectified all primarily in the name of profit.

Ladies, it is time to reclaim your body!

VITAMIN D deficiency is putting Australians at risk of developing diabetes, a landmark study has shown.

The largest study of its kind found people with higher levels of vitamin D in their blood were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with lower levels. It could lead to at-risk patients using vitamin D supplements along with diet and exercise to stop their development of the potentially deadly condition.

The study's co-author Ken Sikaris, a pathologist at Melbourne Pathology, said the research could have a big impact in slowing increasing rates of diabetes in Australia. "It's hard to underestimate how important this might be," he said.

Between a third and a fifth of the Australian population could be vitamin D deficient and rates were highest in the southern states, which received less sunlight, Dr Sikaris said.

The study, published in the journal Diabetes Care and presented by Dr Lu at a conference of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, retested blood samples taken as part of the major AusDiab study of risk factors for diabetes.

It found vitamin D deficiency was an independent risk factor, even after adjusting for others, such as weight and physical activity.

Read more: HERE @ SMH Online

Anyone who has experienced the joy of the feel of the sun all over their body will tell you the inherent benefits, both mental and physical of the experience. Of course Naturists are also mindful to avoid sunburn by applying good quality sun screen.

The "Slip, Slop, Slap" campaign run by government is again a case of a message of caution being taken to a message of fear, in this case the fear of melanoma. If one does some research you will find that some melanoma occur where the skin is not exposed to the sun.

Also in the book  "The Vitamin D Solution" Dr Michael Holick states that the action of Vitamin D can actually help prevent internal cancers and even skin cancers with a healthy immune system and that sensible exposure to natural sunlight the benefits of increased levels of vitamin D are many.