HS 214 – Dressed to Kill with Sydney Ross Singer

Sydney Ross Singer is a medical anthropologist and Director of the Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Disease. He’s the author of, “Dressed To Kill: The Link between Breast Cancer and Bras.” Singer is a Libertarian who has chosen to live in the jungle of Hawaii. He is against a proposed resolution to ban the introduction of non-native species to Hawaii.

Singer’s book, “Dressed To Kill: The Link between Breast Cancer and Bras,” changed medicine and the way women look at bras. Singer explains why he is calling for a boycott of Komen and discusses the criticisms he has received as a result.

Sydney Ross Singer is a medical anthropologist, the author of several groundbreaking and controversial health books, and the director of the Institute for the Study of Culturogenic Disease, located in Hawaii. He is best known for his revolutionary and shocking research linking breast cancer with the wearing of tight bras, which he describes in his book, Dressed To Kill. Using his training in biochemistry, anthropology and medicine, Sydney is pioneering a new field of health research, called Applied Medical Anthropology, shedding light on the many ways our culture is making us sick. Since his work often challenges industries that promote or profit from damaging lifestyles, his research has been suppressed and censored, especially by the medical industry.

Sydney Ross Singer received a Bachelor’s of Science in biology from the University of Utah in 1979. He then spent two years in the biochemistry Ph.D. program at Duke University, followed by another two years at Duke in the anthropology Ph.D. program, receiving a Master’s Degree. He then attended the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, Texas on a full academic scholarship, where he spent one year in the medical humanities Ph.D. program, and received an additional two years training in medical school.

Find out more about Sydney Ross Singer and his book, “Dressed To Kill: The Link between Breast Cancer and Bras,” at www.KillerCulture.com.

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Narrator: Welcome to the Holistic Survival Show with Jason Hartman. The economic storm brewing around the world is set to spill into all aspects of our lives. Are you prepared? Where are you going to turn for the critical life skills necessary for you to survive and prosper? The Holistic Survival Show is your family’s insurance for a better life. Jason will teach you to think independently, to understand threats and how to create the ultimate action plan. Sudden change or worst case scenario, you’ll be ready. Welcome to Holistic Survival, your key resource for protecting the people, places and profits you care about in uncertain times. Ladies and gentlemen, your host, Jason Hartman.

Jason Hartman: Welcome to the Holistic Survival Show. This is your host Jason Hartman, where we talk about protecting the people places and profits you care about in these uncertain times. We have a great interview for you today. And we will be back with that in less than 60 seconds on the Holistic Survival Show. And by the way, be sure to visit our website at HolisticSurvival.com. You can subscribe to our blog, which is totally free, has loads of great information, and there’s just a lot of good content for you on the site, so make sure you take advantage of that at HolisticSurvival.com. We’ll be right back. It’s my pleasure to welcome Sydney Ross Singer to the show. Sydney is a medical anthropologist and director of the institute for the study of culture hygienic disease and the author of Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras. This is the second time interview with Sydney. Sydney, welcome back. How are you?

Ross Singer: I’m great Jason Thank you for having me back.

Jason Hartman: Good, the pleasure is mine, and where are you located today? Are you in Hawaii?

Ross Singer: Yes, I’m in Hawaii at our off the grid research facility for life style disease. We have been growing food, make our own energy, collect our own water, and live a different life style than the mainland type lifestyle – close to nature.

Jason Hartman: Fantastic. And where in Hawaii are you?

Ross Singer: I’m on a big island on the east side.

Jason Hartman: Good stuff. Well talk to us about the biggest latest and greatest thing that you’re doing, and that’s calling for a boycott against Susan G Coleman and the American Cancer Society, right?

Ross Singer: Yes, well 20 years ago we came up with our research findings that showed that the leading cause of breast cancer is the wearing of tight bras for long periods of time every day. And this information has now been verified by 5 other studies, and it’s still being ignored and suppressed by the big cancer interest, which are working closely with the lingerie industry which funds a lot of cancer research now. They refuse to look at this issue and are calling it a myth. Every year for 20 years now I’ve been trying to just get the word out, and it’s been getting out on a grassroots level. But so long as these organizations are putting a limit on it and saying that this is not true, it should not be researched, it becomes something that researchers are afraid to look at because they’re going to get black listed.

Jason Hartman: That’s really quite interesting. You just made me think…Victoria Secret has got this Pink Campaign for Susan G Coleman – they’re all over the place really, this pink campaign they’re doing. So I didn’t know that they were working… how else are they working together? Why does this conspiracy exist? Are Coleman and the ACS donating money? Are the Lingerie companies donating money directly to Coleman and ACS?

Ross Singer: Oh yes, they have foundations now to fund breast cancer research. And just like the Tabaco industry likes to fund lung cancer research. But they control the industry – they control research that way. It’s all about money and the flow of money. And when you have great research ideas, they’re not going to be funded unless they profit some funding source. Unless it’s the government that’s funding it, but the government is like the national cancer institute – they work closely with the American Cancer Society and these other interests. So there is no objective basis for this. Our research world is controlled by profit oriented industries.

Jason Hartman: Yeah and you have that all over the place, not just here. Of course you gave the example about Tabaco. With the lingerie aspect, bras are just one aspect of lingerie and certainly bras can be designed differently, etc. There’s probably some acceptable way to do it so we don’t have this breast cancer issue. It’s not like they’re making Tabaco – you’ve got to smoke Tabaco and then get cancer. This is a little more of a tenuous issue, isn’t?

Ross Singer: Not really. The whole idea of bras, like corsets for hundreds of years, corsets were designed to change the shape of a body and when you change the shape you change how it functions. So you have a constriction and compression and that interferes with circulation. So women were literally being killed with corsets, men and children too were wearing corsets. Then there was foot binding for a thousand years in China where the women would bind their feet in tight shoes and it would actually cause the toes to rot away. But that was all considered erotic, and it was a political aspect to that of keeping women disabled and hobbled.

So these types of fashions have been used all the time. Humans do fashions and it’s a cultural imposition on our bodies that doesn’t necessarily support our body’s function and many times goes against it. Now with a bra, you have a young girl and as soon as she hits puberty she starts binding her breasts, it’s a breast binding phenomena. And that creates a dependence on the bra, and that creates weak breasts because they’re not holding themselves up, so it actually causes breasts to droop and research now shows that and verifies that. So you actually create a dependence and you talk to women about their bras, many of them feel addicted to them. They can’t imagine life without them.

Jason Hartman: Really? I’ve never heard that before, that’s fascinating.

Ross Singer: Well yeah, and they’ll wear them 24-7.

Jason Hartman: Isn’t there some way to design them correctly so we don’t have this problem?

Ross Singer: Well if the purpose of the bra is to change your shape and to lift or separate or whatever, any time you change the shape you have to apply pressure. And when women take off their bras they have these red marks and indentations around their breasts from the bra, which are signs of constriction and that cuts off the lymphatic drainage from the breast. And that cuts off completely, or you’d really respond quickly. But it’s a chronic slow lymphedema that develops.

Jason Hartman: It reminds me of the issue of Ralph Nader in the auto industry in the 50s, and maybe about ten years ago there was this big thing about bicycle seats and how they were causing impotence and maybe contributing to prostate cancer, and they redesigned the bicycle seats. Ralph Nader got a lot of safety issues, got people to redesign cars. It seems like there must be some way to do this without being a pigmy in National Geographic.

Ross Singer: Well actually that’s another story you just raised, but I’ll just answer your first point. Yeah, there are some other designs and some bra companies have come up with patented new bras siting our research actually ironically to promote this thing that they’re not going to interfere as much with lymphatics, you can wear them and they’re fitted where they’re not so tight. 80% of women are wearing them too tightly. And anything that pushes up, underwire, that sort of a thing is obviously a no no. So what you want is if a woman wants breast constraint for some reason, like when a man might want a jock strap while he’s exercising, a woman might want breast constraint at those times, she can wear a sports bra or something for a couple of hours but to wear these devices for 12,18, 24 hours a day, that’s when you’re talking about excessive use of a tight garment.

So you can change the garment and make it not as constrictive, you can make it to where it doesn’t change breast shape as much as just support the breast although the body doesn’t need breast support. It’s not like it was designed with a flaw that needs 20th century lingerie. They sold corsets saying you needed abdomen support in girls. It’s not like you really need it, that’s all sales. And people who have never worn them have no problems with their bodies. The big issue is that women who are bra free have about the same rate of breast cancer as men. Which is 100 times less than women who sleep in their bras.

Jason Hartman: And where are they bra free? Like where are you saying? Is that some place that’s in some undeveloped country in Africa or is it more hippie type women? It seems everywhere I look you’ve got bras, these devices as you call them.

Ross Singer: Well it’s definitely there as a small percentage of this country who are bra free, but there are other cultures where they don’t wear bras, like you say, and they have very little breast cancer rates. And as soon as their culture becomes westernized… We did a study in Fiji after our United States study that’s in our book Dressed to Kill. We did a Fiji study and half the women there are bra free, and we found breast cancer was only happening in the bra wearing women, and they were wearing them because they had to wear them for work. So it was the same genetics, same diet, living in the same village, but if they went to work they wore a bra and they were the ones getting breast disease.

And it’s just a simple constriction issue. You go to places that as soon as they get westernized and start wearing the bras their breast cancer rates go up. So it’s not just diet, that’s very little to do with breast cancer. It’s diet delivers the toxins to our body, the poisons that we eat…

Jason Hartman: Right, but we can excrete them if the drainage is proper, that’s what you’re saying right?

Ross Singer: Exactly, exactly. Lymphatics is a big way of eliminating these because it’s in the tissues and you have to flush out. If you’re wearing something constrictive, the tissue basically sits in its own waste and gets toxic.

Jason Hartman: It makes sense. It seems like a very logical argument. What about the deodorant link though? Would that just be another toxin-like food that maybe we could excrete the deodorant antiperspirant that people are putting under their arms, especially women if they just freshly shave there and then apply this, the pores are more open and then you combine it with the bra issue that you’re mentioning… is that part of it?

Ross Singer: It may be. I don’t know if the research shows that that’s the case, but I think that’s something that should be better looked at. Another thing is that the bra can deliver it itself. The fibers in the bra break down into monomers, it’s a polymer inside the elastic and it breaks down into units that are actually carcinogenic. And there’s research that shows depigmentation of the skin from the fibers in bras, and then you imagine all of the chemicals and you wash your bra in the sweat and everything, and it heats the breasts and is holding on, intimately associated with the breasts. If we men wore jock straps like women wore bras, we’d have more testicular cancer. And heating the organs is not good when they’re external organs like that. That’s why they’re on the outside of the body. They need to stay cooler.

So there’s a lot of reasons why bras are bad. They’re just a cultural thing. And the problem is that this makes sense and it deserves further research and women should be warned about not wearing them as tight, not wearing them as long, realizing you don’t need them and that it’s a choice, and that you can be bra free and that women who are, are healthy and happy. And they are better breasts that are healthier breasts and that are actually firmer. You can know that, except when you have organizations like the Coleman Foundation and the American Cancer Society saying that everything that I just told you is absurd, it doesn’t deserve any attention, and if any of the research that does show a link between bras and breast cancer it’s got to be for some other reason than the bra.

There’s even a Harvard study that came out before my research did in 1991, they found half the rate of breast cancer in bra free women, premenopausal. And they didn’t understand why. They thought maybe it was because they were bigger breasted or obese or something. But their own research about obesity is only a factor in post-menopausal women. This was in pre-menopausal. And yet they wrote that explanation in there saying… that’s what the Coleman… realize that means we can cut breast cancer rates in half by getting rid of the bra equates that study, which is over 200 thousand women a year in the US alone. So we can save 100 thousand women just by that research, and then they ignored it because it wasn’t what they were looking for because they were doing some other aspect of the study and that was just one part of it, it was like a surprise finding and they tried to rationalize it away because they don’t have the theory I have about the lymphatic blockage. So they didn’t understand it.

That research is being just basically ignored, so they’ll forget about that, they’ll forget about what I’ve done, they’ll forget about this China study that found sleeping in a bra doubles your rate of breast cancer, and another one, a Venezuelan study found confirmed my research completely about the type of bra… They even looked at underwire bras being the worst kind. There was a link and they correlated breast disease with the wearing of bras and how long and how tight they were. So it’s happening in China and Venezuela, one study in Harvard and then my research. Where are the studies on this? Why isn’t this in the public media? 20 years have gone by… how many women have died from this disease because this issue has been ignored?

They’ve gotten this disease and gone through the treatment… how much of our culture’s money, our medical expenses have been wasted on this? There’s so many ways that this is wrong. That’s why we’re saying it needs to stop. These industries… the cancer industry, American Cancer Society is like the authority and the media and the government bow to these organizations and these organizations have billions so they’re very powerful. And they’re being paid and supported by the detection and treatment industry. They’re into detecting your disease with early, whether it’s genetic tests, and they’ll take your breasts off before you even have breast disease saying you’re going to get it someday. Talk about early detection. That’s before you even have it. And they’ll look into their genetic crystal ball and say you’re going to get it, we’re going to get rid of your breasts now.

Jason Hartman: Wow… that’s just… pull out your tonsils, your wisdom teeth… this is just all kinds of… that’s crazy.

Ross Singer: It is, but women do it. That was Angelina Jolie. That was the whole push for her. That was all supported and paid for and encouraged, early breast removal based upon the likelihood that you might have it on genetics. And genetics is only a very small percentage of breast cancer. It’s 5% of breast cancer can be explained by genetics and yet that’s all they want to talk about because that’s what they have the most power over-people. You can’t change your genes but you can get rid of your bra and you can do lifestyle changes and they don’t want to talk about that because they don’t make any money off of that at all. They only make it when you get cancer.

Jason Hartman: Yeah. You know, I just have to think there is a really, really ugly evil link deeper in the equation and that is the whole cancer industry. It is amazing if you listen to talk radio how many commercials you hear for cancer centers, for chemotherapy, it’s like… does the whole country have cancer? This is mind boggling that we’re thinking about this so much.

Ross Singer: The American Cancer Society’s mission is to make cancer a comfortable part of life. They sell mastectomy bras, they sell prosthesis to replace your breasts after they take them out, they’ll sell wigs. They basically are trying to make… they’re accepting cancer is a fact. They will detect it early and treat it early.

Jason Hartman: I’ll give you an example. I can’t even believe that so many places… and I’m going to pick on Starbucks specifically. Why do they only serve for the sugars, why do they only have Equal, Sugar in the Raw, regular processed terrible sugar, and Splenda and Sweet ‘n Low? Where’s the Stevia? Doesn’t that just seem like an obvious thing? And I’m just saying that I believe Stevia is less dangerous or maybe okay completely? I don’t know, you may disagree, but I can’t believe there’s no Stevia sweetener for your coffee. It just blows my mind that we know how bad Equal and Splenda and Sweet ‘n Low are… processed sugar. Those are just awful and everyone would agree. Are they involved with the cancer industry too?

Ross Singer: What we’re really talking about here is the nature of culturogenic disease. What happens is you have industries that are invested in keeping quiet the harm that their products are causing, and there are a lot of companies out there doing harmful things to people. Then they make sure that there is very little research done, and whatever research is done they’ll try to suppress it, they’ll do their own research that will conflict with it. They’ll just keep the issue confused. Then the medical industry is making money treating the diseases caused by these other industries, and gets funding from these other industries.

So the less research that’s out there, the less likelihood there’ll be lawsuits. So it’s in the best interest of both the medical field and these harmful industries to minimize the amount of research that’s done on those industries. And then the public gets addicted to these products, they get brainwashed by all the advertising into thinking they need these products.

And the condition is right for a culture caused disease, and that’s what breast cancer is. You have women’s body image has become defined by bras. You have lingerie industries that make these devices to change body shape and it’s obviously causing problems, but they don’t want any research in it, they’re funding cancer research and the cancer industry is into detecting and treating the diseases once you get them. They have no interest in trying to prevent it by challenging the bra and it’s use and the lingerie industry… they can’t even get people to stop smoking. So that’s the nature of the problem here. the only way to stop it is to stop paying for it. We have to take control of our own lives. Stop being part of it. There’s nothing wrong with being bra free, if you don’t want to be bra free don’t wear your bra so tight and so long.

Jason Hartman: I was surprised to hear you say that women sleep in them. I didn’t really…I’ve never noticed that.

Ross Singer: Oh, well that’s a big trend. And the more they do it, the rates on breast cancer are astronomical. And they do that because the bra industry has been lying to them saying if you sleep in your bra it will prevent your breasts from sagging. And actually, the bra causes sag because as I said before it’s an artificial support, like if you held your arm in a sling all the time…

Jason Hartman: The muscle would atrophy, yeah.

Ross Singer: So it’s all a scam. And instead of sending them a donation, when the Coleman or American Cancer Society comes to your door asking for money, give them your bra. It’ll be the best thing you can do for yourself and it’ll get them the message that they have to stop ignoring this and start warning women about this simple way to prevent breast cancer.

Jason Hartman: Very interesting, very interesting. It makes me think that the other one, although it’s much less impactful of course, is you look at a company like under armor, and there are other companies that do it too. But a lot of this athletic clothing is pressure clothing. It’s designed to increase performance by putting constriction and pressure on the muscles, and I have to say that when I’ve used it working out or going to the gym, it kind of makes you feel like superman.

Ross Singer: Well imagine wearing that all day for like 18 hours a day as soon as you get up, and maybe never even taking it off. Even ace bandages are bad when you wear them for too long because they prevent proper circulation. And while you’re wearing them it interferes with circulation. If you put some tight, tight pants on you’ll actually make your blood shift to your head because it can’t go down as well. There’s more pressure, so it goes to places where there’s less pressure. It’s just like simple fluid mechanics.

So you actually are changing your circulation and the skin gets compressed by any of these garments and the skin lymphatics then can’t flow so your cells don’t get circulation and you’ll eventually get ulcers. People who wear tight socks, all those things… over time they start to get foot ulcers because of the breakdown of the skin and the same thing is happening in the breast. So you don’t want anything tight. Our bodies are soft on the outside for a reason. So you have to respect that.

Jason Hartman: Right. Very interesting points. Sydney, give out your website and tell people where they can buy the book.

Ross Singer: Yeah, KillerCulture.com is where we have all sorts of different lifestyle caused diseases and we talk about the boycott and so forth. KillerCulture.com.

Jason Hartman: KillerCulture.com and I’m sure the book’s on Amazon.com, right?

Ross Singer: Yes, of course.

Jason Hartman: And the message here is boycott… tell us specifically the boycotts and are there anymore besides the two biggies?

Ross Singer: Well those are the two ones that we’re aiming for but any cancer organization that ignores the bra/cancer link and there are other ones too, just don’t pay them. Just give them your bra and they’ll get the message because they know about this information and they’ve been knowing about it now for 20 years. And they’re doing this… because this is around the world. Dressed to Kill just came out in the Czech language, in the Czech Republic. It came out two years ago in Korean. It’s around the world, and it’s been spreading grassroots because when women get rid of their bras they feel better, their cists go away, their pain goes away because bras are causing fiber cystic breast disease too, so it’s really important for women to just take control of their own bodies.

And when these organizations come and tell you “we want your money so we can come up with a cure” you need to tell them I already know how to prevent this so I don’t need your cure, and here’s my bra. And that’ll get them the message because money is all they care about.

Jason Hartman: Yeah, of course it is. Well good. Sydney Ross Singer thank you for joining us today. Folks, this is an interesting message and it certainly deserves some attention. Go out and get the book Dressed to Kill: The Link Between Breast Cancer and Bras. And visit KillerCulture.com. Sydney, thanks for joining us.

Ross Singer: Thank you Jason.

Narrator: Have you listened to the Creating Wealth series? I mean from the beginning. If not, you can go head and get book one, that’s shows 1-20, in digital download. These are advanced strategies for wealth creation. For more information, go to JasonHartman.com.

Narrator: Thank you for joining us today for the Holistic Survival Show. Protecting the people, places and profits you care about in uncertain times. Be sure to listen to our Creating Wealth Show, which focuses on exploiting the financial and wealth creation opportunities in today’s economy. Learn more at www.JasonHartman.com or search “Jason Hartman” on iTunes. This show is produced by the Hartman Media Company, offering very general guidelines and information. Opinions of guests are their own, and none of the content should be considered individual advice. If you require personalized advice, please consult an appropriate professional. Information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.

Transcribed by Ralph

The Holistic Survival Team

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