Breast Implants, Explant Surgery, and Breast Implant Illness with Robert Whitfield MD - Episodes Tagged with “Breast Explant”

Episode 54: ENCORE: How Do You Know If You Have Breast Implant Illness?

Robert Whitfield MD — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 03:00:00 -0500

Breast implants have been used for a relatively long time now. However, there is not enough research studies or discussions based on its effects which is why Breast Implant Illness (BII) is quite a new topic especially in the medical community and is not yet widely recognized.

Because of the lack of information and awareness with regard to the long-term effects of breast implants, many women suffer from breast implant illness. In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about the different aspects of breast implant illness.

When you have multiple things contributing to inflammation, it’s even more complicated.

Breast implant illness is already challenging to treat on its own. And so, it’s already a given fact that when a person has multiple factors contributing to the inflammation, it makes everything more complicated including the diagnosis and treatment.
Since experiences with breast implants vary, the symptoms also vary widely. Some people may experience only mild symptoms, while others may experience more severe symptoms that badly affect their way of living.
Personally, I’ve done more than a thousand consultations regarding breast implants and they have helped me understand breast implant illness more comprehensively. There are those who suffer from memory problems, brain fog or mental health problems whereas some experience symptoms such as shortness of breath and palpitations.

Other symptoms of Breast Implant Illness

There is also a tendency that you’re going to experience problems in your gastrointestinal (GI) system. The common symptoms are acid reflux, constipation, diarrhea, bloating, overall swelling, and other digestive problems. And for some, they get aggressive skin symptoms like body acne and full body rashes.

Usually, people have already gone to several healthcare providers or other specialists before they have found me. Their concerns generally boil down to the fact that no one knows what’s wrong since their blood tests, medical tests, and everything else look normal.

At present, there is limited awareness of both allopathic and functional medicine practitioners but the good thing is that there is more work being done both at a basic science level and at clinical research levels to help expand our knowledge and understanding.
The immune system plays a role in breast implant illness which is why we conduct some provocative tests to help the patients have a better understanding of their own immune system and how it relates to their illness.

There’s a glutathione challenge with liposomal glutathione and more often than not, it's really enlightening to folks that something as simple as that can help them understand how they don't really detoxify well. Everything plays a role in breast implant illness – where we live, where we work, what we eat, what we drink, and the air we breathe.

People are all at risk to have leaky gut, which further exacerbates this problem.

There are many people at risk of having a leaky gut, which further exacerbates the problem. That’s why it is important to identify what stimulates your gastrointestinal tract. If you successfully accomplish that, you’ll be able to know your food sensitivities and everything else in relation to your digestive process.

I’m sure we are all aware of the different kinds of diet from plant-based diets, keto, and others. However, these dietary lifestyles don’t work for others. Maybe that's just not what they're supposed to do because they don't have the correct enzymatic makeup genetically to handle those types of diets.
My whole testing program involves functional genetics, total toxicity, inflammatory markers, and complete blood work including hormones. Once you add everything up, you'll be able to see the pattern of symptoms. And so what we want to do is to first identify the symptoms and correlate these to breast implant illness in order for us to provide the appropriate plans and treatment to get the patient back on the right track.

The importance of genetics in the treatment of breast implant illness.

Overall, genetics along with the standard tests conducted are vital in the treatment of breast implant illness. As time goes on, we'll focus on that even more as a specialty of medicine and a personalized approach in using someone's genetics to identify and explore toxicity and to optimize patients so they can live their best life.

In conclusion, the implant is a big generator of the problem in most cases and the good news is that we have a program for those patients faced with such problems. Many of our clients under our Holistic Accelerated Recovery Program (HARP™) are doing extremely well in terms of recovery. All thanks to the whole team who has been working hard and really devoting their hard work to help patients live their best life.

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Episode 12: How You Can Prevent Breast Implant Illness

Robert Whitfield MD — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 03:00:00 -0400

With a number of cases of women being affected by breast implant illness, there’s a need for us to ensure that everyone is fully informed about the risks, benefits and preventions for such illness as it remains to be unrecognized by many.

And that’s why we’re here today! We’ll be talking about how to prevent breast implant illness and the importance of having a reputable and qualified surgeon for your implants.

How can you prevent breast implant illness?

We’ve already defined what breast implant illness is in the previous podcast episode. It’s a broad term but to put it simply, it is a component of the overall inflammation in your system.

There’s also a need to look at the other components that contribute to your overall inflammation in order to prevent breast implant illness or at least prevent it from worsening. That’s why we have to identify food sensitivities as well. We have to look at how your body absorbs the food you consume.

An analysis of your stool sample’s DNA may be conducted to identify what stimulates you to become inflamed from your diet. However, it remains to be a tough challenge understanding and diagnosing how much inflammation someone has.

Consequently, it’s difficult to understand and diagnose breast implant illness because of that. With my experience of doing thousands of explants, I already know my way through this.

One of the potential ways to reduce your risk of developing inflammation that contributes to breast implant illness is identifying your surgeon for the best possible operative procedure whether it’s for reconstructive or cosmetic surgery. It greatly helps to have a great and trusted surgeon to discuss your condition with.

Choosing the right implant for your patient.

It’s important to carefully choose the right implant for your patient. The size of the implant must fit the frame of the patient while still giving an aesthetic outcome.

Make sure to monitor the status of your patient and her implant throughout the patient’s healing journey not just during the first year but also for the subsequent years to ensure that there are no issues. In my clinic, we have been using a high definition ultrasound for monitoring.

If there’s a change in implants, check with your provider to see if there is a change.

For those who noticed any changes in your implants, make sure to check with your provider to confirm if there’s any noticeable change or trauma. After that consultation, make sure to follow up just to make sure.

There are alternative therapies for those who are not comfortable with the risks associated with breast implants. We perform fat transfer for patients seeking natural breast augmentation. It accentuates the natural breasts’ form and unlike in an implant, it’s between the skin and fatty layer and above the breast tissue.

It’s difficult to change more than a cup size with a fat transfer so if you’re the patient, clearly set out your expectations with regard to what you’re seeking to change visually.

It’s important to make sure that the patients understand all the risks and benefits of the procedures. For fat transfer, factors such as the skin stretch, overall breast size, pregnancies and other history of the patient who wants to get a cup size change are taken into consideration.

As for breast implants, the patients are informed about the risks of breast implant associated cancers and other risks associated with the development of breast implants. That’s why having a qualified professional surgeon who is knowledgeable about these things is important.

If they don’t really understand things like how a patient’s genetic predisposition or overall toxicity affects the implants, it’s going to be tough for them to understand your condition and keep track of the status of your implants.

Links and Resources:

Episode 11: How Do You Know If You Have Breast Implant Illness

Robert Whitfield MD — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 03:00:00 -0400

When you have multiple things contributing to inflammation, it’s even more complicated.

Other symptoms of Breast Implant Illness

People are all at risk to have leaky gut, which further exacerbates this problem.

My whole testing program involves functional genetics, total toxicity, inflammatory markers, and complete blood work including hormones. Once you add everything up, you'll be able to see the pattern of symptoms. And so what we want to do is to first identify the symptoms and correlate these to breast implant illness in order for us to provide the appropriate plans and treatment to get the patient back on the right track.

The importance of genetics in the treatment of breast implant illness.

Links and Resources:

To learn more about the Holistic Accelerated Recovery Program (HARP™), you can save your seat through this link: https://www.harp.health/

You can visit our online store if you’re looking for a wide range of highest grade supplements and medical grade skin care to aid you in your recovery: https://drrobssolutions.myshopify.com/.