Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History

This isn't a book for the prurient—sorry, but no R-rated pictures or salacious tales. This isn't a book for the hypochondriac—the subjects in question are sinkholes for every toxin we pump into our environment, with the expected consequences.

It is, however, a good choice if you're curious about these under-studied (medically, I mean) and quite sophisticated organs. They are marvels of feedback, altering their output in response to the gender, hunger and even health of the infant on the other end. Scientists are quite divided on why humans even have them since other primates don't. They are changing substantially in modern times (and I don't mean under a cosmetic surgeon's care, though that phenomenon is discussed), a fact that show more causes some concern. Even men have more than an observer status in the book, as Ms. Williams discusses the rising incidences of breast cancer among them.

It's probably not a book for everyone but, if you're interested, it's eminently readable, lightly humorous at times and worth your while. show less

Everybody loves them, but few men (or women) take them seriously. Human breasts are admired and abused, shaped and enhanced, and -- in the modern age -- often never used for their evolved purpose.

The story and science of breasts are fascinating subjects, so it's no wonder that Florence Williams addressed the jokes and the oogling factor in the very first chapter of Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History. It allowed her to get the juvenile chuckling out of the way and move into the more serious topics that the inevitable tongue-wagging tends to obscure. I imagine you'd have to be armed with wit if you want to be taken seriously on subjects like boobies, scrota, farts, etc., so the strategy is a good one: acknowledge the joke elephants show more in the room and get on with it.

Williams writes admirably with seriousness and light humor in a style similar to that of Mary Roach, talented author of Stiff and Bonk. And she works through her narrative's many subjects with ease. She offers historical background, conversations with scientists and non-scientists alike, and adds her personal experiences. The science is still a relatively new field considering breasts and lactation have been critical to humanity and even gave our order -- mammals -- its defining name. Extensive research just hasn't happened to the degree of other body parts. "It's because the field is dominated by men who don't think much of breasts except as sexual objects," one male researcher told her.

Williams explores organ development (the only human organ built completely after birth!), the often brutal history of enhancements, the world of implants at a busy Houston clinic, and the packaging for public display. She discusses the morphing breast during a monthly period, during pregnancy, while nursing, and over a lifetime. They never stop changing. She describes the science of lactation (fuckling, in Olde English script where the letter s looks like an f) and the breast's ability to adjust milk production for the nutritional and immunity needs of the infant. That topic alone was intriguing for this frequent reader of non-fiction and popular science. There's a remarkable interaction between mother and infant that the breasts mediate. It's not a one-sided conversation and it's not as straightforward as you might expect. For instance, milk made for a male child is more energy dense than for a female and the speculation is just as surprising. The immunity agents that flood human breast milk is tailor-made, as well, permitting the infant to get what he/she needs with changing health or environmental factors. No artificial baby formula has matched it.

There are also problems. The hyper-interactive human breast seems adept at absorbing toxins and other chemicals. Pollutants accumulate in breasts more than other parts of the body. This can be a life-long danger to the breast-feeding infant as well as the woman. Breast cancer rates have increased world-wide in recent decades and scientists seeking answers have found correlations among the dozens of suspects -- including: much earlier start of puberty (why is that happening?), late-in-life motherhood, a lifetime without childbirth, environmental and (sadly) often unconsidered household toxins. One surprising avenue of research is breast cancer among men. Geographic hotspots among a much smaller research sample size could make finding disease-causing culprits a little easier to study.

This is not a breast-feeding tome or a let's-be-happy-with-our-bodies book for women-only. It's well-written non-fiction about a subject that women AND men have an interest in seeing healthy and babies often depend upon. Don't be distracted by their beauty; learn what's going on inside.

Find more of my reviews at Mostly NF. show less

EVERYTHING and then some (YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN) you've ever wanted and not wanted to know about female human mammary glands. "An engaging narrative about an incredible, life-giving organ and it's imperiled modern fate"

The book is cataloged 612.664, right in there w/ medical information...... and personally, I couldn't quite figure out what what was so "engaging" about this book.

I didn't know you could have your breast milk tested in Germany for fire-retardants & other chemicals and that American women test 10-100 times higher than European women. Also did you know, that breast milk contains a cannabis like substance in it? I didn't either.

I had never heard (and hope to never again hear) breasts called: "Dingle Bobbers" (which I was show more sure was a term for male anatomy), Jellybonkers, or Chumbawumbas (Come on, Really?).

But if you want the scoop on the health hazards that make breasts endangered, then by all means read this book. show less

An absorbing and frightening book that delves into such breast-related subjects as evolution, development, implants, cancer, breastfeeding, and the contents of breast milk (startling). It was engaging and full of facts*, and makes an excellent case for regulating the thousands of chemicals that are introduced into the American market with no safety testing at all.

*I especially liked the bit about how once our babies couldn't cling to our fur anymore, our arms were the best place to hold them, and the breast is conveniently placed just there for easy access to nutrition/immune system boosting.

Quotes

In countless ways, modernity has been good for women, but it hasn't always been good for our breasts....The wealthiest industrialized show more countries have the highest rates of breast cancer in the world. (10)

There's nothing like America's consumer culture to convince us that what we have isn't quite good enough. We didn't used to be this way. Americans have traditionally be tough-skinned and self-reliant. At the same time, of course, we've been great reinventors of the self. (from ch. 4, "Fill Her Up," on breast augmentation, p. 61-62)

Big, fake breasts have so thoroughly saturated mainstream entertainment and media that they've created a new standard by which boys judge girls and girls judge themselves. (82)

"The developing fetus is exquisitely sensitive to environmental factors. There are critical windows, sometimes just one or two days long, in which a tiny dose of chemical can send the wrong message to cells, and other days when the window has shut and the mouse will develop normally." -experimental biologist Patricia Hunt re: BPA (from ch. 5, "Toxic Assets," p. 95)

Numerous studies have confirmed that BPA activates the estrogen receptors on breast cells and can cause cancer cells to replicate in a dish. (95)

Our breasts...have more varied and more sensitive hormone receptors than other organs....They need to sense the environment to store fat and grow at the optimal time and feed an infant in an uncertain world. What might have been handy once upon a time now looks increasingly like a liability. (97)

lack of government oversight, inadequate/non-existent testing for hormonal effects in safety studies, chemical & pharmaceutical industries' power to sow seeds of scientific doubt and maintain a favorable regulatory landscape (98)

Unlike in Europe, American companies are not required to perform safety studies on chemicals before they introduce them into the marketplace. In fact, they have a strong incentive not to perform them. (98-99)

avoid scented products, parabens, phthalates (138-139)

...the whole prospect of trying to individually safeguard one's family from silent endocrine disruptors feels like a folly, because it can't be done in any meaningful way until the government and chemical companies change the way they test, manufacture, and market these substances. (139)

"It's amazing how few people are interested in this incredible organ. The breast is the only organ without a medical specialty." (Professor Peter Hartmann, 174)

...breasts are often overlooked, at least for non-cancer scientific research. (175)

...lactation likely evolved from the immune system; its primary function was not nutrition but protection. Most of the cells in milk are macrophages, which disable viruses, fungi, and bacteria. (187)

Knowing that I could give my babies all they needed was nothing short of astonishing. Through breast-feeding, I grew more confident in my ability to be a mother....The big contradiction is that breast-feeding is so natural, and yet so completely unintuitive. (194)

As my flame-retardant adventures made clear, there's only so much an informed consumer can do. A better solution would be a regulatory one....Congress needs to update its chemical laws so these substances can be tested for health effects before they come to market. Many scientists and activists and even some regulators advocate taking a precautionary approach to chemicals that exhibit the big trifecta of concern: persistence, toxicity, and easy transportability. (215)

...by the mid-1980s, [epidemiologist Malcolm] Pike was publishing papers showing that women who began taking the pill as teens, before bearing children, doubled their risk of breast cancer before age forty-five. If they took the pill for eight years before becoming pregnant, they nearly tripled their risk....Today's oral contraceptives contain one-fifth the hormone levels of the original. (230)

We're pretty much marinating in hormones and toxins....Our modern environment...is determining our cellular destiny. (235)

To save breasts - and to spare women the particular agonies of [breast cancer] - we need to think more about the bigger picture of health and, ultimately, prevention. Yet surprisingly few research dollars...are spent on prevention. (279)

A better and more successful approach would be a societal one, in which industries have incentives to design safer products and make healthier foods, and governments adopt a commonsense and rigorous approach to testing and regulating chemicals. (280) show less

Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams This book starts with a list of some of the words that are used to describe breasts.
 
A good way to start a book? Well, it got my attention!A narrative from a woman who for various reasons gets her breast milk analyzed to see what's in it. The horror starts there.A lengthy report on all the toxins we know about and heaps that we don't, at least until now. There is nothing here to brighten your day but lots to make you think about improving the days you have left.A seriously good piece of work that bears thorough reading. Some little earth shattering moments, for example, to hear that the breast is the only organ in the human body that isn't formed up by the time we are born. show more Kind of obvious when you think about it. But when new drugs are introduced they have to be shown to cause no harm to every other maor organ except the breast.The bit that got me the most was to hear that until *very* recent times it was generally universally accepted that the breast evolved to please men. Universally accepted by men I should say. Remember Desmond Morris? well he was one major espouser of that line. Suave git.Even if you haven't got any breasts of your own, oh we all do! you will find lots here to re-assure, inflame, lull or shake you. There's more in the jiggly bits that you can shake a stick at...err. show less

Skemmtilega heillandi bók sem kemur nokkuð á óvart. Florence Williams byrjar á að skoða hvað kann að valda þróun kvenbrjósta sem merkilegt nokk er eitt af því sem einkennir mannskepnuna frá öllum spendýrum. Hún segir frá rannsóknum um hvað kunni að valda því að karlmenn hrífist svo mjög af stærri brjóstum og hvort það hafi haft áhrif á þróun þeirra en fljótlega snýr hún sér að meginhlutverki þeirra sem er brjóstagjöf.
Bókin er stútfull af ýmis konar uppl��singum sem gaman er að kynnast og ég hafði ekki hugmynd um. T.a.m. að vegna eituráhrifa eru dæmi um að fimm ára stúlkur í Mexíkó hafi þroskað með sér brjóst og að vegna svipaðra áhrifa fer kynþroskaaldur stúlkna show more stöðugt lækkandi. Brjóstin eru sérstaklega næm fyrir allri mengun og safna í sig eituráhrifum úr umhverfinu. Þessi eitrun berst síðan með móðurmjólkinni í ungabörn og frumburðir fá mesta magnið, bæði vegna þess að brjóstin hafa safnað mestu eitrinu fyrir þann tíma og kynþroskaskeiðið virðist gera brjóst s��rstaklega næm. En brjóstagjöf er líka nauðsynleg fyrir ungabörn því að með henni lærir ónæmiskerfi barnsis af ónæmiskerfi móður ef svo má að orði komast og ekki síst þá eru vísbendingar um að börn sem verið hafa á brjósti séu með hærri greindarvísitölu en þau sem eru án hennar. Annað sem kom mér á óvart er að brjóstin gefa frá sér mismunandi mjólk eftir því hvort kynið er að drekka af brjóstinu en brjóstin virðast þannig vera afskaplega næm fyrir umhverfinu - nokkuð sem virðist síðan hafa áhrif á það hve brjóstin eru næm fyrir mengun. Þessar upplýsingar og ótal aðrar fannst mér heillandi við lestur bókarinnar.
Williams byggir umfjöllun sína nær eingöngu upp á umfjöllun um rannsóknir sem tengjast brjóstum, þ.e.a.s. brjóstagjöf, mjólk, kynþroska, áhrifum mengunar, brjóstakrabba o.s.frv. Hún gerir þetta vel og blandar inn í söguna viðtölum, eigin upplifun og þátttöku í rannsóknum er tengjast umfjöllunarefni bókarinnar. Einstaka sinnum verður hún þó tæknileg og þurr enda vart við öðru að búast þegar umfjöllunarefnið eru margvíslegar efnafræðiformúlur sem eru notaðar við framleiðslu matvæla og ýmiss varnings sem finna má á heimilum og valda óæskilegum áhrifum á mannskepnuna og já sérstaklega brjóstin. show less

The research is obviously there, but this took me so long to finish. I can understand what an undertaking it is to have all this data and try to present it in a layman-consumable way. One usual method to get reader interest and sympathy, and the one I saw used here, is for the author to intersperse the scientific reportage with personal anecdotes, to show how these topics are intimately relevant, in effect the author representing the Everywoman. She has taken it upon herself to use her journalistic savvy find some answers, and share them with her kinswomen. Unfortunately, the answers are confusing, contradictory and leave one feeling panicked and hopeless. It's a cancer roulette. You can try to weed out all the plastics, flame show more retardants, etc. in your life, but with our world the way it is, it's like fighting a losing battle. But she shares our feelings. Like the author, we can only hope for the speedy advancement of breast research, and-- probably the only solid takeaway I could find-- learn how to properly give yourself a breast exam. The only other thing we normal citizens can do is promote awareness, and at the very least this is what the book accomplishes. If you want an entertaining non-fiction read, go for Bryson or Roach. If you want the sad facts that make you feel like covering your defenseless, disease-susceptible breasts protectively ("Dear My Boobs: You poor things. I love you girls. Thanks for being here for me despite all the dangers.") here they are. show less