Breast Pain is just common among women, even for runners

Last year, wherein a London marathon was held, researchers from the Research Group in Breast Health at the University of Portsmouth in England asked women about their workout habits and breast pain.

Sore breast is something that is prevalent among athlete whether they are athlete or non-athlete. It does not concern their age and size as nothing is safe from the condition.

But not study was done to know if exercise contributes to breast pain and, how often does it occur to women who exercises.

For the study, researchers got participant from 1,300 of the women registered for the race and learned, as their new study, published in March in The British Journal of Sports Medicine. What they find out is that exercises do affect breast pain and vice versa.

This is not something to be a surprise about since exercise affects almost all the tissue in the male and female body.

At the race, some women wear bra sizes that do not fit them, therefore, not being able to fully support the breast.

According to Portsmouth scientists, female breasts that are not supported by a bra swing as much as eight inches in space whenever they run. Take note that it moves in every direction – up and down, side to side, forward and backward.

Even those participants who wore a standard sports bra, scientist says their breast also swings while running.

However, it was not proven if the swing was related to the soreness in the breast.

Nicola Brown, a member of the Research Group in Breast Health at Portsmouth, a lecturer in exercise science at Saint Mary’s University College in London and the lead author of the study says that women should be aware of the causes of breast soreness.

There is a problem with too many dimensions when it comes to effectively studying in a single laboratory experiment, so the scientists decided instead to survey a cross section of active women. This is what they find during the marathon. Women there differs is shape size and age.

Dr. Brown noted how some people think that female marathon runners’ breasts are small, but the truth is that they have varied shape and size.

After the analysis of the survey given to the women runners, they discovered that the women got around 56 different bra sizes, from an AA cup to an HH and chest-band sizes from 28 to 40 inches. The participants differ in body weight, too, with the average being about 148 pounds.

Out of all the participants, 90 percent wore bra all the time even while they are exercising.

But this does not mean that active women do not suffer from breast pain. Some of them need to stop exercising whenever they feel breast sore. Breast pain was prevalent among women with big breast while only a number with small breast reported having sore breast.