A recent Canadian study found that enhanced women have no higher risk of breast cancer than their non-surgically altered fellow females. In fact, their rates of breast cancer, heart disease, and other major illnesses are actually lower than the female population at large. On the down side, the study noted that the bustier women are more likely to commit suicide.Dr. Howard Morrison of the Public Health Agency of Canada in Ottawa believes that one reason for the lower rates of cancer is the very process of seeking surgery. “To some extent, what you’re seeing is a screening effect,” he explains, pointing out that women who opt for the cosmetic procedure need to be in good health before going under the knife, giving them a lead on women who don’t need to pass a medical screen.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, focused on 40,000 women who’d had breasts implants and, together with previous studies, come as a relief to many who have fretted over the possible health and mortality implications of the surgery.

Morrison, whose colleague at the health agency, Dr. Paul J. Villeneuve, was in charge of the study, notes that this time a previously unnoticed association was revealed. “These findings agree fundamentally with those of past reports,” he observes, going on to state that “The one thing that lights up is this increased suicide risk.”

Reasons for the higher-than-average rate of suicide are not yet definitively known, but Morrison conjectures that they may be related to lower rates of self-esteem on the part of the women involved. Previous research has noted that women who opt for breast augmentation often do so in order to bolster poor self-image and that they are more likely to experience depression and other psychiatric disorders, thus increasing the risk of self-destructive tendencies such as suicide.

The study, which followed 24,558 women who had implant surgery between 1974 and 1989, and another 15,893 women who had other plastic surgeries during the same time period. Their illnesses and deaths were tracked through 1997 and revealed that compared to the general population of women, those with implants were about 25-percent less likely to die from cancer — but 73-percent more likely to die by their own hand. Women with other forms of plastic surgery also experienced higher rates of suicide. Morrison believes that it’s wise for surgeons to refer women seeking implants to mental health providers if they suspect the patient may be at a high risk for suicide or other psychiatric disorders.

One 24-year-old Bulgarian woman is likely experiencing a wide range of emotions, after having her life saved by her silicone breast implants.

According to the Daily Standart, the young lady survived a car crash in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse after she ran a red light and crashed into a vehicle on a busy crossroad in the center of town this past Saturday. Although her implants burst during the crash, they acted as a kind of airbag, helping her survive what the newspaper described as an accident that left both cars “crumpled past recognition.”