An excerpt from the review:

Williams’ journey begins when, alarmed by a news article about toxins in breast milk, she decides to get her own milk tested. And, surprise! It’s packed with toxins—specifically, chemical flame retardants—that Williams is funneling directly into her baby. (“Well, at least your breasts won’t spontaneously ignite!” her husband jokes, because that’s exactly what you want to hear when adjusting to the news that you’re a human baby-poison factory.) This sends her down a rabbit hole in search of deeper understanding of her own anatomy— into the evolutionary history of mammals, to Peru to investigate nursing and weaning, back to the first breast augmentation surgery, and all over the world to interview more boob experts than you can shake a pasty at.

And she discovers that breasts are complicated. Impossibly so. She learns that it’s the breast’s permeability that make it such an evolutionary powerhouse (lots and lots of estrogen receptors help human puberty occur at the optimal time; nutrient-rich breast milk makes for giant brains)—but that same permeability is also, partially, what causes one in eight women to develop breast cancer. Our breasts make us great but they also make us vulnerable, and you can’t help but come away from Williams’ book feeling a bit helpless. (Self-examinations! Self-examinations are key!) While she makes the story as dynamic as possible, there’s no escaping that this is science journalism—there are lots of PBDE levels and octa-203 and penta-47 and dioxin and “lobule type 4” and other such enemies of lively prose. But that’s OK—there are enough surprises and genuinely horrifying learning moments to keep a reader (especially a lady-reader), uh, latched on.

The review concludes with “Five Things I Learned About Breasts From Florence Williams’ Breasts,” with West taking a comedic approach, surprisingly, without undermining the book’s implications. Parting quips aside, the book appears to delve into uncharted areas of breast science and sociology, offering a fascinating exploration of the past, present and future of breasts, and what we can do to save them.

Amazon.com, I’ll take two please.

You can read the full review here: Your Breasts Are Trying to Kill You.

[ From slate.com (via: boingboing.net) ]

Made out of federally approved polymer, the implant is the first of its kind and works in a way that causes a reduction in the blood-vessel architecture that breast cancer tumors depend on, while at the same time attractive healthy breast cells. The implant materials are also said to drive down the rate of relapse.

“We’ve created an (implant) surface with features that can at least decrease (cancerous) cell functions without having to use chemotherapeutics, radiation, or other processes to kill cancer cells,” said Thomas Webster, associate professor of engineering and the corresponding author on the paper in Nanotechnology. “It’s a surface that’s hospitable to healthy breast cells and less so for cancerous breast cells.

According to the American Cancer Society, one in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer. Of those, many will undergo surgery to remove the tumor and will require some kind of breast reconstruction afterward – many involving some sort of implant. Cancer is difficult to beat though, and malignant cells return for about one-fifth of women originally diagnosed. This “bed-of-nails” implant may provide some resolve for the many unfortunate women who have had to grapple with this unfortunate disease, and those who are at risk for it in the future.

You can read the full article here.

[ From: sciencedaily.com ]

Humphreys, 52, was bewildered at first when her 10-month-old cat, Fidge, began jumping on her right breast every night for weeks on end so she decided to visit a physician, the Daily Mail reports.

What doctors found astounded Humphreys. She had a malignant pea-sized tumor in her breast that could have metastasized if it hadn’t been discovered early. She is now scheduled to undergo chemotherapy and credits Fidge with saving her life.

What doctors found astounded Humphreys: She had a malignant tumor in her breast about the size of a pea that could have metastasized if it hadn’t been discovered early. She is now scheduled to undergo chemotherapy and credits Fidge with saving her life, according to the paper.

Studies have shown that dogs can also pick up on physical ailments and illnesses by detecting changes in people’s smell. Researchers in Japan conducted a study in 2011 to see how well a dog could identify people with colorectal cancer. The dog was accurate 98 percent of the time, NPR reported.

[ From: huffingtonpost.com ]

Most medically implanted devices, from implants to new hips and knees are seen as invaders by the body and are quickly isolated from the rest of the body by a special structure called a fibroblast. This hard capsule, which can become unattractive and even painful in breast implants, can prevent the implanted device from functioning correctly.

This new coating has done very well in lab tests and could become part of the manufacturing process as early as 2013. The collagen coating the device tricks the body into thinking it’s a natural part of our bodies and thus prevents or reduced the formation of fibroblasts.

[ Medical Xpress ]

[ Fox News Latino ]

It’s not surprising that breast augmentation has become one of the top cosmetic surgery procedures for over a decade, but what’s interesting is that the procedure growth rate has been virtually recession proof for the past 20 years.

“There’s a reason that breast augmentation has been the number one cosmetic surgery—not just here in the U.S., but worldwide—for so long now,” said Dr. Brown. “As the high rate of patient satisfaction shows, this is a procedure that works. I hope this infographic serves as a helpful reference going forward, not only for other plastic surgeons, but for patients as well.”

[ From: drdonaldbrown.com ]

photo: EBbra

No folks, this is not an infomercial. The Emergency Bra is real – and it could save your life if faced with nuclear disaster.

Dr. Elena Bodnar won the 2009 Ig Nobel Public Health Prize for the Emergency Bra, an invention that doubles as a stylish bra and face mask. In the event of a disaster, simply unsnap the bra, separate the cups, slip one over your head, and slip one on to your partner.

The bra, which is now available for purchase online, came as a result of Bodnar studying the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Bodnar found that “if people had had cheap, readily available gas masks in the first hours after the disaster… they may have avoided breathing in Iodine-131, which causes radiation,” reported Fox News.

“You have to be prepared all the time, at any place, at any moment, and practically every woman wears a bra,” she said.

Despite all the seriousness, Bodnar remained light-hearted in the video below of her Ig Nobel prize acceptance speech by removing her bra and demonstrating how the device works on fellow Nobel laureates:

And if you don’t feel like watching the whole speech, I believe the following quote sums up just how genius this invention is:

“Ladies and gentlemen, isn’t that wonderful that women have two breasts, not just one? We can save not only our own life, but also the life of a man of our choice next to us.”

Smart woman, eh?

[ From: salon.com ]

“The take home message is that this potentially a very interesting approach for anybody concerned about weight or insulin,” said Dr. Michelle Harvie, Phd, a registered dietitian with the Genesis Prevention Center at the University Hospital in South Manchester, England. She cautioned, however, that the study is “quite preliminary” and relatively small.

[ Huffington Post ]

This solution is unique because it is effective against “triple-negative tumors” which are resistant to traditional hormone therapy. The drug is currently being tested on human cancer cells in a lab. Clinical testing could begin in 2013.

[ Dawn ]

Their research is preliminary but is promising enough that they are hoping to start human trials soon.

Before you decide to start taking Foxglove, you should know that it is poisonous and that they are working on a medicine extracted from the drug and not just crushing the flowers and swallowing them.

[ Daily Mail Online ]