ALTERNATIVE THERAPRIES SERIES :33 BREAST PROBLEM

Kay Kay Healthcare Ltd.

BREAST PROBLEMS


SYMPTOMS

• Pain or feeling of fullness in one or both breasts, most likely cause by premenstrual swelling.

• Pain accompanied by redness and warmth or a discharge from the nipple; this may indicate an infection. Discharge can also signal a benign growth or breast cancer.

• A lump that is movable and feels unattached to the chest wall; you may have a cyst or a fibro adenoma.

• A lump that is hard, is not movable, or feels attached to the chest wall, with or without pain, perhaps with dimpling or puckering of the breast; this may be a sign of breast cancer.

WHAT IS BREAST PROBLEMS

The female breast is an organ that changes with puberty, with the monthly menstrual cycle, and with pregnancy; it also continues to change with age. Most changes in your breast are perfectly normal and no cause for concern, however, you may experienced any of several condition that require medical attention. Chief among these are breast pain and masses or lumps. Starting at puberty, you should examine your breast every month, so that you are familiar with their structure and can detect any new masses or lumps. Premenstrual changes can cause temporary thickening that disappears after the period, so it is best to check your breast about a week after your period. If you are no longer menstruating, examine your breast monthly on a day you will remember, such as the day corresponding to your birthday. Mammograms detailed x-rays pictures of the beast can reveal tumours too tiny to be felt by hand. There is disagreement and no small controversy as to when woman should begin getting routine mammograms: some doctors says between ages 35 and 40; other says not until age 50. A typical pattern is every other year beginning around age 40, then increasing the frequency to once a year at age 50. If you have a family history of breast cancer, especially in your mother or sister, your physician may advise a different schedule.

BREAST PAIN

Breast pain can have many causes, including the normal swelling of breast tissue during the menstrual cycle. Other causes include infection or injury; growths, including cancer; and perhaps diet. The general swelling of breast tissue with the menstrual period can be painful, but it is not dangerous, and no treatment is necessary if you can tolerate the discomfort. Each monthly cycle brings about hormonal changes, including increases in estrogens and progesterone, that bring more fluid into the breasts, and producing pain. Some women experience this painful swelling just before their periods, with symptoms subsiding near the end of the menstrual flow. Other experience it as a side effect of birth control pills. Another possible reason for breast pain is decreased progesterone levels during the menstrual cycle. Several studies have shown correlation between cyclic breast pain and low progesterone levels. Trauma and infection in the produce the same symptoms you would see elsewhere in your body, except that in your breast, infection tend to become walled off from surrounding tissue, producing small abscesses. This may give them appearance of cysts. Infection occur almost exclusively in breast feeding mothers. If you suspect you have an infection, see your doctor. Cyst may produce pain, but breast cancer rarely does although pain does not rule out the possibility of cancer.

TREATMENT

Practitioners of both conventional and alternative medicine use diet and nutrition to prevent and treat monthly swelling of the breast. Both would encourage you to maintain a healthy weight and eat a balanced diet as good preventive medicine. Because salt can contribute to fluid retention and thus worsen symptoms, you should restrict your salt intake near your period. For some women, eliminating caffeine and related substance, such as methylxanthines, can alleviate breast pain. Both conventional and alternative practitioner may suggest wearing a bra, even 24 hours a day, to reduce breast movement and lessen the discomfort until the tenderness passes.

CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE

In recent years, some conventional doctors have suggest Vitamin E supplements, in daily doses of up to 800 IU, to treat breast pain not cause by cancer. In addition, a conventional physician may suggest relieving pain with an analgesic such as Aspirin or Ibuprofen. If these treatments don’t help, your doctor may prescribe treatment with a hormone such as Diazole , which has been shown to help relieve breast pain. You might also be given Progesterone, since studies suggests a lack of progesterone may contribute to breast pain. Anticancer drug Tamoxifen is also prescribed. If one of these drug doesn’t work or gives your trouble-some side effects, your doctor may switch you to another. However, do not use these drugs if you are trying to become pregnant. All of the hormone treatments above have side effects; those of diazole, a male hormone, include headache, nausea, menstrual irregularity, and weight gain, as wells as masculinisation that may not be reversible. Your doctor may be reluctant to use Tamoxifen because of uncertainty of its long term effects on cancer risk, bone density, gynaecological growths, and blood clots. In fact, most patients can get relief without drugs; the benefits come from eliminating caffeine. Breast infections are treated with antibiotics. If an abscess exists, your doctor may also make a small incisions to drain it. If this doesn’t work, minor surgery is the next step.

ALTERNATIVE CHOICES

In addition to the dietary changes and supplements cited above, alternative medicine practitioners frequently treat breast pain with higher doses of nutritional supplements and with herbs.

HERBAL THERAPIES

Evening Primrose oil, although not approved in the united states for treating breast pain, is used in Europe and has proved effective. You can take 500 mg capsule three times a day, every day if necessary. This treatment has fewer side effects than the hormone therapies often prescribed in conventional medicine.

NUTRITION AND DIET

Vitamin E effectively relieves breast pain. How it does this is unclear, but researchers do know that this vitamin affects blood clotting; if you are taking blood thinner, consult your doctor before taking any vitamin E. alternative practitioners sometimes recommend dosages up to 1200 IU, but many women find relief with only 400 IU a day. Because fat in the diet is associated with estrogens in your body by eating a low fat diet.

AT HOME REMEDIES

For pain relief, try applying a warm castor oil pack to your breast. Saturate a flannel cloth with high grade castor oil, put it on the breast, and cover it with plastic wrap and a towel; apply heat to the pack with a heating pad or hot water bottle for 20 to 30 minutes.

LUMPS

Breast lumps come in many forms, including cysts, adenomas, and papillomas. They differ in size, shape, and location, as well as in causes and treatment. About half of all women have lumpy breasts, or fibroadenosis, which is sometimes associated with hormonal changes related to the menstrual cycle. Most lumps are benign and do not signal cancer,; however, any time you find a new or unusual lump, have your doctor check it to make sure it is not cancerous or precancerous. Researchers are studying the incidence of breast lumps in woman taking birth control pills or using hormone replacement therapy (HRT). In HRT, women take varying amount of hormone estrogens and progestin to alternative the symptoms of menopause and to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. While the evidence is in conclusive, your doctor may have concern about HRT changes breast structure, increasing the breast density and making mammograms harder to read and evaluate. This could make detecting cancer more difficult. Cysts, which can be large or small, are benign fluid foiled sacs. They sometimes occur cyclically, and they may be painful. The best pool for distinguishing a cyst from a solid tumour is ultrasound; a needle biopsy may also be done. With the cessation of menstruation at menopause, many cystic lumps diminish or disappear; therefore, you should immediately have your doctor check any lumps that from after menopause. Fibro adenomas are the most common benign breast tumour seen in women under age 40 and are occasionally seen in adolescents. Fibro adenomas are usually round, several centimetres across, and mobile. They can be positively identified only by biopsy, which is recommended for anyone over age 20. Nipple adenomas are tumours of the nipple area. They vary in appearance, sometimes crafter surgical removal, and are sometimes but not usually associated with cancer. An intraductal papilloma is a relatively uncommon small growth in the lining of the milk ducts near the nipple. Usually seen in women over 40, papillomas produce a discharge, which may be bloody.

TREATMENT

CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE

For breast lumps, treatment and diagnosis are frequently related. For example, your doctor may insert a needle into a cyst and draw out fluid, both to examine the fluid and to eliminate the cyst. If the fluid is clear and the cyst disappears, your doctor will probably diagnosis it as benign cyst and undertake no further treatment. Many physicians take the added precaution of having the fluid check by cytology a pathologist examination of the cells. If the fluid extract from a suspected cyst is bloody or if little or no fluid can be extracted, this is cause for concern, and biopsy may be indicated to check for cancer. Fibro adenomas can be diagnosed only by biopsy. Surgical removal. Usually in a same day surgical procedure, is considered the only treatment. Nipple adenomas are surgically removed because they are sometimes associated with breast cancer. Some conventional doctors recommend eliminating caffeine to shrink breast cysts, but the only study completed on caffeine effect showed no connection. Some study have suggest a link between dietary fat especially saturated fat and benign lumps, as well as breast cancer. Limiting fat may help shrink or eliminate lumps.

ALTERNATIVE CHOICES

Alternative medicine emphasizes prevention as an effective way to manage breast problems. Diet and nutritional supplement are the first line of defence.

HERBAL THERAPIES

Evening Primrose oil 500 mg two or three times a day may be helpful in reducing breast lumps.

NUTRITION AND DIET

Although no studies have proved that diet causes breast tumours, some do suggest a relationship. Many practitioners of alternative medicine urge eliminating caffeine and recommend taking 400 to 1200 IU of Vitamin E, plus no more than 150 mcg a day of Selenium.

Caution: Selenium can be toxic in higher doses; you should use it only under the supervision of your healthcare practitioner.