Breast implants made with silicone envelopes and filled with silicone gel or saline (salt water) were first sold in the United States in the 1960s, but sales were relatively slow until the 1980s. By 1990, however, almost 1 million women had undergone breast implant surgery, even though no safety studies had been published. Most of those women had silicone gel breast implants, which the plastic surgeons preferred. In 2018, more than 310,000 women and teenagers in the United States underwent surgery to have their breasts enlarged with silicone or saline implants.
The stories are all over the Internet: women experiencing mysterious symptoms such as fatigue, depression, anxiety, chest pain, chills, rashes, and hair loss. They suspect one cause — their breast implants. And some women, determined to rid themselves of these vague but debilitating symptoms, are opting to remove their implants in hopes of curing their problems.
If you have breast implants or are thinking about getting them, these stories may have you worried. Are you at risk? Are implants safe? The truth is, there are still some unknowns when it comes to what many patients call “breast implant illness,” including whether implants are truly the cause of these symptoms, says Dr. Andrea Pusic, Joseph E. Murray Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.
The average saline or silicone implants may last anywhere from 10 to 20 years. However, many are removed sooner due to complications or cosmetic concerns. Up to 20 percent of people have their implants removed or replaced within 8 to 10 years.
Health effects of silicon
Several epidemiological studies have reported statistically significant numbers of excess deaths or cases of immunologic disorders and autoimmune diseases in silica-exposed workers. These diseases and disorders include scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and sarcoidosis.
Recent epidemiological studies have reported statistically significant associations of occupational exposure to crystalline silica with renal diseases and subclinical renal changes. Crystalline silica may affect the immune system, leading to mycobacterial infections (tuberculous and nontuberculous) or fungal, especially in workers with silicosis
How To Detox Silicone From The Body
Here is how to detoxify your body from silicon as explained by Nicole of healing breast implant illness:
Step 1. Explant – The first and most important step to detox the body from breast implants is to properly explant your breast implants which means an En Bloc / Total Capsulectomy explant. Removing your breast implants which is the root of your toxicity starts your healing process.
Step 2. Diet – The next most important step after removal of breast implants is to support your body’s natural systems of detoxification through an organic, whole foods, anti-inflammatory diet. Anti-inflammatory diets eliminate sugars, gluten grains, dairy products and other foods known to be inflammatory to our gut. Your diet will be the most important factor in supporting your natural detoxification and managing your day to day symptoms.
Step 3. Heal Your Gut – Many women who have breast implants have poor digestion and IBS. Some women develop allergies due to leaky gut and lose the ability to digest dairy, wheat and other inflammatory foods. All inflammatory and allergenic foods should be cut out of the diet in order to lower inflammation to support digestion. Bone broth and powdered collagen will help heal leaky gut.
Step 4. Infections In Us Due to Immune Deficits – After explant, some women discover fungal colonization in their saline implants and other women had contact with mold in their environment and have CIRS but by far the most common fungal infection in us is overgrowth of yeast and Candida. Other infections that are not uncommon in us are UTI, H-pylori, SIBO, bacterial infections in capsules and root canals, mycoplasma infections, Lyme, EBV, herpes and even parasites. These bacterial, fungal, viral and parasitical infections caused by immune deficits and poor gut health due to breast implants need to be eliminated for a full recovery as they are contributing to our symptoms. Sometimes these infections can be detected through various tests but not always. Bacterial infections are treated with antibiotics. Mold should be treated with mold eliminating protocols by doctors knowledgeable about mold. Fungal infections such as yeast overgrowth and Candida are treated with antifungal diets and antifungals whether natural or prescription.
Step 5. Check for MTHFR Genetic Variants and Support your Methylation and Detox Pathways – MTHFR genetic variants may be inhibiting your ability to detox especially if left untreated. MTHFR genetic variants impair our ability to break down crucial B vitamins that support liver methylation and other important functions. MTHFR may be supported with a few supplements such as Methylfolate known as L-5-MTHF and MethylB12 supplements knowns as Methylcobalamin, Adenosylcobalamin or Hydroxocabalmin (different forms of B12 targeting specific areas) and MethylB6 known as Pyridoxal-5′.
Step 6. Heavy Metals – Most women will detox heavy metals from breast implants naturally over time and need not worry about heavy metals. If you are worried an inexpensive, preliminary heavy metals test is Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis or Hair Toxic Elements Exposure testing. Hair tests can give a lot of good health information because they reveal your minerals status which can point to certain health problems common in us such as slow metabolizing or thyroid and adrenal problems. If heavy metals show high in hair tests, you may want to follow that up with a provoked urine heavy metals test to see what that shows. If a provoked urine test for heavy metals shows very high metals you may want to consider a gentle oral chelation supplement under a health care provider.
Step 7. Support your Endocrine and Immune System – Consider checking your Cortisol levels with a pm Cortisol blood test or a Four Point Cortisol test and check your thyroid’s free T3, T4 conversion to see if your adrenals and thyroid are functioning properly. You may need to support both adrenals and thyroid in order to get well. There are various supplements that will help support your endocrine and immune system. Echinacea, Epicor, Tansfer Factors Multi Immune are known as good supplements to support the immune system as are certain mushrooms such as Reishi. Vitamin C and zinc support the immune system too.
Step 8. Progesterone – Progesterone stimulates your natural, nightly detoxification cycle and helps balance your hormones and support your adrenals and thyroid. As silicone is an endocrine disruptor and estrogenic in nature (acts like estrogen in the body) and toxic chemicals and heavy metals damage thyroid and adrenals some ladies experience markedly diminished hormones, hormonal imbalances and low progesterone and this is another reason you need to undergo silicone detox. Have your hormone levels tested and supplement with bio-identical hormones and especially progesterone if you are low so that you feel better, heal better and your natural cycle of detoxification is working.
Step 9. Green Vegetable Juicing – Vegetable juicing is very helpful to supply extra nutrition, potassium and enzymes crucial for healing and detoxification (silicone detox). Try and include a large vegetable juice in your diet each day.
Step 10. Remineralization – Minerals are required for every aspect of your body and for detoxification (silicone detox). We suggest putting a pinch of high quality Celtic or sea salt and a couple drops of ionic liquid minerals in each glass of water to get various minerals on an ongoing basis. Most of us are so low on magnesium which is affecting our health. Magnesium is important to cell and muscle function and how you feel day to day and is usually very low in toxic and stressed people. Magnesium malate or magnesium glycinate is the preferable source for magnesium. Calcium may be required, too, especially if you cannot eat dairy foods. Potassium is a very important mineral to cells for healing and detoxification.
Step 11. Vitamin and Antioxidant Supplements to Lower Inflammation – Vitamin and antioxidant supplements help keep inflammation low which stimulates detoxification. Please carefully read all labels and research supplements that you take as some have unhealthy ingredients you need to avoid. Vitamins A, B, C, E, Selenium, Zinc, CoQ10/Ubiquinol, Turmeric/ Curcumin, Milkthistle, Ginger and Krill Oil will all help lower inflammation in your body and keep your detoxification cycle up regulated. Vitamin D is important to healing and is the vitamin that controls all hormones and is low in most of us.
Step 12. Stimulate Detox – The body knows how to detox on its own. We don’t necessarily feel you need to stimulate detox (silicone detox) but certain supplements are known to stimulate detoxification such as Vitamin C, Magnesium, Chlorella/Spirulina, Lipoic Acid, MSM, Inositol (for silicone detoxification), NAC (N-Acetyl L-Cysteine) and Iodine.
Step 13. Glutathione – If you do research on detoxification you will come across information on glutathione which is produced in the body and acts as the body’s master detoxifier picking up free radicals, toxins and heavy metals and escorting them out of the body. Normally, glutathione is created and recycled in the healthy body except when the toxic load becomes too great then it becomes depleted. Glutathione is made from the amino acids cysteine, glutamine and glycine. If you want to increase your glutathione you can take the inexpensive supplements NAC (N-Acetyl L-Cysteine) 4 parts, glutamine 2 parts and glycine 1 part in a glass of water between meals. No need to buy expensive glutathione supplements.
Step 14. Exercise – Get exercise everyday if possible. At first walking, yoga and swimming are great exercises for healing breast implant illness and silicone detox. Gradually work up. Go outside for fresh air, sun and to connect with nature each day. If possible, sit or lie on the ground/grass/beach each day to eliminate inflammation in your body through grounding.
Step 15. Sauna Therapy and Epsom Salt Baths – If you have access to an infrared sauna, sauna two to three times each week. It is well known that toxins and heavy metals are eliminated through the skin by sweating and infrared kills microbes in the body. Avoid saunas if you have implants and or mercury fillings. Also take a couple Epsom salt baths a week for magnesium replenishing and detoxification (silicone detox).
Step 16. Low-Level Light Therapy, Oxygen Therapy, Ozone Therapy – I read another lady’s site that said she had profound healing after receiving low-level light therapy treatments on her chest to break down capsule tissue which should have been removed but was not. Not only did the low-level light therapy breakdown the capsule tissue, it also killed the bacteria and fungus in her chest. Although I have not had a chance to try it, I believe it works and could be a profound healing tool for some. Chiropractors use low-level light therapy in their practices, hopefully you can find one near you. I have personally tried oxygen therapy and it does stimulate healing. Many are having good results getting rid of bacteria, mold/fungus and viruses using ozone.
Step 17. Timeframe to Feel Healthy – You will notice that the process of detoxification (silicone detox) does increase inflammation in the body and the feeling of illness for a period. Moving toxic chemicals, bio-toxins and heavy metals through your body and organs will cause inflammation and detox symptoms (headaches, brain fog, negative mentalism, emotionalism, sore back bone, sore joints, general illness, fatigue, digestive disturbances) and an increase of your specific symptoms which is why you should go slow and need to take rests from detoxing but always maintain your clean diet and some exercise if possible.
Conclusion
Detoxification (silicone detox) of breast implants is not a straight line, but rather an up and down process generally lasting one to two years. After explant, you will notice certain symptoms go away but then in a few months after explant, your body will begin the heavy work of detoxing stored chemicals and heavy metals from your cells and your symptoms will increase and go up and down for some months but gradually disappear one by one. Most women feel substantially healed within about one to two years. If you are not improving over years, then you need to look for other sources of toxicity. Perhaps you have a bacterial or fungal infection. Please ensure you are not living or working in a moldy environment. Perhaps you have mercury toxicity from your amalgams. Perhaps you have root canals that are producing potent bacteria creating illness in your body. Perhaps you have parasites. There will be a reason you are not healing. SEE: Do Detox Drinks Work ?
