The human body is an amazing thing . For each one of us , it ’s the most sexual object we eff . And yet most of us do n’t know enough about it : its features , function , crotchet , and mysteries . Our serial publication The Body explores human anatomy , part by part . retrieve of it as a mini digital encyclopedia with a dose of wow .
Of all the organs of the torso , the humble breast has get to represent so much more than its all-important functions . American culture places undue value on size , shape , and appearance of tit , which can make it gentle to leave the all-important map of the white meat , from an evolutionary stand , which is primarily for feeding our offspring . Mental Floss spoke to a distich of specialists about the titty . Here are seven thing we see .
1. BREASTS ARE GLANDS.
Beneath the sarcoid mound that we think of as a titty is the less glamorously named
mammary secretor
, a complex internet of fat prison cell and tubes that are capable of producing milk for babe . If a charwoman becomes significant , the Milk River ducts , pouch - similar structures , sate first with colostrum before the baby is born and then knocker Milk River after , and send it via little channels call lobule to the nipple , where the milk exits .
2. BREASTS ARE SISTERS, NOT TWINS.
According to
Constance Chen
, a plastic and rehabilitative operating surgeon and director of microsurgery at New York Eye & Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai Hospital , two breasts are rarely , if ever , identical . " Breasts come in all shapes and sizes , " she tell apart Mental Floss . " There are dozens of different way to be normal . " The same is also unfeigned for nipples and their areola , the darker colored skin around the nipples .
3. INVERTED NIPPLES ARE NORMAL.
An anatropous nipple is a normal occurrence " cause by bond at the foot of the pap that bind the skin to the inherent tissue paper , " concord to a
team of specialist
at Columbia University that answers medical questions in a column call " Go Ask Alice . " It ’s possible to have one inverted nipple and not the other , or both . In general , it should have very little discomfort or problems , with the exception of breastfeeding . Sometimes an inverted nipple can be difficult for an infant to latch onto , but there are methods to aid the mamilla protrude again , such as nipple shields . In very rarified cases , a pap that becomes reverse may be a sign of
boob cancer
, in which a tumour is pulling on the tissue and do it to invert .
4. SMOKING CAN CAUSE BREASTS TO DROOP, BUT BREASTFEEDING DOESN’T.
Many women fault breastfeeding for breast sag , but the
facts do n’t deliver that out
. While gestation can commute the elasticity of ligaments in the tit , breastfeeding merely changes the sizing of the breasts , but has lilliputian encroachment on the snap of the skin . smoke , on the other hand , is a verbatim
antagonist to elastin
, the meat that makes all peel supple , which can run to droop breasts .
5. BREAST CANCER DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE.
People often conceive that the only way of life they ’re likely to get titty cancer is if they have a family history . harmonise to Chen , this is not precise : " Most people who get breast Cancer the Crab have no phratry account , " she notes . Beyond genetics , jeopardy factors admit " get older , benign breast problems , more exposure to estrogen , drinking inebriant , and exposure to radiotherapy . "
And valet de chambre can get breast cancer , too . " It get up less than 1 per centum of all Cancer in men , but it ’s not a part to be ignored , "
Jay Harness
, a breast cancer and reconstructive operating surgeon at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange , California , tell Mental Floss . Women and human should both search preventative cancer screenings , especially if there is a family history of the aggressive
BRCA1 gene
that carries a significant risk of malignant neoplastic disease in serviceman and woman . former detection is cardinal to helping treat titty Crab .
6. MIDWIVES OF OLD READ BREASTS LIKE BOOKS.
harmonize to a class at Stanford title " A History of the Body , " early accoucheuse and aesculapian practitioner made signification of the people of color of cleaning woman ’s breast . A 17th - century accoucheuse ,
Jane Sharp
, wrote about the English women she tended to : " The Nipples are reddened after Copulation , reddened as a Strawberry , and that is their raw colour : But Nurses Nipples , when they give Suck , are blue , and they grow black when they are one-time . "
7. IT’S NOT JUST MEN WHO STARE AT WOMEN’S BREASTS.
Psychologists from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln did a study in 2013 to mold whether men were alone in their alleged captivation with women ’s chest . For the
study
, titled " My Eyes Are Up Here : The Nature of the Objectifying Gaze Toward Women , " 29 women and 36 man were fitted up with eye - tracking technology and indicate women with " eubstance shapes that tally cultural ideals of womanly attraction to varying degree . " They were told to pore on the coming into court versus the personality of the woman . Both virile and female participants spend more fourth dimension looking at the charwoman ’s breasts than they did their faces , especially if a woman had a " high ideal " body form : hourglass , with a modest waistline and large breasts .
