Vegeterian Diets --Let Me Count The Ways There are several types of vegeterians: Lacto-ovo-vegetarians eat plant foods, milk, milk products and eggs, but avoid flesh foods (meat, poultry and fish). Lacto-vegetarians eat plant foods, milk and milk products, but avoid eggs and flesh foods. Ovo-vegetarians eat plant foods and eggs, but avoid milk, milk products and flesh foods. Pesco/pollo-vegetarians eat meats like seafood and chicken, but do not eat other meats, such as beef, lamb, and pork. Total vegetarians, also called vegans, eat plant foods only. Read the Source Article |
Breast Enlargement--Health Risks of
Breast Augmentation
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October 3, 2009
By Natalia Real, Featured Columnist, Susan Callahan, Health Editor
and staff of CollectiveWizdom
307,230 young and adult women underwent breast augmentation with
silicone or saline implants in 2007 - more than triple the amount since
1997, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgery. Breast
enlargement is now the single most common elective surgery in the
US. Two million women in the US now have breast implants. While
nearly 80,000 of these procedures were for breast reconstruction
using implants after mastectomy, 75% of breast enlargement
surgeries were elective surgery, for non-essential or cosmetic reasons.
What's more, younger and younger women are electing to enlarge
their breasts. According to the Americal Society of Plastic and
Reconstructive Surgeons, the average age of women who elect to
have breast enlargement surgery in the US is 32, down from an
average age of 45 in 1974. Silicone implants have been approved by
the FDA for women as young as 22, and the FDA in all its wisdom has
approved saline implants for teenagers as young as 18. Business is
booming, and the customers are getting younger.
But while thousands of women are lining up at the check-out counter
to buy new breasts, an increasing number are also lining up at the
"return" window. Interestingly, also last year, over 40,000 women
had implant removal procedures. Buyer's remorse, perhaps.
What are the health risks for breast enlargement surgery? Are there
any dangers to the long-term health of women who undertake these
procedures?
Risk of Death From Breast Enlargement
In the largest study of its kind, researchers from the Centre for
Chronic Disease Prevention and Control and other universites in
Canada in 2006 examined the health histories of 24,555 women who
had undergone breat augmentation. The good news is that the study
found no difference n the long-term mortality of women who had
undergone breast augmentation.
Increased Suicide Risk Linked to Breast Enlargement
However, there was one bombshell statistic from the study. Women
who undergo breast enlargement surgery have a 75% greater risk for
committing suicide than women who do not.
A similar study in 2007 among Swedish women found the same
association. Researchers who examined the health records of 3,527
Swedish women who had received breast implants between 1965 and
1993 found that the women who had had breast implants were three
times more likely to commit suicide than women with natural breasts.
More research is needed to determine whether women who elect
breast surgery were already predisposed to suicide but the raw
statisistics are alarming.
Complications from Breast Enlargement Surgery
Breast augmentation has always been controversial. Although the
procedure has relatively improved in safety over the past few
decades, the short- and long-term risks that remain are often serious.
The "local complications," or problems in the breast area, are surgical
risks such as infection, chronic pain, breast or nipple numbness,
painfully sensitive nipples, scar tissue, capsular contracture, breakage
and leakage, skin death (necrosis), need for further surgery, and
"cosmetic" problems - patient dissatisfaction with the resulting
appearance of the breast. These are not insignificant complications.
According to a 2005 report by the Federal Drug Administration, saline
and silicone gel breast implants cause at least one local complication
in 75% of reconstruction patients and nearly 50% of first-time
augmentation patients. Complications include pain, infection,
hardening, or need for additional surgery.
The additional operations often required due to surgical risks
themselves pose similar risks, mainly mild to severe infection and
hematoma. The risks are the same for women who go under the knife
to get broken or damaged implants fixed.
Now, not only do many saline implants break and leak their contents
into the body, but because bacteria and mold can fester within these
implants, these would also enter the body if the implant breaks. And
yet, no research has been conducted into the physiological impact this
would have on a woman’s body or her nursing baby.
Risk of Leakage and Breakage of Breast Implants
It only gets worse. According to the FDA, all implants eventually
break. The only question is when. While some implants can take over
15 years to become damaged, some take just a few months. In a study
conducted by the FDA in 2000, 21% of women whose implants had
ruptured within their bodies were unable to perceive the silicone
leaking into their chest cavity.
Mammograms are often inaccurate detectors of these ruptures.
Moreover, if an implant is already broken, the pressure caused by a
mammogram may push the silicone gel out from the implant, according
to plastic surgeon Dr. Scott Spear and former director of FDA’s Office
for Women’s Health Dr. Susan Wood.
Whether breast implants cause illnesses beyond the breast area
remains unknown. However, silicone gel has been found to turn liquid
in the body, facilitating its migration to the lymph nodes, lungs, liver,
and other organs. Even a woman with an implant on her calf, although
much farther from her lungs than a breast implant would be, was
found to have coughed up its silicone.
Breast Implants Linked to Increased Risk of Arthritis, RA and Joint
Stiffness
Several studies have linked breast augmentation procedures with
increased risk of arthritis. A 1998 study lead by Dr. S. Edworthy and
published in the Journal of Rheumatology found that women with
breast implants are 44% more likely to suffer from arthritis,
rheumatoid arthritis or joint stiffness later in life. These women also
were significantly more likelyto report having difficulty in solving
thought problems and to report numbness and stiffness in their hands,
arms and feet.muscle pains and painful headaches.
The Cost of Beauty
In the quest for beauty, women underwent 300,000 breast
enlargement surgeries in 2008, surgeries with uncertain impact on
their long-term physical and emotional health. It is worth thoroughly
questioning, then, whether the search for “perfect” or “enhanced”
breasts is worth the massive trouble. And if the problem is low self-
esteem, do implants get rid of it? There is always something more to
“fix”. The real issue appears to be, if we are choosing to go under the
knife to fix ourselves in pursuit of beauty or group acceptance, have
we chosen the right body part to fix? Perhaps, to paraphrase
Shakespeare, the fault lies not in our breasts, but in our brains.
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Selected Sources: (1)Study of Breast Implants and Disease in Meta-
Analysis
(2)Safety of Silicone Implants, Review by Insittute of Medicine
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