Breast pain in all its aspects
Many women feel pain in the breast area from time to time, sometimes light and sometimes heavy, sometimes not, which makes people puzzled, and many of them are burdened with the thought that they are suffering from “breast cancer”. In fact, about half of the women have this phenomenon, and most of them have physiological breast pain, so there is no need to be nervous.
1.Breast pain type by type Xinjiang Cancer Hospital Breast Surgery Department Ou Jianghua
2.Food therapy for breast pain
3.Spiritual pain to maintain a relaxed mood
4.How to treat breast pain
Breast pain type by type
Women with breast pain should not be alarmed or paralyzed, and should not be embarrassed to go to the doctor because of shyness. You should pay attention to the changes in your breasts, even if it is a very slight breast pain, because breast pain can be a manifestation of many breast diseases, and breast cancer can also be painful. However, if it is not breast cancer after formal examination, there is no need to be overly nervous, and proper treatment and regular review are sufficient.
Breast pain = breast disease = breast cancer? Female compatriots seem to be very sensitive to these words, especially because they always have breast pain from time to time. Experts point out that there are several types of pain, some of which are physiological and do not need to be too nervous, while some pathological pain should be taken seriously and seek medical attention in time.
1, physiological pain: do not worry too much
Physiological breast pain is mostly related to menstruation, and breast pressure pain about a week before menstruation is considered normal.
A. Adolescent breast swelling and pain: girls aged 9-13 years old begin to develop breasts, and the breast tissue under the nipple appears as pea to broad bean sized round mound shaped hard nodes with slight swelling and pain. After menarche, it will disappear on its own with the maturation of the breast during puberty.
B. Menstrual breast pain: It is the most common type of breast pain, accounting for about 65% of all breast pain and occurring at an average age of 35 years. The pain mostly appears or worsens about 3-7 days before menstruation, and gradually disappears or decreases after menstruation. The degree of pain is not consistent from month to month, but commonly consists of a feeling of heaviness, swelling or dull pain or occasional brief pins and needles. And it is accompanied by painful breast nodules, which are aggravated by pressure, activity or use of hand-held objects.
C. Breast swelling and pain during pregnancy: Some mothers-to-be have breast swelling and pain about 40 days after pregnancy due to the secretion of large amounts of estrogen and progesterone by the placenta and chorionic villi, resulting in breast enlargement, which can last throughout pregnancy in heavy cases and often does not require treatment.
D, postpartum breast swelling and pain: 3-7 days after delivery often appear both breasts swollen, hard and painful, which is mainly due to the action of prolactin, venous filling and interstitial edema and milk filling. So the mother should breastfeed as soon as possible, when there are hard knots can be hot compresses and massage hard knots before breastfeeding, but also available suction breast milk, to promote the smooth flow of milk ducts.
E. Breast swelling and pain after abortion: Some women feel breast swelling and pain after abortion, and can touch the lump. This is due to the sudden interruption of pregnancy, the body’s hormone levels drop sharply, so that the newly developed mammary glands suddenly stop growing, resulting in breast lumps and breast pain.
F. Breast swelling and pain after sex: those with indifferent sexual desire or discordant sexual life, because they cannot achieve sexual satisfaction, the engorgement and swelling of the breast will not easily subside, and persistent engorgement will make the breast swelling and pain.
2, pathological pain timely treatment of related diseases
A, chest wall disorders, heart disease, cervical spondylosis, oral disorders, etc. can cause this pain, accounting for about 26% of breast pain cases. The pain of these diseases is often mistaken for breast pain. The pain should be examined promptly after it arises, but the most common cause of breast pain is mastopexy, and mastitis is also a common factor.
B. Breast pain caused by cervical spondylosis: cervical spondylosis can cause breast pain due to cervical spine degeneration and cervical nerve root involvement. This pain is mostly chronic and unilateral. The degree of pain is often related to the location of the neck, in addition to breast pain, there is still pain to palpation of the pectoralis major muscle, as well as pain and discomfort in the neck, occipital, shoulder and arm, and there are often signs of degenerative disease on the X-ray, while the breast itself has no abnormal performance.
C, chest wall disease breast pain: chest muscle or rib inflammation and other chest wall diseases can also be manifested as breast pain, with burning or pulling sensation is common, there can also be stabbing pain, the site of pressure pain is almost always located on one side.
D, mastitis breast pain: does not change with the menstrual cycle, there is no fixed time, lasts a little longer, the age of these women are mostly around 40-45 years old, slightly older than those with physiological pain, the pain is limited to the breast, the location is relatively shallow.
E, mastitis breast pain: this pain is very obvious, unbearable, and accompanied by redness, swelling, heat, most of which occurs within 1-2 months after the birth of a new mother.
3, breast pain diet
(1) mastocytosis breast pain diet
Chinese medicine believes that this disease is mostly due to liver and qi stagnation, phlegm and blood stagnation.
Food therapy principles: dredge the liver and Qi, clear heat and disperse nodules, and regulate the flushing.
Examples of common dietary therapy.
Corn and loofah soup: 100 grams of corn, 50 grams of loofah, 10 grams of orange kernels, 1 egg, the first three things boiled with water for 1 hour, add egg, water starch, icing sugar and mix well before starting the pot, twice a week.
Seaweed lettuce pot: seaweed 100 grams, lettuce 100 grams, a little ginger, onion, with water first boil seaweed 30 minutes, before the pot add lettuce, seasoning, sesame oil, once a day.
Cold celery kelp: 100 grams of kelp, 100 grams of celery, ginger, a little chopped green onion, kelp, celery blanching, fishing plate with seasonings, sesame oil, once a day.
Xia Ku Cao Angelica porridge: Xia Ku Cao, Angelica, Xiang Shen each 10 grams, add the appropriate amount of water decoction for 20 minutes, take the juice and add white porridge, brown sugar mix, twice a week.
(2) Mastitis breast pain diet
Chinese medicine believes that this disease is mostly caused by heat in the liver and stomach and stagnation of milk.
Food therapy principles: clear the liver and stomach, detoxification, circulation, and dispersion of nodules.
Examples of common dietary therapy.
Honey figs: 100 grams of figs, 30 grams of hawthorn, add water and decoction for 20 minutes, take the juice with honey twice a day.
Stewed tofu with loofah: 150 grams of loofah, 100 grams of tofu, add water and boil for 20 minutes, add ginger, onion and sesame oil before starting, once a day.
Radix Platycodon grandiflorus and Radix chrysanthemum congee: 10 grams each of Radix Platycodon grandiflorus and Radix saponariae, add water for 20 minutes, add the juice to radix chrysanthemum congee, take twice daily. Suitable for mastitis septic phase.
Pollen and angelica porridge: 10 grams each of astragalus and pollen, 5 grams of angelica, add water and decoction for 20 minutes, take the juice and add brown sugar. Twice daily, suitable for mastitis rupture stage.
(3) Breast cancer prevention diet
Eat less fatty, sweet and pickled products
The daily fat intake per person in the United States is 2.5 times higher than that in China, and the incidence of breast cancer is 4 times higher than that in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In contrast, Japanese people eat more fish and foods containing vitamin D and have the lowest incidence of breast cancer. Research proves that breast health cannot be separated from healthy eating habits.
To prevent breast cancer, you can eat more bean foods, coarse grains, fruits and vegetables such as garlic, spinach, winter melon, carrots, tomatoes, kelp, cabbage, mustard greens, kale, mushrooms and so on.
As for the following four types of food should be eaten less: (1) sugar, sweets, pastries such as butterscotch, buttercream, chocolate and other desserts; (2) pickled products: salted fish, salted chicken, bacon, salami, pickled vegetables, etc.; (3) high-fat food; (4) fried food, barbecued food.
4, psychogenic pain to maintain a relaxed mood
Breast pain is also often related to mood swings, work tension, etc.
A, increased stress leads to pain: the spirit can also affect hormone secretion and menstrual flow, leading to conditions such as breast enlargement. When work is too busy and stress increases, not only will menstrual disorders occur, but also breast pain.
B. Pain in the heart: Some women “expect” to have breast pain before and after menstruation, often at that time there is really pain, which has formed a psychological implication and conditioned reflex. The best way to reduce or eliminate mental breast pain is to keep your mood relaxed.
5.How can we check if something is wrong with our breasts?
Before treating breast pain, your doctor will make some understanding of your breast condition, such as hand examination, ultrasound or mammogram, and then make a preliminary diagnosis.
1.B ultrasound: The breast has a lot of fatty tissue, which is ideal for ultrasound examination, and it is inexpensive and non-invasive.
2.Mammography: It can clearly show all layers of breast tissues and can detect breast hyperplasia, various benign tumors and disorder of breast tissue structure, and can observe tiny calcification points and clusters of calcification less than 0.1 mm, which is the most effective and reliable way for early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. However, this kind of examination is more suitable for older women and not very effective for younger women because they are less sensitive to mammogram and a little traumatic. It is better not to let the breast receive too many rays before breastfeeding.
3, pathological examination: the commonly used methods are cytological examination, biopsy tissue examination, etc., which are accurate and reliable examination methods. Among them, cytological examination includes needle aspiration cytology, nipple discharge cytology, scraping (smear) or print cytology, etc. It can help determine whether it is breast hyperplasia, inflammation or cancer, and is a qualitative diagnosis, which is very valuable, but puncture will cause some trauma to the breast, but it will heal quickly.
Special Tips
Experts suggest that women over 30 years old can go to a specialist once every six months for an examination, either by hand or with ultrasound, and mammography if necessary; women over 40 years old should preferably have a hand examination every three months, an ultrasound every six months, and a mammography every year.
6.If something really happens to my breast, how should I treat it?
1, mild pain: itself does not need any treatment, can wear a suitable sports bra, can better support the breast, wear a day and night, often can relieve breast pain.
2.Significant pain: Evening primrose oil is commonly used abroad for treatment, about two-thirds of women respond to this drug and take it for about 3~6 months, then stop taking it. After stopping the drug about half of the breast pain disappeared no longer appear.
For the pain caused by breast enlargement, some Chinese herbal preparations can be treated according to different types of symptoms; for those who have heavy enlargement, cystic enlargement, obvious pain and are over 40 years old, some hormonal anti-tumor drugs can be used for a short period of time; for obvious non-cycle pain, non-hormonal anti-inflammatory drugs can be used appropriately when it affects work and life.
Experts especially reminded that breast pain can not abuse antibiotic treatment, only the pain caused by mastitis can be applied to antibiotic treatment.
7.Is breast enlargement close to cancer?
Breast pain can be a manifestation of a certain disease, in most cases it is due to breast enlargement, and its pain is often dull and swelling, while breast cancer often has no very obvious pain or hidden pain.
Mammary gland hyperplasia is not cancer. It is a benign lesion that appears as striated, lumpy or cystic nodules in the breast. The nodules of breast hyperplasia are soft, with pressure pain and clear borders, and change with menstrual cycle or emotion. In contrast, the lumps of breast cancer are hard in texture, without pressure pain, with unclear borders and restricted movement, and increase significantly in size within a short period of time, or are accompanied by enlarged axillary and supraclavicular lymph nodes as well as nipple invagination and orange peel-like changes in the skin. However, it is important to note that breast enlargement without lumps can sometimes coexist with breast cancer.