Every year, women across the globe undergo breast implant surgery in the hopes of improving their self-confidence and body image. It is considered by many to be a safe cosmetic procedure. However, a massive long-term study recently published has connected breast implants with an increased risk of several serious health outcomes from stillbirth to autoimmune disease. If you already have implants, this may help explain where those mysterious symptoms are coming from and to determine if you could have breast implant illness.
Many women undergoing this type of surgery choose to do it for cosmetic reasons and to improve their self-confidence. Some choose this surgery when they feel their breasts are too small, or when one is larger than the other. Many women feel that a larger chest gives them more self-confidence, which will hopefully lead to a more happy and fulfilled life.
In other cases, women who have had a mastectomy due to cancer may opt for this procedure in an effort to regain not only their shape but self-confidence as a woman as well.
The procedure itself is not without possible complications. Amongst these are included:
Breast augmentation surgery typically involves placing a prosthesis under either the chest muscles or breast tissue in an effort to enlarge the breasts. These prostheses, which vary in size and shape, are of two main types: silicone and saline.
A silicone prosthesis consists of an outer shell of silicone that is filled with silicone gel. If the outer shell ruptures or springs a leak, the inside gel will either escape and fill the breast implant pocket, or stay inside the shell. This type of implant can run the risk of collapsing, thus distorting the shape of your breast.
A saline prosthesis is an elastomer silicone shell that is filled with a saline solution. In other words, something similar to a salt water solution. The amount of saline solution within these shells influences the shape, firmness, and feel of your breast after surgery. If the shell holding the saline solutions ruptures or leaks, the saline solution is absorbed and expelled by the body, theoretically.
Although saline and silicone prostheses are most commonly used, other types of prostheses for breast augmentation exist. These may contain soy oil, polypropylene string, or other materials.
A breast implant does not last a lifetime. In fact, their average life span is in the region of ten years, meaning you may need to repeat the procedure at a later date. Additionally:
Breast implant illness encompasses a large variety of symptoms that may seem totally unrelated to one another. Commonly, breast implants can have a negative impact on the following body systems:
Common breast implant illness symptoms resulting from these affected body systems are very similar to those suffering from adrenal fatigue. Amongst these are included the following:
A recent study on outcomes for women with silicone breast implants suggests that these implants put you at an increased risk of breast implant illness. Although the data gathered is not yet considered conclusive, the study does suggest that those thinking about undergoing this procedure need to be better informed as to their long-term safety and possible future complications.
This particular study included a group of just under 100,000 women, of which 56% had silicone implants. Compared to the general population, the women with silicone implants seemed to have higher incidences of certain conditions, including Sjogren syndrome, scleroderma, stillbirth, melanoma, and rheumatoid arthritis. When comparing the silicone implant rupture rate with that of saline, however, it was found that a saline solution implant had a higher short-term rupture rate than its silicone counterpart.
Another complication, known as capsular contraction, also seems to occur in approximately 7.2% of primary augmentations, and approximately 12.7% of primary reconstructions. Capsular contraction is the result of scarring around the implant areas. Although scarring is normal, in some cases the scarring tissue becomes hard and contracts around the implant. Your breast may become overly round and look hard, while the nipples may lose their typical shape. In severe cases, the breasts may become hard, misshapen, and painful when touched. Capsular contraction typically appears within two years of your breast augmentation procedure, although it could also develop at a much later stage.
But the study aside, one needs to remember that a breast implant means that you have inserted a foreign object into your body. Essentially, your body will fight to get rid of it. Additionally, the implant shells themselves may leak, rupture, and even, over time, start degrading. This means that over forty different toxins may be released into your body. Amongst these are included heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury, to name but a few. The results could be devastating.
Breast implant illness is the result of how your body responds to these implants. These implants, just like your work environment, a difficult marriage, or a motor vehicle accident, put stress on your body. Stress can be the result of psychological, environmental, or physiological factors. It could also be the result of all three.
Your body’s response to stress starts in your brain when it perceives a potential threat. Your fight or flight response -that is, your NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response - is triggered. The result is that your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis jumps to work, releasing chemical messengers that indicate your body needs to ready itself to assess a situation, and then either fight or flee from it. This period sees the release of stress hormones, most noticeably cortisol, and an increase in your heart rate, blood flow, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. Together these make you more alert, faster, and stronger than normal. Of course, all systems return to normal once the threat passes.
The issue arises when the stress doesn’t go away and the body can’t return to normal, such as with the stress your body experiences from an implant. Here, your NEM stress response keeps on working, resulting in the continued, higher production of stress hormones. This can have a cascading and debilitating effect on your body in the long-term, resulting in Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS). AFS has different stages, and while someone with the condition may get healthy once again, the latter stages could have a debilitating effect on your health.
One of the issues arising from adrenal fatigue is a hormone imbalance. The continuous, higher cortisol output by the adrenal glands affects all body systems, either shutting them down or slowing them down, depending on whether they are deemed necessary for life or not. It also affects the production of different hormones. The precursors for many hormones can be used up in the production of cortisol, resulting in a lower production of other hormones.
Cortisol is necessary for your body to manage stress; it helps regulate your blood sugar levels, reduces inflammation, and aids in digestion and metabolism. But in the long run, too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing when it causes a blood sugar dysregulation, slows down thyroid function, and disrupts hormone balance.
Another breast implant illness symptom is the occurrence of inflammation. This is due to the chronic activation of your NEM and immune system. The immune system is key to long-term survival, and it affects all aspects of the body, from the brain to the gut, to the heart, and more.
Inflammation is typically your body’s response to foreign pathogens. In the case of breast implant disease, these pathogens are the byproducts of the implant shell and its contents in the event the shell ruptures or leaks.
If inflammation is ongoing, your body’s immune system becomes unbalanced, and inflammation may run rife, resulting in myriad possible symptoms related to inflammation, such as arthritis, digestive problems, and more. Your body, ultimately, becomes more susceptible to bacteria, fungi, and parasites, in addition to having to cope with the toxins from the implants. As your immune system becomes unable to cope with the onslaught of these invaders, inflammation increases, and your health may steadily decline.
Another factor that comes into play is toxicity. As your body goes into a state of decline, the toxins presented by the implants may cause a toxic overload, with your body not being able to adequately rid itself of them.
In this case, a detoxification regime may be called for as an aid to this aspect of breast implant illness. Heavy metals, such as those mentioned as being found in breast implants, have been linked to various disorders. Amongst these are Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and severe neurological disorders. The most common symptoms linked to heavy metal poisoning include headaches, indigestion, constipation, anemia, muscle pain, and tremors.
There are various methods to detoxify your body, but it is important to be very careful with detox regimes. If your body is weak, it can do much more harm than good. In many instances, when you are in the latter stages of adrenal fatigue, a detoxification process could create a crushing toxic load for a body that is already suffering under an enormous stress burden. In this case, a detoxification program could cause an adrenal crash. Instead, seeking the advice of a professional would be your best course.
Identifying breast implant illness is an extremely difficult process because the condition has such a wide variety of seemingly unrelated symptoms. The medical establishment often addresses the symptoms associated with the breast implant illness instead of looking for the root cause. Unfortunately, there is only one effective way of addressing the issue, and that is by removing the implants, and then addressing the various toxins in your body as well as providing support for the different bodily systems that have been compromised. This course of action might seem a drastic one, and surgery may be required. Yet, at the end of the day, one needs to make an informed choice: do your looks or your health matter more?
© Copyright 2019 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.
Many factors come into play with regards to the development of Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome. Breast implant illness may be a contributing factor due to toxins from the compounds used as the shell and the inner contents of these implants. Other factors such as the stress of the body fighting a foreign substance may also worsen stress on the adrenals.
