Jenelle Evans has more reasons to be smiling these days. Just two weeks after going under the knife for a breast augmentation, the “Teen Mom 2” star announced on Twitter that she has gotten engaged to her on-again boyfriend, Gary Head. On Wednesday, May 16, she shared two photos of her engagement ring.

The first picture the 20-year-old reality star posted on her account is a close-up look at her new sparkler, while the second one captures her smiling as she shows off the bauble. In the caption of the second image, she expressed her joy as writing, “I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have @gary_head in my life.”

While Evans didn’t offer further details about when and how Head proposed to her, a close friend of hers told E! News that her boyfriend “surprised her on a Monday when she was dropping [her 3-year-old son] Jace off at her mom’s and [proposed] there on one knee and all.” Another source told Us Weekly that her ring is “a princess cut solitaire diamond.”

Evans’ engagement to Head comes just weeks after she broke up again with former flame Kieffer Delp. She got back with Delp during her brief split from Head in April. Delp was the one who accompanied Evans to the doctor’s office when she underwent breast enlargement surgery on May 2. He was also the one who leaked nude photos of hers to the press.

As for her relationship with Head, Evans has been dating him on and off for over the past 5 months. The two broke up in early April, and at that time, the mother of one tweeted, “I’m very depressed. Me and Gary broke up for good.” After accusing him of physical abuse, she trashed him in a video that sees her singing along angrily to Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ “Face Down”.

© AceShowbiz.com

Post Your Comments

Article source: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00050641.html

For some men and boys it’s a serious cosmetic problem – and there’s at least one surprising way a man can develop the condition.

Dr. Steven Goldman is the owner of Beachwood Plastic Surgery Medical Spa .

“There’s a stigma associated with gynecomastia because men don’t want to have feminine body features,” he said.

It’s a stigma so bad that even the men who’ve had the corrective surgery were afraid to talk with NewsChannel5 on camera.

“Marijuana suppresses testosterone levels,” Dr. Goldman said.

And that means a warning to the boys in your life.

“Young men who use marijuana through puberty may have that transient, temporary breast enlargement become permanent because as their testosterone levels are altered by the marijuana,” Dr. Goldman said. “They can get interference with the normal development. And those men can have in essence more breast tissue when they’re done with puberty than they would have otherwise had.” 

But for other guys it’s genetic and some can develop the condition who’ve lost a lot of weight or who’ve had gastric bypass surgery.

“They may be left with permanent, skin excess, and looseness that might have to be addressed,” said Dr. Goldman.

But are there ways to work it out at the gym?

Dr. Goldman said maybe. NewsChannel5 talked with Cleveland State University Rec Center trainer and graduate student Justin Porter.

He said the chest press exercise might help.

“The chest press is going to be helping your upper chest development.  And it’s going to add a greater load across your chest, which is going to make your chest change after time,” said Porter. 

Also, men who have gynecomastia might want to try the incline cable fly. Porter said that might help to raise the chest. 

But if that doesn’t work, a nip and tuck might be in order.

For some guys, it might mean liposuction.

Dr. Goldman said the corrective surgery can start at  $2,500. In other cases, a cut is made near the nipple.

“That small incision heals very well and usually is not noticeable without a shirt on, or a beach or pool setting, but that small incision allows me through a keyhole to remove the tissue between the pectoralis muscle and the skin. It’s a thin layer of breast tissue that once removed, the skin can contract and the chest looks normal, masculine.”

Dr. Goldman said for teenage boys going through puberty, especially if the gynecomastia is only on one side, it might just be hormonal and can go away.  He said check with your pediatrician.

Also, if the man in your life has gynecomastia, is he at an increased risk of developing breast cancer? 

Dr. Goldman said there’s nothing in medical studies showing a greater increase, but he does run tests.

“If a man had associated symptoms like nipple drainage, you’d have to work that up appropriately, you might get MRIs, get a hormone testing through an endocrinologist, and anybody who comes in with chest enlargement; you have to always consider the possibility of cancer. And some of those patients need more work-up than treating it as purely a cosmetic case.”

Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Article source: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/health/Gynecomastia-or-man-boobs-expensive-and-cheap-ways-to-change-the-chest

Marina del Rey, CA (PRWEB) May 17, 2012

Marina Plastic Surgery has added a technology usually reserved for Hollywood movies. The new Vectra® 3-D imaging unit allows Los Angeles plastic surgery patients to view photo simulations of how they might look following a variety of cosmetic procedures.

More than 3 million Americans each year undergo some type of cosmetic surgery, from nose reshaping to liposuction, breast reduction or breast enlargement. Dr. Grant Stevens, founder of Marina Plastic Surgery, is one of the first Los Angeles plastic surgeons to use this ground-breaking technology.

The compact, table-top system offers a 3-D view of popular procedures such as breast and facial surgeries. Even non-surgical procedures such as injectable treatments can be previewed. Powerful visualization and simulation tools add a new dimension to aesthetic consultations, allowing doctors to clearly communicate the patient’s condition and treatment options.

“Vectra 3-D imaging is an advanced imaging technique that allows my patients to preview the results of a specific plastic surgery procedure before surgery is performed,” Dr. Stevens says. “This raises patient consultations to a whole new level. Our clients can feel comfortable that their desires are being heard accurately as this revolutionary system allows the patient to see before-and-after models before surgery.”

Dr. Stevens says this is particularly important in breast implant surgery. “Clear expectations are achieved using a 3-D image of the patient’s body and 3-D models of saline and gel implants,” he says. “Accurate measurements of the breasts are recorded, which helps both patient and surgeon choose the appropriate size implant.”

Historically, the biggest obstacle for cosmetic surgery patients was the inability to understand and visualize their results. Now, with the help of Vectra 3-D imaging, patients go into surgery with realistic expectations and come out more satisfied.

The Vectra 3-D technology grew out of the surgeon’s need to educate the cosmetic surgery patient better about procedures and prepare them for the changes following surgery. “These images allow the client to visualize how they might look following an elective procedure,” Dr. Stevens says. “Now seeing truly is believing with cosmetic surgery.”

For more information about Vectra or to schedule a consultation, call 310-827-2653. Find Marina Plastic Surgery Associates on the Web at http://www.marinaplasticsurgery.com, on http://www.facebook.com/MarinaPlasticSurgeryAssociates and on Twitter at @DrGrantStevens.

###

Dr. Grant Stevens is medical director of Marina Plastic Surgery Associates (http://www.marinaplasticsurgery.com) in Marina Del Rey, CA. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Plastic Surgery and a fellow of The American College of Surgeons and The International College of Surgeons. Dr. Stevens is the director of the USC Aesthetic Surgery Fellowship and Aesthetic Surgery Division, on the editorial board of The Aesthetic Surgery Journal and on the board of directors of the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. An international traveling professor, Dr. Stevens was recognized by his peers as one of America’s Best Physicians in The Guide to Top Doctors.

PDF


Print

Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9511895.htm

The troubled “Teen Mom 2” star is engaged to her to her on-again, off-again boyfriend Gary Head, she announced Wednesday.

The 20-year-old posted a photo of her engagement ring on Twitter, writing: “I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have Gary Head in my life.”

PHOTOS: CELEBRITY ENGAGEMENT RINGS

“Gary asked her to marry him last month,” a source told Us Weekly. “She wasn’t certain about Gary and didn’t want things to be that serious between them.”

Evans, who is mom to 2-year-old son Jace, reportedly began dating Head over five months ago.

According to reports, Head was preparing to pop the question before the two briefly split in April.

Head, 22, subsequently tweeted out a photo of the engagement ring on April 12, writing: “Glad I can get my money back for this!!!!”

During this time, Evans briefly reunited with ex Kieffer Delp, who accompanied her to the doctor’s office when she underwent breast enlargement surgery on May 2.

However, it didn’t take long for Evans to reunite with Head.

“Gary took care of her when she was recovering, and that made it solid to her, that he was really there for her,” the insider told Us. “She’s in love with him entirely.”

The happy news caps off the MTV star’s dramatic year involving several run-ins with the law.

Last August, Evans was arrested for violating her probation stemming from her involvement in a March 2011 street fight with another woman. She was then cuffed in January for allegedly threatening and harassing a former roommate, only to be arrested again one week later for violating a domestic violence protective order. On March 5, Evans was tossed back behind bars on an outstanding warrant for cyber stalking.

Article source: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/jenelle-evans-teen-mom-2-star-engaged-boyfriend-gary-head-months-article-1.1079403?localLinksEnabled=false

The anti-aging industry has gone wild diagnosing men with nonspecific and virtually ubiquitous symptoms with dubious hormonal deficiencies, which they then proceed to treat at great expense. For people who have a true deficiency, replacing these hormones can be quite beneficial.

However, based upon the known prevalence of hormonal deficiencies, most of the men receiving hormone injections or pills from practitioners of the anti-aging industry are not truly hormone deficient. Yes, they may feel better on the hormones. But much of this is undoubtedly a placebo effect and is this worthwhile when their wallets also certainly will lose a lot of weight from the cost of this dubious therapy. Let’s examine each of these conditions and what the science, not the hype, tells us.

Andropause

First, let’s consider some of the normal consequences of aging in males. There is an increase in fat mass, a loss of muscle mass and strength, decrease in bone mineral density and age-related disability including generalized weakness, impaired mobility and balance and poor endurance. Obviously, some men experience these symptoms more than others do.

Testosterone levels in men peak in the 20s, then undergo a progressive decrease over each decade. Levels in an otherwise healthy 75-year-old male are about half of those of a man ages 18 to 24. Knowing this may help explain the jump to the conclusion that some normal, age-related changes in males may be due to low testosterone.

Those with a real problem with testosterone production, a condition known as hypogonadism, demonstrate a progressive decrease in muscle mass, a dip in energy and sense of well-being, a loss of sex drive, increased fat deposition around the abdomen. They also may complain of hot flashes, breast enlargement and may develop osteoporosis. Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that the prevalence of symptoms and signs consistent with androgen deficiency associated with a low testosterone is found in 2 percent to 6 percent of men, with a higher prevalence in those 70 or older.

Besides sexual symptoms, mobility limitations, increased fall risk and osteoporosis, there also is an association between low testosterone and type II diabetes, a constellation of findings called the metabolic syndrome (abnormal lipids, blood pressure, sugar and waist circumference), cardiovascular disease and mortality.

Treatment of men with a low testosterone associated with signs and symptoms of hypogonadism has been shown to heighten libido, improve erectile dysfunction, boost bone mineral density, enhance the strength in dominant muscles, increase lean body mass and decrease fat mass and improve mood and energy.

But there is no compelling data now to indicate that testosterone treatment reverses type II diabetes or metabolic syndrome, nor that it improves overall physical function, decreases cardiovascular disease or decreases death. It is clear that treatment of men who are not testosterone deficient does not enhance function, though there may be a slight increase in muscle mass and decrease in fat mass, both of which can be achieved by exercise alone.

There are a number of conditions in which testosterone may pose significant dangers.These include men with breast cancer, metastatic prostate cancer, undiagnosed prostate nodules or an unexplained PSA elevation, high hemoglobin,severe congestive heart failure and untreated sleep apnea.

Testosterone is generally administered as gels or patches applied to the skin or by injections given every one to two weeks. The oral testosterone preparations now approved in the U. S. are not considered optimal therapy, because they may lead to liver problems. There is a preparation that can be placed under the lip but it’s unpopular because it can cause irritation and dental issues. Placement of long-acting testosterone pellets under the skin is more popular abroad than in the U.S.

Whatever testosterone therapy is given, patients should be monitored with examination of the prostate, blood counts, lipid levels, and, if patients have osteoporosis, a bone mineral density exam should be carried out in two years.

Though male menopause, also known as andropause, does occur, it requires careful documentation of testosterone deficiency symptoms along with low testosterone levels. Be aware that to document low testosterone, blood should be drawn between 8 and 10 in the morning because levels typically drop in the afternoon and evening; normal ranges are established for morning levels.The hormone also should be measured by a reliable method, as there is a great potential for inaccuracy. It’s crucial for patients to be assessed correctly before starting this therapy. It can be safe and should ease symptoms, if they’re truly due to testosterone deficiency.

Adrenopause

The adrenal glands produce several types of hormones including: cortisol, which is important for multiple metabolic processes; aldosterone, which helps control blood pressure and salt and water metabolism; and DHEA, which is converted into androgens and estrogens in various tissues.

As with testosterone, normal aging is associated with a progressive decline of DHEA levels from the 20s to age 70 or 80. Thus, a normal 60-year-old man will have a DHEA blood level that is substantially lower than that found in a 20-year-old. It may be inappropriate to use the young man’s normal range to say that the 60-year-old’s is abnormal.

Still, this often occurs with the anti-aging industry. Randomized, double-blind, placebo, controlled trials have failed to demonstrate a benefit in regard to weight, body fat, muscle mass, muscle strength or quality of life.

Somatopause

Growth hormone (hGH), also known as somatotrophin, is made by the pituitary gland and is the main hormone responsible for growth throughout childhood and adolescence. It actually works by telling the liver and other tissues to make another hormone called Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1).

Both hGH and IGF-1 levels decline with age. Men with structural defects in the pituitary gland due to tumors, vascular accidents and other causes often develop hGH deficiency. It can lead to increased fat mass, decreased muscle mass, reduced exercise tolerance, osteoporosis, higher cardiovascular disease and impaired quality of life.

In such individuals, treatment with daily hGH injections reverses many of these problems.

Growth hormone treatment is a mainstay of the anti-aging industry, with claims that it can rejuvenate aging bodies.Well, the data just don’t support the claims. In otherwise healthy, elderly males, there is a slight increase in weight and lean body mass and slight decrease in fat mass but no significant effect on bone density or strength.

This hormone has substantial side effects, including causing glucose intolerance or diabetes, carpal tunnel syndrome, breast enlargement and coarsening of the face.

In the early 1500s, Ponce de Leon discovered Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth (although many authorities believe that he was more interested in finding gold and expanding the Spanish Empire). Five centuries later, the anti-aging industry has picked up the conquistador’s mantle, only now they are selling the elusive Fountain of Youth to healthy but aging men, while also lining their own pockets with gold.

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-d-braunstein-md/male-menopause_b_1510208.html

Sugar Daddie giving a gift

We have even had some interest from a ‘Sugar Daddy’ to purchase a £5,000 breast enlargement for a lady on the site, someone he has never even met but has established a virtual connection with.

(PRWEB UK) 14 May 2012

Glamour girls Nicki Howarth and Holly Henderson have recently been speaking out about how their conquests with Sugar Daddies have enabled them to pursue their exquisite lifestyles, reportedly girls can earn thousands from a monthly allowance. To see a snapshot of this, a reality TV programme “Sex, Lies and Rinsing Guys” starring Henderson, will be shown this week. The TV programme claims to explore the world of mutual relationships, where girls can receive ‘gifts’ from men just by using their looks and charm. But how realistic is this? Can any woman obtain this lifestyle?

Online dating continues to be a successful platform to meet new people; there are various dating websites out there specifically aimed at meeting a ‘Sugar Daddy’ (an affluent, older male) or a ‘Sugar Babe’ (glamorous younger female) so people could be closer than they think to this lifestyle. But what is the benefit of these dating websites. Are they all the same?”

Sugardaddieworld.com (SDW) claims to be a new type of dating site, tapping into the modern demands of online dating, where simply checking out someone’s profile and sending a wink is no longer enough. SDW claims to help users make a connection with someone and pick up some ‘gifts’ along the way, potentially one of them being a boob job, and all this can happen even without meeting in person.

CEO and Founder of SDW Jane says, “People have become bored with silly cyber poking and winking, nowadays men need a better way to show a woman they admire that they are interested in them. E-dating had lost its shine and the ability for people to stand out has become increasingly difficult. sugardaddieworld.com has changed that.”

Jane continues, “As an example, instead of sending a wink or a poke, SDW gives the ‘Daddy’ the ability to send a pretty girl a rose or flowers to make an impression and get her attention.”

Continues…

“On a more extravagant scale, we have also received a request from a ‘Sugar Daddy’ to purchase a £5,000 breast enlargement for a lady on the site, someone he has never even met but has established a virtual connection with. Some other bizarre requests have been everything from a sex swing just like the one seen in an episode of Sex and the City, to delivering 10 live lobsters to a lady in Aberdeen, simply because the lady said she liked lobster! The gifts are ordered from the site by the ‘Sugar Daddy’ and sent to a female of his choice. The woman’s address is never revealed and there is no obligation to meet. If users do decide to meet each other, that is purely their decision.”

On top of simple gifts like flowers, perfume and chocolates that men can use to catch a ladies attention, sugardaddieworld.com also has more impressive gifts including designer ‘It’ bags, Christian Louboutin shoes, laptops, whatever is necessary to help boost an impression SDW can make it happen. The gifts are simply purchased online and sent, if a male wants to meet with a female, they make that arrangement between themselves under their own discretion.

It would appear there is plenty of appetite out there for this type of lifestyle and with the ever increasing exposure from glamour girls to us mere mortals, the term ‘Sugar Daddy’ will be used more and more and become increasingly accepted in our day to day lives.

So ladies it seems this lifestyle could all be within your grasp…

About sugardaddieworld.com

http://www.sugardaddieworld.com – Where the affluent meet the beautiful, a new type of dating website where gifts can be purchased online to aid and make that all important first impression and establish a connection. Sugardaddieworld.com has launched as the only Sugar Daddy site in the world to offer this unique gift sending facility. For safety and security SDW is a member’s only site, registration is required and email addresses have to be verified before using all of the sites features.

For further information please contact Jane, CEO and Founder of sugardaddieworld.com via email info(at)sugardaddieworld(dot)com

PDF


Print

Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9503313.htm

The fact that they ran out of pretexts to show breasts on TV says a lot about the creators of the ad, and the target audience and well (Palio buyers). We’re not saying that, we’re just inferring it from the ad itself. Plus it’s also promoting breast enlargement and it’s telling girls everywhere that it’s OK to have one and expect their shallow boyfriends to support them. Furthermore, the only thing the ad has anything to do with Fiat is the fact that they are sitting in one.

We think that promoting anything with sex is wrong and people who fall for it still have a lot to learn and understand, don’t you agree? I mean fake breasts are so 90s.

Story via Jalopnik

Article source: http://www.autoevolution.com/news/fiat-uses-large-breasts-commercial-for-new-palio-video-44920.html

There are few images in the Christian world more universal and more sacred than these: the Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci, doing what any mother would do: feed her newborn child at her breast.

Since the earliest forms of human expression, the breast (in Latin, Mamma) has been front and center.

Beth Rosenberg, who teaches art history at New York’s School of Visual Arts, said breasts have been on artists’ minds since the Venus of Willendorf – a statue dating to about 25,000 B.C.

“We see breasts throughout art history because they’re about the world, they’re about life,” Rosenberg said.

More specifically, they’re uniquely designed to feed babies.

“Human infants are different from a lot of other mammals in that we don’t have this kind of protuberant snout,” said science journalist Florence Williams. “And if we had really flat mammary glands and a fat infant trying to suckle that, you know, it would be like kissing a mirror. Doesn’t work very well.”

Williams, who wrote the book on breasts, says that researchers are still scratching their heads over them.

“It turns out that it’s actually a really contentious debate about why breasts evolved,” Williams said. “Because breasts, as apart from mammary glands, are very unique in the animal kingdom. They’re sort of protuberant from puberty on. And it turns out that’s really unusual. Other primates only have breasts while they’re breastfeeding.”

And since human breasts typically arrive long before they have anything to do, Williams says there is disagreement over whether they evolved for food . . . or sex.

“There’s been many decades of scholarship arguing that breasts evolved as sexual signals,” she said. “And then the feminist scholars came along in the 1970s and ’80s and said, ‘Well, wait a minute, maybe they’re something to do with how breasts actually work that might help women survive or help infants survive – and maybe the interest in breasts on the part of men came later.”

It’s a lot more than interest; Dolly Parton was famous for attribute sother than her acting ability . . . .as was Raquel Welch. And who could forget Halle Berry in a bathing suit?

Few people understand this more than Mary Kathryn Langhamer, a veteran bra-fitter at Houston’s Top Drawer Lingerie. “Most women really don’t like their breasts. There’s always something wrong. They’re too big or they’re too little. They always want the opposite of what they have.”

It’s no secret that women have been trying to improve on nature for generations. “There were bras that you could put all sorts of things in – wire, tissue, metal. There were even bras that you could blow up with a straw to make your breasts look bigger,” said Williams.”

In recent years, bigger has often been seen as better. But permanent breast enlargement was a medical puzzle, until a eureka! moment 50 years ago in a Texas blood bank.

“There was a doctor in Houston, Texas, who was holding one of these new silicone blood bags,” said Williams. “Blood used to be contained in glass. And he was holding a warm bag of blood and he said, ‘My, that feels good. It feels like a breast.’”

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page »

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57433313/the-mystery-of-breasts-inspiring-vulnerable/

Phuket International Hospital in Thailand will soon appoint a Tasmanian agent to try to lure more holidaymakers from here with offers of cheaper surgery prices and luxury accommodation.

The hospital treats about 1000 Australians each year but only about 50 are from Tasmania.

In other states, where holiday agents are working for several overseas medical institutions, the offers are luring thousands of people on international holidays for procedures ranging from breast enlargements to face lifts and gender re-assignment.

Surgery costs can be less than half the Australian prices, but local plastic surgeons warn the standards may not be as high.

Phuket International Hospital’s international services manager is former Tasmanian paramedic Peter Davison, who said a Tasmanian holiday agent would be appointed soon.

The hospital already has agents in mainland capital cities who act as “an interface” between clients and the hospital.

“They’re like a travel agent and they assist with hotel bookings and airfares, and things like sending photos of clients for pre-op [preparations],” said Mr Davison, who has spent the past five years developing a medical tourism program.

The hospital also holds “roadshows” around Australia, spruiking its cheaper surgeries.

An expo would be held in Tasmania soon, Mr Davison said.

Breast surgery was the most popular procedure sought by Australians, with growing numbers also seeking dental work, he said.

Patients under 30 mostly want breast enlargements, while over-30s wanted breast lifts or reductions, facelifts and tummy tucks.

“Basically, there’s two major driving factors, cost and the quality of work,” he said.

Breast enlargement usually costs between $10,000 and $12,000 in Australia but “we can do a package, including nine nights’ accommodation, return airfares and the breast implants for $5000″, he said.

Mr Davison said cosmetic surgery tourism was “booming” and the hospital was treating 20 times the number of Australians it did four years ago.

He estimated up to 10,000 Australians a year were flying to Thai hospitals for cosmetic surgery.

Travel Studio director Lee-Anne Levett said the Hobart agency occasionally arranged flights and accommodation for clients travelling overseas for surgery or dental work.

She said they did not deal with hospitals or help clients book procedures, leaving it up to travellers to do their own research on pracititioners and procedures.

Mrs Levett said it was important people travelling overseas for surgery checked whether they had adquate travel insurance to cover them for potential health complications.

Mr Davison said the hospital rejected claims by Australian doctors that it put lives at risk by encouraging patients abroad for discount cosmetic surgery.

He said people were seeking facts about overseas hospitals and voting with their feet rather than listening to the “scare campaign” about the industry.

“I think some Australian surgeons are very fearful of the fact they are losing a lot of business overseas because the quality of the work is superior to what they are offering here in Australia,” Mr Davison said.

“We repair, for example, some work Australian surgeons have done because the client hasn’t been satisfied.”

Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons spokesman Dr Scott Ingram said he would be surprised if a Thai hospital could offer better hospital treatment than in Australia.

Australian plastic surgeons have a minimum of five years’ specialist training compared to three years for some Thai plastic surgeons.

“You could rest assured that the facilities available in this country are second to none in the world,” Dr Ingram said.

“We see multitudes of these people who have had their surgery overseas … coming back with those medium-term complications and there are a whole raft of longer-term complications that can occur as well,” he said.

Article source: http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/05/13/327761_tasmania-news.html

Photograph by Kim Cook

After reading a report about the presence of environmental toxins in breast milk in 2004, American journalist Florence Williams, who’d just had a child at the time, decided to have her own milk tested. She mailed samples to a lab. The results were astounding and unsettling: her toxin levels were exceptionally high. That propelled Williams to embark on an intense search that went well beyond her initial inquiries into the sociological, sexual and medical complexities of this organ. In Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History, she provides a fascinating cultural and scientific tour of breasts through time—and what they might face in the future.

RELATED: Nutritious Nutella? All you need to know about the pitfalls of food labels

Q: You start the book by asking why humans have breasts. What did you ?nd out from anthropologists, and how did their theories differ depending on their own sex?

A: It really surprised me that this topic is still so contentious. A lot of male anthropologists love to study the breast and they seem to be easily persuaded that the breast evolved as a sexual signal. But the more feminist [and more often female] anthropologists said it may be that breasts evolved not for men, but for the fitness of women and offspring.

Q: There is a compromise theory: breasts evolved to help women feed babies, and that made men love breasts.

A: Exactly.

RELATED: Medicine’s deadly gender gap

Q: What do breasts signal to men?

A: The theory is that breasts are filled with information for potential mates about the fertility status of a woman, her age, how healthy she is: if the woman is young her breasts will be perky, and if she’s older her breasts will sag. I find this theory flawed. A woman’s breasts are biggest and perkiest while she’s pregnant and breastfeeding—and obviously she’s not a good mate at that moment if you’re just interested in your own offspring. And there are plenty of women who, after childbirth, continue to have nice, perky breasts. So breasts are an unreliable signal of age and fertility.

RELATED: Monday morning blues? Your employer should care.

Q: Studies show female waitresses with large breasts get more tips, and busty diners get hit on more often. Is bigger always better?

A: In Western cultures, the studies do bear out that women tend to get more attention if they have bigger breasts. Many men really respond to big breasts. It’s hard to say whether that’s evolutionary driven or whether that’s our culture. Certainly our culture celebrates and is obsessed with big breasts.

Q: In the early days of plastic surgery, there were four sizes of breast implants: small, medium, large and burlesque, and burlesque was considered huge. Now that’s average.

A: For young people today, most of the images they see are of fake breasts. So you have this skewing of what’s considered normal. And that of course does a disservice to natural breasts and to girls who face this pressure to have a certain type, shape and size of breast. In fact, what you see is this normalization of what’s in effect a pornographic breast.

RELATED: What you need to know about prostate cancer

Q: Big breasts were once considered a burden. Today, breast enlargement is the most common cosmetic surgery. Why the U-turn?

A: I think it was a combination of Hollywood glamourizing women’s breasts after the Second World War, and postwar technology. These fabrics developed that enabled bras to have more uplift, so it was easier to make a big, protruding shape. And then came silicone, which was a relatively inert substance, so women had a relatively safe implant material.

Q: But silicone wasn’t invented for breasts.

A: No, silicone was developed by Dow Corning during the Second World War for use as an engine insulator. It insulated the ignition in aircraft, which enabled them to fly all the way from the United States to Europe.

RELATED: Hospital performance is all over the map

Q: So how did it wind up in breasts?

A: There were drums of this stuff left on a dock in Japan during the American occupation. They went missing, and it turned out that doctors were injecting the silicone into the breasts of Japanese prostitutes to attract American servicemen. After the war, Dow Corning had a whole division that was trying to invent new uses for silicone, and medical silicone became pretty important. In 1961, a Houston doctor was feeling one of these new silicone bags filled with warm blood, and he said, “My, that feels good. That feels like a breast!” He was a plastic surgeon and had been thinking about implant materials. When he felt that, he had a eureka moment.

Q: What other materials were used early on for breast enlargement?

A: People experimented with things like ox cartilage, glass, wood chips. Even a kitchen sponge, but it hardened really quickly.

RELATED: Nutritious Nutella? All you need to know about the pitfalls of food labels

Q: You visited Houston. You call it the “Ground Zero” of boob jobs. What was that like?

A: It was fascinating. I was able to meet the first woman to get silicone implants, Timmie Jean [who is 80]. She still has her original implants. They’ve been there for 50 years. She says she doesn’t regret having implants, but she also talks about how they’ve hardened and how they have been painful at times. One of them has ruptured.

Q: In the years after Timmie Jean had surgery, there were massive lawsuits over breast implants. What happened?

A: There were so many problems with the first- and second-generation implants. They leaked. A lot of women got infections, and there was a lot of debate about what this meant for their health. The women claimed to have immune-system problems so there were some class-action lawsuits, and that got a lot of press attention, which encouraged more women to join in. Ultimately, it became the largest class-action suit in the history of the United States. But years later no one has ever been able to prove a link between these leaking implants and a particular illness.

Q: Timmie Jean never sued, even when her relatives who’d had breast implants did?

A: She was very loyal to the doctors, and had a good relationship with them.

Q: Before her, breast implants were first tested on an unlikely candidate.

A: There was a dog named Esmerelda who was the first recipient of implants. She was not very happy with her new profile. She chewed them out.

Q: Are implants safe today? Because they are more popular than ever.

A: When I went to Houston, the plastic surgeon’s office told me that implants are now 100 per cent safe. This just is not true. There are still a lot of problems and side effects, such as loss of nipple sensation and problems breastfeeding. The FDA is requiring implants currently on the market be studied, and the studies show that there is a very high rate of re-operation—something like 30 per cent of implants have enough problems that they have to be redone within their first decade. These are problems that women are not informed about. These procedures are sold as consumer products. They have been downplayed as serious medical procedures.

Q: What do we know about how breasts are affected by toxins in the environment?

A: We know that artificial estrogen, as well as estrogen within our bodies, has big effects on how our breasts work. Estrogen and progesterone help determine the timing of puberty, and girls are reaching puberty earlier. In lab animals it looks like the timing of puberty is very clearly affected by the kinds of chemicals they were exposed to. And we also know that chemicals like BPA, which are active estrogen, can affect the development of the breast and gene expression in ways that make the breast tissue more susceptible to breast cancer later.

Q: Why does it matter that breasts are fatty?

A: A lot of the chemicals in our environment are fat-loving. And because our breasts are some of the fattiest tissue we have, they really accumulate these toxins. We know that some of these chemicals reside in our breast tissue for years and years and years.

Q: You and your young daughter attempted an experiment. What did you find out?

A: First we lived as normal North Americans: we used personal care products [such as shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste] that we purchased at the supermarket. We drank soda and ate food out of a can. Then we had our urine tested for [toxic] substances. A month later I went totally detox for three days: I stopped using personal care products, I only ate food that had not touched plastic, which was very hard to do. And we were both able to bring our levels down 50 to 80 per cent. But interestingly, there were some compounds we were not able to bring down. That tells us we really have no idea where we’re getting some of these exposures. That is a shocking feeling because you realize that you really don’t have control over the substances you’re exposed to. And it takes an enormous effort—really an impossible effort—to make a big dent.

Q: Did you make any changes after that experiment or did it feel futile?

A: It did feel futile. I ended up feeling that this really shouldn’t be my problem. The burden should be higher upstream. It should lie with the manufacturers, and we should have incentives to create products with cleaner chemicals. And it lies with our governments and regulatory agencies because clearly our regulatory laws are broken.

Q: You say that the standard breast cancer risk factors—exercise, diet, smoking—are “fairly useless.” How so?

A: I mean that [experts] are not able to attribute a lot of breast cancer risk to these lifestyle factors. And yet women feel so guilty. We are told that we are responsible for our breast cancer risk, and if only we drank less or exercised more we could make a difference. That’s unfortunate because those risk factors amount to very little. Ultimately, there are risk factors that we don’t know about and that are beyond our control. That’s why we need to look much harder for the causes of breast cancer.

Q: You write that breast density is fast emerging as one of the most important risk factors, but that many women can’t define it, let alone say whether they have dense breasts.

A: It turns out that women with dense breast tissue are at much higher risk of getting breast cancer—I think five or six times—and yet women are not told when they get a mammogram whether they have dense breast tissue or not. This is the biggest risk factor after age. It’s huge. There are laws being proposed to require that women are informed of their breast density.

Q: One of the most polarizing breast topics lately in Canada is around self-examination, and whether it’s helpful in catching cancer. What did you find out?

A: The statistics don’t really bear out that it’s helpful. By the time most women find a lump, the cancer has already spread. It doesn’t really seem to save lives. And yet there’s little else that women can do; it seems like taking away one more tool in the tool box. It just doesn’t feel good. What’s useful about breast self-exams is that it encourages women to really get to know their breasts. I didn’t realize this until researching the book, but if you notice tightening or thickening of the skin, those can be factors. So it is useful for women to get to know what their normal breasts look like so they can notice any changes.

Q: How does pregnancy protect a woman from breast cancer, and does age change that?

A: We know that pregnancy for the most part is protective against breast cancer. We don’t know exactly why, but one theory is that it shuts down the fluctuation of hormones. We also know that pregnancy is only protective in women who have children before age 30. And weirdly, women who have children after 35 are more likely to get breast cancer than women who have never had children.

Q: What are scientists hoping to offer young women so they can benefit from pregnancy hormones without having children?

A: They’re considering giving women a pregnancy-mimicking boost of hormones. It’s very radical, and it has a lot of critics. We won’t see it any time soon. But someday women might take a pregnancy pill to offset the fact that they are having children later. We’ll trick our breasts into thinking we’re pregnant.

Q: Breastfeeding is being promoted today more than ever. And yet the rates in many countries are low, or women don’t breastfeed for as long as is recommended. Why?

A: Breastfeeding is technically hard and it’s incredibly time-consuming. So in countries such as the U.S. where there aren’t generous maternal-leave policies, women have to go back to work, so it’s challenging to keep breastfeeding.

Q: As breasts have become more and more sexualized, how has this affected breastfeeding?

A: There’s a lot of pressure on women to keep their breasts as sexual objects. That’s why this debate on evolution really matters, because it skews how we see breasts. Are breasts for men or are they for infants? It’s hard enough in this culture for women to breastfeed. To [accept] these theories that breasts are for mating or men [makes] it that much harder.

Q: You bring up the issue of breast milk contamination—that the toxins accumulating in a mother’s breasts are passed on to her baby while breastfeeding—and the reluctance among some experts to discuss it openly. Why not?

A: It’s been such a struggle to get women to breastfeed that I think in some quarters there’s a fear that if you talk about the possible contamination of breast milk, we’ll take several steps back. The message they want to be sure to convey is that breast milk is better than formula. There’s a fear of making breastfeeding less attractive than it already is.

Q: Is it still a worthwhile issue to discuss?

A: Absolutely. Breast milk contamination is a canary in the coal mine. It’s another window into the exposures we’re getting. Breast milk is just a lot easier to test than, for example, a placenta or fetal cord blood.

Q: Norway, which has the highest breastfeeding rate in the world, acknowledged that it will reconsider its breastfeeding recommendations in light of breast milk contamination. How significant is that?

A: That’s really significant. My guess is that they won’t change the guidelines, but that they won’t encourage breastfeeding beyond six or 12 months, because the longer you breastfeed the more chemicals you’re giving to your baby. Someday we may get to the point where we say, “maybe we shouldn’t breastfeed for more than six months.” And that would be a really profound and sad moment in modern human history.

Q: Especially given the theory that the whole point of having breasts is to breastfeed.

A: Right. That we’ve compromised this brilliantly evolved organ to the point where it’s not much better than formula.

Q: What do you hope your daughter knows as she grows up that you didn’t about breasts?

A: I hope she grows up with a positive sense of self-esteem. I hope by the time she’s older we’ll have better prevention and detection of breast cancer. I hope she doesn’t develop breasts very early. I tell my kids that breasts are evolutionary miracles and that they are amazingly interesting and important organs, and that they benefited from that.

Connect with Macleans:

• Find us on Facebook!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Subscribe to our weekly newsletter!
• Download mobile applications
• Subscribe to our RSS Feeds!
• View our YouTube channel!
• Listen to our Podcasts!

Article source: http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/conversation-florence-williams-175010022.html