Gwyneth Paltrow’s feminine lifestyle publication has faced criticism for offering controversial advice and tips in the past, however a Goop story linking breast cancer with wearing a bra goes too far, according to one California OB-GYN.
Whether its advising women too evacuate their bladders in the shower, or advocating a technique for steam cleaning the vagina, Goop has taken an at times unorthodox approach to women’s health.
Goop contributor Dr. Habib Sadeghi recently published a comprehensive 2,700 word essay about a possible link between breast cancer and bras for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is now being criticized for lacking a scientific basis.
“Forty years ago, at the height of the feminist movement, women were being encouraged by political activists to take off their bras and burn them in a symbolic declaration of independence and power,” writes Sadegh in Goop. “Today, women are still being encouraged to discard their bras, but by healthcare professionals, for reasons that have less to do with power than with breast cancer prevention.
One claim made in Goop is that bras may raise the temperature of breast tissue, which could “alter hormone function and raise the risk of breast cancer.”
Read Sadeghi’s post in full here.
According to his website, the doctor has used “Western medical interventions and intuitive Eastern healing modalities,” in order to “achieve astounding results in patient cases that were otherwise deemed hopeless by traditional medicine.”
Gwyneth Paltrow’s guru advice on breast cancer is flat-out wrong, says San Francisco-based OB-GYN Jennifer Gunter, who wants women to know any story correlating bras and cancer should not be taken seriously, as any argument on the subject is baseless.
Saying articles such as Sadeghi’s scare women, Gunter told the Huffington Post Tuesday Oct. 20, “Breast cancer is a complex condition that involves genetics and a variety of risk factors, the most common ones being obesity, dense breasts, alcohol consumption, if and when (age) a woman gives birth, taking estrogen, and a history of radiation exposure.”
“None of these things are related to bras except obesity, which gives larger breasts and hence increases likelihood of wearing a bra,” she added.
According to the Huffington Post, the American Cancer Society has said “there are no scientifically valid studies that show wearing bras of any type causes breast cancer.”
Other studies on bras and cancer have also concluded there is no connection.
Gunter concluded of the Goop article, “When people have cancer they desperately reap their past to try and come up with things they may have done, and so this kind of misinformation could cause women to stress and lose sleep and that is definitely bad for your health, nevermind being cruel.”
Neither Paltrow, nor anyone from Goop, has responded to Dr. Gunter’s censure.
Paltrow and her site have previously been heavily criticized for being out of touch with everyday women, who mostly make up its target demographic.
The 43-year-old actress asserted earlier this year she is “incredibly close to the common woman,” after her site was chastised last November for marketing a Holiday Gift Guide featuring items that were well over the budget of most women.
Among those items: a diamond vase that was valued at $12 thousand.
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