[chrishoney]

The problem with that reasoning is that our breasts aren't held up by muscles, but by ligaments...

As for the latter... Well... Naysayers mostly think it doesn't make a difference really for sagging to wear one or not wear one... At least, permanently. While wearing the bra it has the cosmetic benefit of disguising sag, temporarily, regardless of how much your breasts sag without.

Which since it's ligaments that support the breasts, not muscles, this actually makes the MOST sense... Those ligaments are going to stretch with age basically no matter what we do... especially if you have a sudden inflation and then deflation that's common with milk production post-pregnancy...

The only thing that MIGHT help, but ONLY with preventing, is taking collagen during nursing might strengthen the ligaments enough to prevent the milk producing breasts from causing sag afterwards. Maybe. But once the damage is done, your only choice is to somehow develop enough volume for how much stretch your ligaments have had... Which a lot of the women here try to do.

Unfortunately, you don't seem to understand how connective tissue/fascia behaves in response to stress. Without a much too lengthy discourse into the physical properties of connective tissue (stress/strain curves, plastic vs elastic deformation in conjunction with the cellular and extracellular components of fascia, and all that), suffice it to say that highly credible research shows unless the tissue is regularly exposed to normal amounts of stress/tension, it will start to loose it's ability to withstand that strain. In effect, it will get weaker over time. I won't bore anyone with the technicalities of the studies since they weren't done on breast tissue, but ligaments are ligaments, connective tissue is connective tissue and its function and response to stress is fairly uniform throughout the body. Take the normal stress of supporting the breasts away by wearing a bra, and the ligaments get weaker. Restore that stress to the ligaments and they get stronger. It really is that simple.

In addition, read the sites I linked to previously for the testimonials of women who have stopped wearing bras who have noticed that their breasts are firmer and perkier since stopping. One or two or three might be fooling themselves, but a preponderance of even anecdotal evidence begins to paint a different picture.

Happy reading.