Chinese medicine explanation: Why is breast disease more frequent?

  The incidence of breast diseases has been increasing in recent years, with 52.4% of asymptomatic women suffering from various breast diseases, which is much higher than other common chronic diseases among women and occupies the first place. Breast cancer has become the most threatening disease to women’s health, with its incidence ranking first among female tumors in large cities in China, and the age of onset is getting younger. On May 13, 2007, the actress who played Lin Daiyu in “Dream of the Red Chamber” died of breast cancer in Shenzhen, and a young singer died of breast cancer in Guangzhou on November 27 of the same year. Since breast cancer is dangerous to life and health, breast diseases are also attracting more and more high attention.  The ancient Chinese medicine book “Gynecological Jade Ruler” says: “The most important disease for women is the breast.” Traditional Chinese medicine has a unique understanding of breast diseases, and divides breast diseases into “breast fetish, breast nucleus, breast rock, breast carbuncle” and so on, which are equivalent to “breast hyperplasia, breast fibroadenoma, breast cancer, mastitis” and other diseases in Western medicine. According to Chinese medicine, “Men’s nipples belong to the liver and breasts belong to the kidneys; women’s nipples belong to the liver and breasts belong to the stomach”, and the causes of breast diseases are attributed to liver qi stagnation, stomach heat congestion, liver and kidney deficiency, phlegm stagnation, etc. This is an important guidance for modern diagnosis and treatment of breast diseases.  Modern medicine divides breast diseases into benign breast diseases and malignant breast diseases. Benign breast diseases include breast hyperplasia, breast fibroadenoma, mastitis, etc. The most common one is breast hyperplasia, which belongs to the category of mastopathy in Chinese medicine; malignant breast diseases are breast cancer, which belongs to the category of so-called breast rock in Chinese medicine. When breast hyperplasia develops to a certain stage, it may become cancerous and must be prevented and treated. Nowadays, the number of breast diseases, especially breast cancer, is increasing, and the following factors should be taken into account: 1) Changes in living environment: modern people, especially in big cities, live in a fast-paced life, living in a reinforced concrete structure, with increased radiation; frequent night life, no good rest time, no combination of work and rest. In the long run, it is easy to cause poor health, a variety of diseases come and go. Long-term application of computers, cell phones and other electronic products, the product radiation is also a factor in the prevalence of breast disease.  2, poor dietary factors: modern medicine believes that the occurrence of breast disease is the women’s own endocrine disorders, estrogen and progesterone ratio imbalance, stimulating excessive hyperplasia or degeneration of the mammary glands caused by incomplete. Modern people eat too much fat, sweet and thick, and often unconsciously consume hormone-containing foods, such as chicken, eel and turtle. In addition, there is a wide variety of health products on the market for women, and the general public cannot distinguish between their merits and demerits, and the consumption of health products with excessive hormone content is a reason for the increasing incidence of breast disease year by year.  3, too much mental stress: Chinese medicine believes that one of the main reasons for the occurrence of breast disease is liver qi stagnation. The so-called liver qi stagnation, refers to their own inability to adjust their emotions, long-term in a state of excessive depression. The modern life and work pressure, coupled with their own introverted personality, love to sulk, often lead to liver qi stagnation, and then create opportunities for breast disease.  In addition, in recent years, with the emancipation of people’s minds, the abortion rate is also high, the abuse of contraceptives. Abandoning breastfeeding can also cause endocrine disruptions in women, increasing the chance of breast disease and so on.  Although breast diseases are prevalent, they are not terrible and active prevention is important. Women should have regular self-examinations of their breasts; if they find any breast swelling, pain, discomfort or breast lumps or nipple overflow, they should go to the hospital as soon as possible to have them examined by specialists and special examinations, such as ultrasound, digital mammography, magnetic resonance imaging and, if necessary, pathological examinations to clarify the diagnosis. Don’t delay treatment by avoiding medical attention. Women should maintain emotional stability, optimism and cheerfulness, combine life and work, exercise appropriately, enhance physical fitness, and appropriate Chinese herbal medicine conditioning. Patients with mastoproliferative disease are suitable for Chinese herbal medicine treatment, which can be taken orally and applied topically to the breast, with remarkable clinical efficacy. Breast cancer patients should be actively treated. The combination of modern medicine and traditional Chinese medicine has achieved good clinical efficacy in relieving clinical symptoms of breast cancer, improving quality of life, reducing recurrence and prolonging survival rate.