Boob creams and pills are just a bust
By Andy Ho
WANT bigger breasts? Though breast implants have been around for 40 years, doctors are still unsure about their long-term risks.
Unsurprisingly, many women may want a lift but fear the scalpel, so they try out the many pills, lotions, creams and devices advertised as breast developers instead.
It's a huge market. But are women letting their insecurity about their bodies get ahead of their reason?
Most of these non-surgical methods are likely to give only flat results. They may seem quite genuine, what with testimonials from 'real people' as well as money-back guarantees, but it is worth remembering that beauty products - unlike prescription drugs - are not regulated and don't need government approval or testing before they are marketed.
Consider the various methods that purport to enlarge breasts. First, exercises. Since the breasts are composed primarily of glands and fat, no amount of exercise will change their actual size or shape.
At best, some devices may help develop the muscles that support the breasts. When these muscles are larger and firmer, they push the breasts outwards, giving the illusion of larger breasts.
What about the various bust-o-lift creams and lotions?
In theory, lotions and creams loaded with the female hormone called oestrogen might do the trick by stimulating the growth of the glands in the breast. Applying oestrogen cream could increase breast size - as long as it is applied.
But unless the cream is one prescribed by a doctor, it is likely to have so little oestrogen you might as well smear salsa on your chest.
Even if you get your hands on an unlimited supply of full-strength oestrogen cream, don't be overjoyed: Over-stimulating breast growth with hormones can predispose one to cancer. So a cream or lotion (or pill) that actually works but is not a prescription item is likely to be one chock-full of oestrogen, perhaps imported illegally.
But marketeers of these creams, lotions and pills do not highlight their oestrogen content. Instead, they are generally made out to be herbal in origin - containing harmless 'plant oestrogens' that are apparently found in some 300 plants like dong quai, soybean, oat bran, fenugreek, wild yam, saw palmetto and so on.
Of course, being herbal, they are also touted as natural and safe.
Yet one was recently withdrawn from the market - GroBust. When its makers were first sued in the US, it listed Kava, a South Pacific herb, among its ingredients - before Kava's potential to cause fatty liver became known. This example suggests how there is often no scientific justification for calling such products 'safe'.
Almost no non-surgical method has been documented to be effective - and documentation is no easy task.
First, proper steps must be taken to ensure that any 'before and after' differences don't arise from oestrogen intake, observer bias, body weight changes, body fluid content changes with the menstrual cycle or time of day, measuring at different points on different occasions, and postural variations.
Second, the woman should be measured at the same time of day, applying the tape with the same tautness each time while her posture and position should remain the same.
Third, to safeguard against fraud, there should be several independent observers with videotape and/or photographic documentation. To ascertain there is permanent breast enlargement, follow-up checks are needed for years. The breasts should also be scanned with MRI to ensure no disease develops.
Impossible standards?
Before you lose all hope, there is one device that might just pass muster: the computerised vacuum bra that fits over the breasts and must be worn without interruption for 10 hours a day for three months.
Developed by a plastic surgeon, it supposedly exploits the principle of tissue expansion used over the last 30 years to grow tissue to lengthen limbs, for instance.
The vacuum supposedly stretches breast tissue gently, and when healthy cells are stretched, they respond by first swelling temporarily, then eventually dividing and replicating to accommodate the stretch force, thus generating new breast tissue.
The results of a tiny trial of 12 women begun in 1998 were published in a mainstream journal, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, in 2000. There was an average increase of one cup size 15 months after treatment ended. A follow-up study of 30 women by another group replicated these results.
A larger study by the original group involving 95 women has just been completed with similar results and awaits publication if their peers adjudge the study to have scientific merit. All three studies abided with the strict guidelines suggested above.
If it truly works, how many women will stick to it in this hot weather? Its hard, protuberant cones can't be concealed even under the largest sweatshirt you can wear in the office. If you knock into your colleagues or filing cabinets, one of the domes may come unstuck - and with that, a loud giveaway alarm will sound.
There'll be loud guffaws in the office - or you'll be rudely awakened in the middle of the night if you go to sleep with them. By the way, you won't be able to sleep on your belly for the three months you wear them.
If you are very lean or you are Asian - which supposedly means tighter skin - you'll get slower breast growth than a fatter woman or a white sister.
Still, if there is growth without the scalpel, many may just grin and bear it.
Do beauty salons have this contraption? No, the gadget is available through doctors only.