Breast Implant Illness and Mold Toxicity
Episode 142
Originally launched as a webinar, this week Integrative Wellness Radio brings you an episode on the correlation between breast implant illness and mold toxicity. Dr. Nicole gives us a bird’s eye view of different types of implants and the adverse effects they can have on the human body long term. She also covers the many different ways breast implant illness can present itself and the impact the toxins in breast implants can have. Tune in to the whole episode to learn more. Interested in working with IWG? Book a complimentary consult call to learn more using this link: https://bit.ly/IWRcall2022 Noteworthy Time Stamps: 01:44 This is a judgment-free on implants 04:03 It’s not always the implant itself 05:17 Not everyone with implants has issues 08:29 There’s always a root cause to your diagnosis 13:23 A case study 15:32 Symptoms of breast implant illness 16:25 Different types of breast implants 22:30 Dr. Nicole’s migraine discovery 27:03 Misconceptions about implants 32:18 Calcification and toxins in breasts 36:43 It’s not just about mold 42:30 Toxins in breast implants 49:31 You don’t know what you don’t know 55:30 Everybody values something different
Topics: implants, breast, implant, mold, illness, necessarily, toxicity, different
Key takeaways from this episode
- So today when we talk about, um, breast implant illness, we're not necessarily just gonna be talking about mold toxicity, but really just uncovering the big picture as to how these different implants can affect us and what does that look like long term.
- Today we have a very special topic, uh, which is in relation to mold, but it is something that a lot of people are talking about, but not necessarily always aware that there is a connection with mold toxicity, and this topic is breast implant illness.
- So one of the big things about, you know, this whole concept of breast implant illness is that it doesn't look the same across the board. **Unknown:** We have patients that are dealing with a myriad of different symptoms.
- Uh, the few women that I've worked with that have had issues with their implants, they all looked very, very different. **Unknown:** They didn't necessarily come in with the same symptoms.
- Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
Pull quotes
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Nick and Dr. **Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey.
But also to understand that not necessarily everyone is being affected in the same way.
Transcript
**Unknown:** I been up all night, no sleep. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. Dive into Integrative Wellness Radio with Dr. Nick and Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine, to learn about what the limitations are with testing, and what you can do to start your health journey. Sometimes I tend to lose myself when I'm out here on the- Hi, everyone. Today we have a very special topic, uh, which is in relation to mold, but it is something that a lot of people are talking about, but not necessarily always aware that there is a connection with mold toxicity, and this topic is breast implant illness. So I felt compelled to talk about this because I think that there is a lot of information that is circulating out there when it comes to how breast implants can affect you, uh, on a systemic level.
**Unknown:** But also can they actually be associated with causing mold toxicity within the body? So today when we talk about, um, breast implant illness, we're not necessarily just gonna be talking about mold toxicity, but really just uncovering the big picture as to how these different implants can affect us and what does that look like long term. But also to understand that not necessarily everyone is being affected in the same way. Uh, the few women that I've worked with that have had issues with their implants, they all looked very, very different.
**Unknown:** They didn't necessarily come in with the same symptoms. Some of them came in with a lot of symptoms, some of, some of them came in with a few symptoms. Um, some of them came in and had no idea that that was part of the puzzle. So the one disclaimer I do wanna make is that this is not about, uh, judgment on women that have breast implants.
**Unknown:** I think that if that makes you feel good, awesome. But I think that there is just some implants that are a bit newer, um, that are texturized because they are intended to go into the body and anchor, um, onto tissue so they don't move around, and it's not necessarily always about the implant. Sometimes it is about the coating of the implant or the adhesives on the implant. So we're gonna talk a lot more about this so you guys understand the bigger picture because if you are a woman who is struggling with your health right now, or you know of someone who's been struggling with their health, and they have not necessarily been getting very far with doctors, they have not gotten answers, you know, this is something to explore.
**Unknown:** And it's not saying that every woman that has implants has, you know, implant illness. It's more so just being able to check off that box to know that those implants are not necessarily causing a problem. So, um, we're primarily gonna be talking about breast implants tonight. We're not necessarily just talking about breast implant illness and the systemic issues that come along with it, but we're also gonna be talking about, you know, the types of implants, the coatings on the implants, the toxins in the implants, and how they can affect you differently across the board.
**Unknown:** So we're really gonna walk away with a bird's eye view of what it looks like, but also what we can do about it. You know, for a long time breast implants were not even being acknowledged as part of the puzzle for someone's health decline, and this has become a little bit more of a topic recently, but it's been something that we've always considered with our patients, primarily because we have to consider the overall health of the immune system and the lymphatic system. And when you think about where we have a ton of lymph nodes is in our armpits and breast area. So sometimes it's not even necessarily about the implant.
**Unknown:** Sometimes it's the scar tissue that develops around the implant that starts to cause problems in the lymph nodes, which then creates an issue with how well your body can detox. And those lymph nodes in your armpits are connected from the base of your neck all the way down into the armpit. So really at the end of the day, why this is important is that if these lymph nodes and this chain becomes compromised or congested, this can actually affect how well your brain functions. So guys, this is not just about what's happening in the chest.
**Unknown:** This is about the connection. This is about the integration of the systems, which is really the foundation of what I do as a practitioner is I look at the whole picture, I look at the whole person, and I look at how it's all connected. And this is why I work with so many different types of conditions, is because it's not necessarily about the condition. Sometimes it's not even necessarily about the symptoms, it's about how it all connects together, and it's about leveraging better testing to understand the bigger picture.
**Unknown:** Because again, not every female with implants that comes to me has an issue with their implants, but there are those select few that it's really a make or break for their current health situation. So as physicians, you know, for those of you that are physicians listening, we have to ask better questions. We also have to be able to piece the puzzle together to understand how everything is interacting with each other. So for myself, um, I am not necessarily a woman who had implants and got really sick, and then finally figured out that my implants were part of my health puzzle.
**Unknown:** If anything, I was kind of the opposite of how I got into this in the first place.Um, primarily I thought I was in great health. I thought that I was doing amazing things for myself. I worked out, I ate healthy to what I knew. And, uh, I remember feeling kind of guilty that I didn't have that story, especially when I was in school.
**Unknown:** All of my colleagues were, you know, "Oh, I was super sick, and this doctor helped me," and, "Functional medicine saved my life," or, "Chiropractic saved my life," and I didn't have that story. I was kind of like, "I'm just interested in this, and I really just wanna help people, and I wanna do it in a, you know, holistic manner." So what I found is over time is that my story was actually more relatable to the general public because so many of us are walking around with symptoms that have become our normal, that we've settled for. We've kind of settled for feeling mediocre. We've settled for, you know, not very good energy.
**Unknown:** We've settled for mediocre sleep. We've settled for occasional headaches. We've settled for, "Oh, I, you know, I get bloated or stomachaches if I eat too much or I eat the wrong thing." So in reality, it's all of these things are just our body saying, "Hey, don't do this," number one, or, "Hey, there's something going on." But we've all grown up in the mindset, don't fix it until it's broke. And fortunately, I never got to the point that I was fully broke, but I remember doing my testing proactively, thinking that it was gonna come back perfect, and it didn't.
**Unknown:** It actually came back really terrible, and I realized I had a boatload of infections. I had tons of parasite issues in my gut, primarily because I was a pescatarian for ten years. What that means is I ate a lot of fish, uh, not necessarily knowing that not all fish and sushi was created equal. Um, so in the interim of eating all this fish and canned tuna and thinking I was healthy, I also gave myself mercury toxicity.
**Unknown:** So, uh, so overall, when I sat back and I marinated on this information, what I realized is that I had symptoms, but my symptoms were a very gradual onset that I just accepted as being me, being my normal, and I actually learned how to navigate around my symptoms. "Oh, don't eat too much bread. Oh, you know, don't drink caffeine past this time. Oh, don't work out too close to your menstrual cycle because you might faint." Yes, that used to happen to me as well.
**Unknown:** So overall, the reason I tell you this is that it's not about just settling for, "Oh, I'm getting old," or, "Oh, I have a thyroid issue 'cause it runs in my family." There's always a reason for why you feel the way you do. There is always a reason for your symptoms. There's always a reason for your diagnosis, and most importantly, there is always a solution. But that solution requires better testing and being proactive in your health.
**Unknown:** So first and foremost, I want you to know if you have implants, if you had implants, and you have not been feeling well, and nobody has even acknowledged that this might be part of your puzzle, it's not your fault. It is not your fault because it's impossible for you to know that these implants could have been harmful because sometimes you wouldn't have even done it in the first place. Unfortunately, a lot of these things that we're doing outside of plastic surgery, we're finding out later down the line, ooh, that was bad. Hey, all these, uh, people walking around with the silver fillings in their mouth, and they're like, "Oh, we actually figured out that was bad, so let's take them out and replace them with white." So this is not just about plastic surgery.
**Unknown:** This is happening, you know, this has been happening for years upon years in so many different fields. So it's not your fault that you got them. It's not your fault that potentially you feel like crap, and it's not your fault that you don't know where to turn, and you don't know who can help you. So it's all about, you know, empowering yourself, having this information, and understanding the bigger picture.
**Unknown:** But one of the foundational things that I want to have you understand before we fully dive into the breast implant topic is more so that when it comes to, you know, healthcare, my personal opinion is that when we segregated out medicine, we segregated it out to the specialists, the experts, and, you know, we have almost picked apart the body to think that it is all working independently from each other. And we're assuming that, you know, implants will not affect our lymph nodes and that those lymph nodes will not affect our immune system, which will then not affect our brain. And we're totally segregating these things out, and we're ignoring basic physiology. We're ignoring that the lymphatic system is such a huge component of our immune health and that our immune health really just dictates everything.
**Unknown:** So overall, we need to acknowledge that the body is an integration of systems and that physiology is real, that we can't keep just ignoring the fact that, you know, nothing is necessarily interacting with, with each other. We also need to face that our lifestyle choices play a very significant role on our health. You know, we're getting told that nutrition means nothing. "Oh, you have inflammatory conditions?
**Unknown:** Well, it doesn't matter what you eat." When we sit back, does any of that actually make sense? And I think that that's one of the most amazing things that I'm seeing in my practice right now is that people are really stepping up and saying, "This doesn't make sense. This doesn't make sense that this doesn't affect this. It doesn't make sense that you're telling me it doesn't matter what I eat, even though when I eat healthier, I feel better." People are definitely asking better questions, and I think that this is a huge, huge part of the evolution of where healthcare is going.And we obviously all hope that healthcare is moving in a direction that insurance is going to finally cover the integrative and functional care because it is so necessary.
**Unknown:** We need more time with our patients as physicians. We need to ask better questions. We need to be able to do better testing. So one of the big things about, you know, this whole concept of breast implant illness is that it doesn't look the same across the board.
**Unknown:** We have patients that are dealing with a myriad of different symptoms. One patient that came through my doors was dealing with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, so tons of pain everywhere, depression, and the inability to lose weight. So one of the things that came up as we were using one of our technologies in our office is that there was a lot of congestion in the lymphatic system, specifically the lymph nodes that were in the neck, the armpit, and also around the mammary glands, which is pretty much all in the breast tissue. So one of the specific toxins that was being revealed that was affecting the lymphatic system was actually acetone and benzenes.
**Unknown:** So honestly, it wasn't until quite recently that I realized that acetone and benzenes came from implants. So by the time I saw this patient, I was aware of this information. So we did not have the discussion at this point in the consultation, but I said, if you don't mind me asking, do you have breast implants? And she said, yes, I do.
**Unknown:** I've had them for many, many years. And I was like, have you had them changed or replaced at any point? And she said, no, I've had them for 15 years and I have never had them replaced. So one of the things that we did was we did some additional testing.
**Unknown:** One of the tests that we do is called autonomic response testing. So one of the specific things that she tested for to help improve her health was something called scar release. So really at the end of the day, when we pieced the puzzle together, what happened was we referred her to go back to her surgeon to evaluate if there was a buildup of scar tissue around the implant because the type of implant that she had had a very specific coating on it. And that specific coating was actually intended to create scar tissue.
**Unknown:** And the reason being it was to help to anchor the implant so it did not move around or twist. So the big thing is, is that the scar tissue, if it becomes overly abundant, this creates a lot of problems in the muscles, in the mammary glands, in the nipple, as well as in the lymph nodes. And if the lymph nodes start to become bound due to the scar tissue, you're going to have a lot of issues with how well your body can detox. And you're also going to have a lot of issues with how well your brain can detox.
**Unknown:** Again, the lymph nodes from the base of the neck go all the way down into the armpit area. It's a chain. So your lymphatic system of the armpit mammary glands plays a very, very big role in your neurological system as well. So this patient specifically ended up having an encapsulation, which required some surgical removal of scar tissue in addition to some of the work that we did with her to get her lymphatic system back to being healthy again.
**Unknown:** So when it comes to what does breast implant illness even look like, there is a lot of symptoms. This is just some of the main ones that I see regularly, but it's not limited to this list. So brain fog, memory loss, gut issues, yeast infections, hives, tinea versicolor, which is a fungal skin infection, rashes, eczema, scar tissue, mental confusion, joint pain, hair loss, dry eyes, chronic fatigue, flu-like symptoms. And in addition, autoimmune conditions.
**Unknown:** Sometimes you can have the development of an autoimmune condition, lupus being the most common when you are dealing with breast implant illness as well. So all there is different issues with different types of implants. So there are silicone implants, there are saline implants, and then there are something called the gummy bear implants. So there might be more implants than this.
**Unknown:** This is just what I'm aware of, but I'm sure, you know, people in like Hollywood spending the big bucks, like who knows what, you know, other types of plastic surgeons are using. But silicone definitely has had a lot of controversy over the years. I was actually looking at the history of implants and it was completely mind-blowing the things that these implants used to be made from. Like I'm talking different types of petroleum, carcinogens, like chemicals that you would never in a million years want in your body.
**Unknown:** But as they, you know, further evolved, I think that they said they're on their fifth generation of implants because they've had to evolve them that much because there's been so many complications in the past. So the silicone implants were one of the earliest on, but the silicone filling had a lot of issues if it ever erupted and started to pour into the body. So if it started to pour into the bloodstream, that created a massive, massive, massive cascade of inflammatory issues, autoimmune reactions, and just overallToxicity. So the silicone implants definitely still to this day have a lot of issues, and especially if they become, um, erupted and they start to leak into the body.
**Unknown:** And don't get me wrong, a silicone, uh, leak can cause a deformity if it's happening very fast, if it's like a very intense break in the shell. But many women have a very slow leak that you wouldn't, um, actually notice visually, but you can obviously have a boatload of, of issues from a joint inflammatory mental fog perspective. So one of the more common implants that's being used more regularly is the saline implants, and that's because, you know, saline is, is saltwater, essentially. So if the saline pours into the body, it's found to be, you know, not as triggering to the immune system.
**Unknown:** So the saline is thought to be a better option, but the interesting thing is that you would hope that it's really just saline in the implant, but they've actually found that there is a myriad of different types of chemicals that also live within the saline solution, let alone the silicone solution. So the most controversial at this time is what they call the gummy bear implants. So these are the most natural and the most new type of implants because these are teardrop. Um, so they look very, very natural, and they are also a very different type of texture, which, um, the texture is-- it's, it's not just necessarily viscous, it's very firm.
**Unknown:** So it's found to be very unlikely for it to break and then leach the materials into the blood. But the thing about it is that if it does erupt or, or become compromised or the shell breaks because the substance is so thick, it is very unlikely that you will actually know that it's leaking, so you can easily have an issue going on for a very long time that creates a cascade of different immune reactions before you ever catch it. But the bigger problem here is that this specific type of implant is one of the known implants to have a very specific type of coating on it. So think about it.
**Unknown:** This is a teardrop-shaped implant. So if you dip the implant in a coating, the goal is, is that when it goes into the body, that it is going to create a reaction to adhere the implant to the muscle. So they want to adhere it to the muscle because if a teardrop-shaped implant moves or rotates, it's actually going to look like a deformity. So they did it with the intention of let's make sure that this implant anchors into the body so that it doesn't move around and make this person look funny.
**Unknown:** But unfortunately, now I think it's been about twelve years that the gummy bear implants have been, um, out there and obviously being implanted into women. They have now revealed an association with a very, very rare type of lymphoma. Lymphoma is cancer of the lymph nodes. So guys, this is not necessarily just about the gummy bear implants, this is about understanding anatomy.
**Unknown:** This is about understanding that if you're putting a foreign substance, I don't care if it's silicone or saline or gummy bear, you're putting it into an area where there is a boatload of lymph nodes. So you could either have the lymph nodes compromised because you're having a leak from the materials of the implant. You could have it because of the coating of the implant. You can also have it because of scar tissue buildup around the implant.
**Unknown:** So it's very, very important for you to be aware of this so that you do not develop a very serious issue with your lymph nodes, and obviously, worst ca-- uh, case scenario being a lymphoma. So I had a patient that I worked with who, uh, again, didn't necessarily immediately reveal that she had implants. But one of the things that came up was, uh, in her consultation was she was dealing with debilitating migraines. Her migraines were an adult onset, though.
**Unknown:** It's not like she was getting them since she was really young. Uh, she started developing the migraines in her twenties, and then she also was yo-yoing with a positive ANA on her blood work. Um, ANA, by the way, is an autoimmune marker for some type of connective tissue disorder. But the problem is, is that if your ANA comes up positive through, you know, your primary care doctor, they're gonna refer you over to a, uh, rheumatologist.
**Unknown:** And then the rheumatologist sometimes will run the same marker, and then it comes up negative. So guys, this does not mean that you don't have an autoimmune problem, it just means you're yo-yoing with your autoimmune problem because this is the nature of the body. The body is very resilient. It is always going to try to get back to normal.
**Unknown:** So it is not necessarily just gonna keep you in this chronic, um, inflammatory state, which by the way, an immune reaction is an inflammatory reaction. So your body, especially in the early stages, is gonna try to stabilize, and then it's gonna get stressed again, and then it's gonna stabilize, and then it's gonna get stressed again. So your ANA can yo-yo. So when you go to your-- that rheumatologist and they say, "Oh, your ANA is negative, you don't have any problems."That's not true.
**Unknown:** It's not true at all. It's just what you wanna hear, so you're just gonna be like, "Okay, problem solved. I don't need to look any further." So the point is, is that this patient was dealing with migraines because most migraines that I've found over the course of the past 10 years, most migraines are cardiovascular. They are a circulatory problem with the brain.
**Unknown:** Sometimes there is problems with the blood getting in. Sometimes it's problems with the blood draining out. So, uh, you can have different manifestations, um, or different types of migraines depending on which it is. But the point is, is that going back to what I've said already about implants, the implants can either leach chemicals into the lymph nodes of the armpit and the mammary glands, or it can create a lot of scar tissue in the same areas.
**Unknown:** So if you start to impede the, um, you start to impede the lymphatic system in that area, you can easily start to compromise the blood flow in and out of the head. So for this specific person, it was two parts. She had a lot of toxicity in the lymph nodes, which was causing issues with the blood flow in and out of her head, which was part of the migraine issue. But the secondary piece to this is that she ended up having the implants that had the coating on them, the gummy bear implants.
**Unknown:** So the coating was causing a massive amount of toxins that was getting into her bloodstream. So the immune system was actually trying to clean up the toxins in the bloodstream. But unfortunately, as it was doing that, it actually started to cause an autoimmune reaction on the blood vessels because the blood flows through the blood vessels. So if your immune system is overactive in the blood, that is one of the things that can start to compromise the blood vessels, which then creates elevations in blood pressure, sometimes even drops in blood pressure.
**Unknown:** But this specific woman was having an elevation in blood pressure in the arteries of her brain. So the thing about it is that her migraines, the connective tissue disorder, and the implants were all very, very, very interconnected. So it's important to understand that this person could have easily been treated for lupus, giving her an immunosuppressant, then treated with, you know, some type of medication for her migraines, and then totally would've had the implant situation completely overlooked and her lymphatic system overlooked. At the end of the day, they were all connected, and they all needed to be addressed together to obviously get results.
**Unknown:** So the other thing too is that there is a lot of misconceptions when it comes to implants. So number one is that implants, it's impossible to cause complications, um, that implants do not cause systemic issues, also that implants are not associated with mold toxicity, and then the other one is there's no association with certain types of cancers. So as we dig into this, I'm gonna really just uncover more of the information that I see that is very clinically relevant from especially women that I work with that have implants. So number one is that when it comes to the implants, again, it can be scar tissue-related due to either the way the implant was put in, um, or it could be related to the materials or the coating or the shell on the implant as well.
**Unknown:** All of those things can be associated with the ty- the amount of scar tissue that can develop. In addition to that, there can be different types of cysts that develop, especially, um, cysts that develop in the lymphatic chains or if you get, um, swelling of the different lymph nodes or even hardening of the lymph nodes. So you can easily have issues that develop in the lymphatic system associated with the implants. And then, uh, on top of that, you can also have, um, hematomas.
**Unknown:** Hematomas are more so in relation to, um, like blood pockets essentially. And these blood pockets are not as common, but they can definitely develop depending on how the surgery was done and also if your body is having a negative reaction to the materials in the implants as well. So the other really interesting thing too is that as women, you know, we get our, our mammograms, or we get thermograms. It's whatever you choose to evaluate our breast health.
**Unknown:** And, you know, with all of the talk about, um, breast cancers, it is definitely a fear that we have. And, you know, we do these, uh, self-examinations, and we feel different things, and we freak ourselves out, and we get really nervous, or different things get picked up on the imaging that we do. And, you know, we kind of live in this, in this fear state of developing some type of, you know, cancer within the breast. But what's very interesting about this is that when you're looking at imaging, if it is a mammogram or even a thermogram, there can definitely be confusion with, you know, is this, uh, a problem?
**Unknown:** Is this cancerous, or is this some type of growth, or is there an abundance of different types of deposits that shouldn't be in the tissue? And those deposits can come from minerals, which I'll explain in a moment. Those deposits can come from, um, different types of heavy metals and different types of toxicities.But the very fascinating thing that I've learned over time is that most of the mineral deposits that we see in the body are actually a defense mechanism of the immune system. I will give you an example.
**Unknown:** Women that... I shouldn't say women, but people that have thyroid nodules. So a thyroid nodule is something that is looked at as, "Oh, this is step one before you potentially get thyroid cancer." What's very interesting about it is that your thyroid is in extreme close proximity to your tonsils and the lymph nodes of your neck. First of all, your tonsils are a garbage can to be really honest with you.
**Unknown:** Your tonsils are there to keep any bad bacteria that gets into your mouth, into your sinuses, um, and it keeps it out of your body. It-- Your tonsils are there to gobble up the crap and keep it from getting into your lymph nodes and your bloodstream. So a lot of us get our tonsils removed. So if you have a bunch of, say, um, fillings in your teeth, and maybe you have constant bleeding gums, or maybe you've had root canals, or you've had teeth pulled and you've had infections, or maybe you have chronic sinusitis, you can easily have a boatload of things getting into the neck area that shouldn't be there in the first place.
**Unknown:** That could be bacteria, it could be toxins, it could be heavy metals, et cetera. So what happens is you start to get these things affecting the thyroid that shouldn't be there. So your immune system is extremely smart, so it sends in a fleet of calcium in order to encapsulate the problem. So maybe it's encapsulating bacteria, maybe it's encapsulating some type of toxin that is harmful to your thyroid.
**Unknown:** So the point of me telling you this is that thyroid nodules are telling us that your thyroid is being exposed to something that is harmful, and your body, your immune system, is sending calcium to encapsulate it to protect you. This happens in all different tissues of the body. So when we're talking about the breast, calcium is very common. How many women get told they have dense breasts or they have calcifications in their breasts?
**Unknown:** You have calcifications in your breast because you have toxins in the surrounding lymph or you have toxins in your mammary glands, and your immune system is using calcium to encapsulate that to protect you. So this is extremely important to understand because sometimes we're getting a diagnosis of, "Oh, you have, you know, lumps in your breast, you have dense breasts, you have fibrocystic breasts," and we're thinking we're a ticking time bomb for cancer. But really, at the end of the day, we have things that are in the tissue that are not being diagnosed properly that we need to get out of the tissue. And obviously, if we're dealing with an implant that is leaking, or we're dealing with an implant that has a coating on it that is toxic, that can further be the catalyst to more and more mineral deposits into the breast tissue.
**Unknown:** The big thing about the systemic issues with implants is that your implants, um, can cause some major issues with bacteria and can also cause major issues with fungus or mold growth. But in addition, the other thing that we want to touch on is this very rare cancer that is now being associated with specific types of implants with that special coating, and this is called BIA-ALCL. So it's a very specific type of T cell lymphoma. T cells are a part of your immune system.
**Unknown:** But it is specifically associated with breast implant illness. So again, this is not my opinion, this is proven research. And the reason why I am aware of this research is because a patient of ours called our office really kind of br- freaking out, and the reason was because her surgeon, her breast surgeon, called her and said, "I just want to let you know that the implants that we did ten years ago have now been proven to cause this very specific type of lymphoma, so you need to make a decision if you're going to explant or not." And the group of people that got these implants were actually part of a study. So it's very unfortunate that at the end of the study, they're just like, "Oops, sorry.
**Unknown:** Our bad. This is now-- We know this is now harmful." So if you specifically have the gummy bear, um, teardrop-shaped implants, this is the specific lymphoma connected to those implants, so you do need to get yourself evaluated to obviously make sure that, um, they are not causing any problems. I want to go through the specifics on the mold toxicity. But the labels on saline solution to fill the saline implants are recommended to be stored at seventy-seven degrees Fahrenheit.
**Unknown:** So the body is ninety-eight point six degrees Fahrenheit. So the point is, is that when you're taking an implant that's supposed to be stored at a lower temperature, then you're putting it into a significantly warmer environment. Especially people that are living in warmer climates, this becomes a breeding ground for microbes to grow. And it's not necessarily just about fungus, but it's also about bacteria as well.
**Unknown:** So it's really, really important to understand that, um, it's not just about the type of the implantIt's also about the fact that some of these materials are just not intended to be in a warm environment. So the other thing too is that, you know, when we're talking about some of these implants having faulty valves, the valves, um, allow some of the, like, body fluid and the implant fluid to, um, interact with each other, and that interaction can definitely be another brewing ground for these microorganisms, especially the mycotoxins, which mycotoxins are toxins associated with mold. So again, this is not necessarily just about mold, this is also in relation to bacteria. And guys, for those of you that are, like, maybe not wrapping your head around this, um, if you think about the nature of our armpits, we sweat, and we sweat for a reason.
**Unknown:** We sweat to detox. So when you have an implant in the chest, it is going to affect the lymph nodes, again, of the armpit into the chest. So we are then putting a variety of different toxins into that tissue, and then most of us are using antiperspirant, AKA a solution that causes us to not sweat. So then we are trapping, you know, normal bacteria into the tissue in addition to the body potentially trying to rid out the different toxins or microbes that are coming from the implants.
**Unknown:** So we're really creating a perfect storm of, you know, having these potential microorganisms and then blocking sweat glands and not allowing them to fully get out as well. So I'm gonna go back really quick in relation to the specific type of lymphoma. So there is a lot of s- research on this, and for those of you that are listening that are freaking out right now, don't freak out. Obviously, you know, it's not saying that it's a definitive that you have this development, but there is obviously a risk, so being able to know this and know what your best options are because it's not necessarily just explant and call it a day.
**Unknown:** You also need to now evaluate the integrity of the surrounding tissue. Is tho- there already a, you know, a, a boatload of bacteria or mold that is in the lymph nodes? Is it in the mammary glands? Is it in any of the other surrounding tissue?
**Unknown:** You know, is there scar tissue that needs to be dealt with? These are all things to be considered, so it's not, again, just about get the implants out. You might need to do something further to make sure that the integrity of the entire area is being addressed in the proper way. And also too, uh, one of the really interesting research studies that I came across, um, was, uh, very insightful.
**Unknown:** It was talking about this specific lymphoma in correlation to, um, uh, the breast implants. And what I found so interesting is it was talking all about the different types of chemicals and compounds in the implants and the nature of the immunoreactivity of the coating, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it was pretty much, like, validating that these could be a problem, and I find this so interesting 'cause this is the case for so much research is that you get to the conclusion, and the conclusion is, "But we have pretty much found that the implants are not correlated to the lymphoma." And then the best part is, is that at the very, very bottom of the research article was, um, conflicts of interest, and the conflict of interest was the, um, one of the main people on the board of the pharmaceutical company that makes the implants was the person who wrote the paper. So guys, you, you have to understand that research is driven by w- it's driven with intention.
**Unknown:** It is driven to either validate what somebody wants to validate or not, and a lot of the dollars behind research are funded by the companies that are trying to prove that it's valuable. So I hate that that's the case, but that's the reality of it, and we know that there is a ton of money in drugs, and there's a ton of money in plastic surgery, and there's a ton of money in breast implants. So unfortunately, this was one of the quotes that I pulled, and it's actually kind of comical, but, um, the specific company that makes the gummy bear implants called, um, Allergan is that they're pretty much saying that the likelihood of a woman getting this lymphoma is the likelihood of someone getting, um, struck by lightning. So there's four hundred people a year that get struck by lightning, so interesting.
**Unknown:** So overall, um, one of the other big things about these implants is, is what's in them. So when you really dig into what the heck is actually in these implants, it's things that you're like, "Why? How?" Like, what is the reasoning behind this? There's caffeine in implants.
**Unknown:** There's flame retardants, like, in case your boobs set on fire, you know. Like, that's a necessity. Um, pesticides. Uh, the one interesting thing that I found was a very specific type of hydrocarbon called anthraquinone.
**Unknown:** So anthraquinone is something that I find regularly that comes up as a toxicity in many, many, many of my patients. So anthraquinone is now not only found in these implants, but it's also one of the primary ingredients in a lot of our, um, facial lotions that are geared towards balancing complexion or ridding blemishes or even, uh, freckles. So anthraquinone is something that you really, really, really need to be cautious with because it is highly toxic, and it is also known as a carcinogen.So for those of you using different types of bal-- or, um, blemish-reducing lotions, uh, definitely keep an eye to see if anthraquinone is one of the primary ingredients in there. So here's the laundry list of all of the other toxins that are found in breast implants.
**Unknown:** So you probably don't even know what half of these are, but I will tell you that all of these have their own issues. A lot of them are neurotoxins, aka they are toxic to your neurological system. Um, some of these are als-also carcinogenic, um, meaning that they can cause cancer over time, and some of these are just going to make you just generally feel like crap because they're gonna amp up your inflammatory pathways, they're going to create brain fog, joint pain, the inability to lose weight. You know, which I find so interesting because most of the time we're getting implants, um, you know, for, for vanity reasons.
**Unknown:** We wanna look a certain way, we wanna feel good in our own skin, and, and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But then, you know, you develop this array of inflammatory issues which stem from the implants. So it's really important to understand that, you know, are you going to lose your health to, you know, have these implants?
**Unknown:** Because in some women it can become very, very problematic over time. I have a patient who wanted, uh, to share. Um, she's definitely been someone who has been on quite a journey when it comes to, uh, dealing with implants that were negatively impacting her body. And, uh, she shared some photos with me as well as, um, her story that I know she's written some blogs about.
**Unknown:** But, um, you know, this is a person that really started to slowly feel like crap and had no idea that the implants could be playing a role and, you know, she took it into her own hands in order to really understand what the heck was going on with her and, you know, we've primarily just tried to assist her in the process of getting the bad things out of the body that built up over the time period that she had them. But I think that the most fascinating thing about her process was just by explanting alone, she reduced her inflammation dramatically, and she also was able to control skin reactions and random, um, inflammatory sh-reactions that she was having with, you know, her face, her joints, and other parts of her body. But, you know, when she came in, she pretty much was like, "So here's all these symptoms of breast implant illness, and I have every single one." But she really has, uh, you know, started the process on her own and made the decisions that she needed to explant, you know, obviously change her diet and start her detoxification process, um, and we just gave her a bit of support going through that process, um, because there were things that were affecting her that she was obviously not able to realize without necessarily having, um, some better testing. So overall, when it comes to the way that this looks is it doesn't look the same across the board.
**Unknown:** It can easily be, you know, autoimmune conditions, it can be hair loss, it can be thyroid, it could be joint pain, it could be, you know, overall inflammation that looks like weight gain. It could be so many different things. And, you know, really the last but not least here is that, again, it's not always just explant and call it a day. Um, you might need to actually address your lymphatic system.
**Unknown:** You might need to reduce the scar tissue. You might need to figure out if there are certain toxins that have burrowed themselves into specific tissues. You might need to support your liver. Um, you know, every-everyone's detox pathways work differently, and I think that this is a really important part to understand is that when I work with some people that have mold toxicity from an environmental issue.
**Unknown:** So you could have two people that are living in a moldy apartment, and then both of them move out of the moldy apartment. One of them bounces back and goes back to having no symptoms, and then the other person doesn't bounce back. And that really just has to do with how well their detoxification pathways work, which really comes back to genetics. So, you know, you ever hear of that person who drinks a cup of coffee, and they're, like, wired for three days, and then there's the other person who drinks a pot of coffee a day, and they have zero problems.
**Unknown:** Like, they can, like, literally go to bed. So that has to do with how your liver metabolizes and detoxifies. So some people have a really strong liver, and it kinda, like, chops up caffeine and spits it out, it chops up alcohol and spits it out, and then you have other people that, you know, have a sip of wine and they're drunk . So it's...
**Unknown:** everybody's body is extremely different, and if you assess those pathways, you can actually recover from the breast implant illness, uh, at a rapid rate once you know what you need to actually support. And the other big one too is if you have had a slow leak from, you know, a rupture in the implant and it was leaching a variety of different toxins into the system, you might have neurological stress. And the thing you have to understand about this is that if you get rid of the inflammation and you get rid of the toxicity, yes, you can a hundred percent see your neurological system balance out and be completely normal. But some people, if your neurological system is stressed long enough, you create...
**Unknown:** you reroute. So the easiest way I can explain this is that if you have the Grand Canyon and you look at the rivers and the wind and how it flows through the Grand Canyon, and then you dump a bunch of boulders into the Grand Canyon.Everything is going to have to reroute. It's going to have to figure out new ways for the wind and the water to flow. So the same thing happens when your neurological system is extremely stressed.
**Unknown:** So if your neurological system is stressed, then your brain is going to create new pathways to learn how to work around the stress. But sometimes those new pathways create things like ADD. It causes things like OCD. It causes anxiety.
**Unknown:** It causes sleep disturbances. So when you clear out, you know, the toxicity or the stress in the neurological system, sometimes you still need to actually figure out how to balance out the issues with the neurological system. So it's very, very important to know that sometimes it's not just about the explanting. Sometimes you need additional support in addition.
**Unknown:** So overall, for those of you listening that either have implants or not, so it's important for you to know that you don't know what you don't know. You might suspect that your implants are making you sick, but you probably didn't realize to the capacity that it can and how it can affect your neurological system, how it can affect your lymphatic system, how it can maybe even cause migraines. So there are many, many factors to take into consideration here that can be playing a very, very specific role. It's really important for us to not just settle for symptoms being our new normal or blaming it on bad genes or blaming it on aging.
**Unknown:** We need to consider, you know, are there things in our bodies that are making us sick? Are there things that we're putting in our bodies like toxic food or personal products or whatever the case may be that are also making us sick? You know, we tend to go to this place of thinking, oh, I'm just getting old. So that's kind of the end of the story.
**Unknown:** And that's why I feel the way I do. I just need to power through. But you might actually have other things that can be part of the puzzle that if you resolve, you can actually not have to settle for those new symptoms being your normal. So the other big thing, too, is that not everything looks like a textbook.
**Unknown:** So I know that there's not even really, you know, when I was in school, nobody was teaching us about breast implant illness. Nobody was sitting there talking about that. So, you know, there is no textbook for breast implant illness, number one. Number two is that when it comes to the symptoms, there could be so many different symptoms across the board for someone that is having a systemic whole body reaction to an implant or the toxins of an implant.
**Unknown:** So overall, there's no textbook solution for you. Yes, maybe it's like remove the implant. But what about your lymph? What about your blood?
**Unknown:** What about your brain? What about all those other things? We need to make sure that we're not just kind of overlooking the whole physiology of the body. So when it comes to this like concept, functional integrative medicine, some of you are like, I don't even know the difference between the two or I don't even I don't even know why they would be different.
**Unknown:** So when it comes to this whole conversation that we just had about breast implant illness. So the reason why I know about this is because I had to constantly learn, grow and evolve based off of what came through my doors. There were obviously people that hit plateaus in their healing process, not just with other practitioners, but even in my practice early on, because I didn't know what I didn't know. And I kept learning, growing and asking better questions and doing better testing.
**Unknown:** So functional medicine was where I started. And that was all about better testing and better testing is so, so important. So you can get better information and actually be able to tell your patient what is the root cause. But what I found is that I got to a place that functional medicine had limitations with the tools.
**Unknown:** So the tools were all about diet and supplements. And like we just established is that what if the lymphatic system is compromised? What if the liver is compromised? What if the neurological system is compromised?
**Unknown:** So I kept evolving our practice so that I had more tools to actually help my patients get better because it's great to have the diagnosis. It's great to know the root cause. But what about actually starting to feel better? And it's not necessarily always about diet and supplements because maybe you've already done that.
**Unknown:** Maybe you already tried that and it didn't work or you hit a plateau. So it's about looking at the big picture and knowing how we can best support the patient. So always a big question is, you know, how does this all work? You know, does this go through insurance?
**Unknown:** And I do really think that health care is moving in a better direction. I think that the more that we step up and say, hey, I want more out of my health care. I want answers. I want solutions.
**Unknown:** I don't want you to sit here and tell me that, you know, my gut issues have nothing to do with what I'm eating. That doesn't make sense. I think that more and more people are saying this doesn't make sense. You know, we're eating pure crap.
**Unknown:** We're eating things like Twinkies that you can blowtorch that literally don't disintegrate. Like, how are you going to sit here and say that this doesn't negatively impact my health? So I think the more that we speak up and the more that we actually, you know, we vote with our dollars, the more we buy organic, the more that we seek out these alternative therapies, you know, insurance is going to have to step up and start to acknowledge, you know, where health care needs to go.As of now, we ch-choose to serve you because unfortunately, most of the people that come through our doors have been there, done that. They got the, the five minutes with their practitioner.
**Unknown:** They got no answers, and they got no solutions. So we're the people to provide you with the time, provide you with the better testing, and provide you with the answers and of course, the solutions. Um, so I always put this quote in here because I laugh so hard when, um, I... It-it's been my experience, but it's also been many of my patients' experience, is that they, you know, they get into a social setting and, you know, you're like super excited about your new thing that you're doing, and you're just like, "Oh, you know, I got answers, and I'm gonna get better.
**Unknown:** And, you know, I like, I'm not eating gluten right now because I heard it's like, you know, it's bad for me because of my testing." And, you know, they get this pushback of like, "Oh, I can't believe you're spending money on that," or, "Oh, what a scam," or, "Oh, yeah, well, gluten doesn't mean anything. Gluten's, that's not even a real thing." And I always laugh at this because everybody values something different. You know, there are many people that value their health, and they're gonna spend a boatload of money on healthcare. They're gonna spend a boatload of money on buying organic food.
**Unknown:** They're gonna spend money on their gym membership. Like, that's what they're gonna do because that's what they value. But it's okay to judge those people, but it's weird if I was to judge somebody for having a $150,000 car and be like, "Well, that's a stupid way to spend your money." Or you walk into a person's house that's like crazy techy, and they have, you know, technology in every room and Bluetooth and all this and be like, "Yeah, what a stupid way to spend your money. What a scam." Like, I always laugh because I have no idea why that's the dynamic of why it's okay to judge someone for valuing their health, but it would be weird to judge someone for spending their money on like tech or things or clothes.
**Unknown:** So really the point is that if you value your health, tell everyone to shut their mouths, and don't let anybody tell you you can't invest in it because it's your body, it's your values, it's your family. And if you take care of yourself, you can show up better for your job, for your husband, for your wife, for your family. You can be the best version of you which you deserve. As much as people tell us we don't deserve that, we do.
**Unknown:** We also deserve to have answers about what's going on with our health. We deserve to have solutions. We've settled for this, "I don't know what's wrong with you. Oh, there's no cure.
**Unknown:** Oh, there's, you know, there's no protocol for that. Oh, it doesn't matter what you eat. Oh, just take this pill." Like, that's literally what we've settled for, and we need to demand more. We need to demand more because we deserve more.
**Unknown:** So I thank you guys for being here with me. Um, I definitely recommend checking out our website if you want more information about who we are, what we do, what it's all about. So I hope you share this with others, and I hope you got a lot of value out of it. .
**Unknown:** We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group, as well as Dr. Nick or Dr. Nicole, you can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com.
**Unknown:** All night, no sleep. 'Cause I feel like I'm always dreaming. Wide awake, that's okay.
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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