WILLIAM P. ADAMS JR., MD PLASTIC SURGERY

5 Surprising Habits That Could be Causing Your Breasts to Sag

5 Surprising Habits That Could be Causing Your Breasts to Sag

Breast feeding, age, genetics – they may all play a role in your breasts sagging a little lower than you’d like. But these uncontrollable life forces aren’t all that can cause your boobs to sag.

While we would all love it if boobs didn’t adhere to the rules of gravity or succumb to the effects of aging, there are some things that you can avoid that could help prevent your boobs from sagging in the future.

These things won’t totally prevent sagging boobs, but these are things that we can control, whereas the other outside forces working against your breasts are out of your control.

One of the biggest complaints we hear from women time-after-time is that they don’t like they way their sagging breasts look. Because of this breast augmentation and breast lifts have become extremely popular over the years among women as they get older or after they have children.

Sagging breasts are just one of those things that most women will have to deal with as they get older, but thankfully there are some things you can do to help limit the effects.

Let’s take a look at five surprising everyday habits that can cause your boobs to sag.

How to Help Prevent Sagging Breasts

1. Stop Smoking

There’s a long list of reasons to stop smoking, and you can add “causes droopy breasts” to the top of it. A small study found that more women who sought breast lifts had sagging breasts from smoking than from breastfeeding. Smoking breaks down the proteins in breast tissue that gives breasts their firmness. It also affects the breast skin the same way it does in any other area – by drying it out and creating wrinkles.

If you’ve been smoking for a long time you can still prevent future damage to your skin, as well as your breasts, and lungs. The best time to quit smoking is right now even if you think the damage has already been done. The continued smoking can only make things worse. It can cause the elasticity in your skin to fail and your breasts to stretch and sag even more as you continue to smoke and age. 

2. Avoid Yo-Yo Dieting or Gaining/Losing Weight

Breast tissue is mainly fat, so when you lose and gain weight repeatedly, the fat cells within the breasts expand and then shrink. The breasts are often the first place you gain or lose fat, and when it happens over and over, it wears down the elastin proteins in the breast and causes them to be permanently stretched.

Obviously this one is easier said than done for a lot of people, but by adhering to a healthy diet and limiting the fatty foods that you eat, you can help reduce how often the skin on your breasts stretches and constricts.

3. Work on Better Posture

Your mom was right when she told you to, “Sit up straight!” If you need another reason to put your cell phone down and take a break from the computer, perky breasts are that reason. If you spend a lot of time hunched forward, it can take a toll on your neck, back, shoulders and, yes, even your breasts.

Regularly sitting or standing with poor posture means gravity is pulling the breasts further downward and stretching the tissue and elastin fibers in the breasts. So stand straight, sit tall, and try to do some releasing, chest opening stretches daily to help keep your breasts up where they should be.

In addition to your posture, a well-fitting bra, with ample support can also help prevent gravity from pulling down on your skin and causing it to lose its elasticity.

4. Sleeping Positions

Some people have indicated that sleep can affect breast aesthetics. It can be tough to control how you sleep – since you’re asleep at the time. But your sleeping position at night might impact how perky your bust looks by day. Bad news if you’re a side sleeper or a stomach sleeper: over time, those positions can affect the shape of your breasts. Sleeping on your stomach compresses your breasts into the mattress and can prevent healthy blood flow to the area, while sleeping on one side can cause the ligaments and tissue to stretch unevenly as gravity pulls the breasts down further on that side.

Sleeping on your back or using a body pillow for support while you sleep on your side are the best ways to prevent the effects of gravity from working their dark magic on your unsuspecting breasts while you sleep. Wearing a bra while you sleep may or may not help. For women with larger breasts, a bra could be more comfortable and provide added support and lift that will fend off the dreaded sag.

Dr. Adams does not think there is any scientific proof for the sleeping position nay-sayers, but getting plenty of sleep in itself may help your body more than any physical harm that sleeping in certain positions may produce.

5. Beware of the Sun – Wear Sunscreen

Another “no-no” we all know but sometimes ignore is skipping sunscreen. Not wearing sunscreen can also have detrimental effects on your breasts. Breast skin is sensitive, and it should be protected from the sun to the same degree as the skin on the face or neck any time it might be exposed.

Experts recommend daily sunscreen use for the face and neck anytime you’re outside, even if you’re not sunbathing or exposed for extended periods of time. The same rule of thumb should apply to exposed skin on your breasts. When you apply your daily moisturizer with SPF, just extend it a little further down. Don’t forget to lather up with SPF from head to toe if you’re heading to the beach or pool. A tan looks good, but vibrant skin and perky breasts look even better.

Habits Causing Sagging Boobs

By making some simple adjustments to your lifestyle you may be able to stave off gravity for a little bit longer than if you continue with some of these bad habits. These adjustments aren’t going to immediately make your breasts less saggy, but over time they can keep your skin as tight as possible, and as healthy as possible, thus helping to keep your boobs perky and help prevent sagging.

Are bad habits causing your breasts to droop a little more than you’d like? We hope these tips help you to keep your breasts in tiptop shape for as long as possible. If your breasts have already succumb to sagging, all is not lost! Breast lifts can restore your youthful breasts by raising and reshaping sagging ones. Just take a look at our patients’ before and after breast lift photos here!

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