Diverse strategies: protecting the “natural pair”
Softness, beauty and sanctity are synonymous with them. They are faithful and reliable indicators of a woman’s body, and any slight change may reflect the quality of her health. In reality, women’s breasts are often provoked and attacked by various diseases, such as mastitis, breast cancer and so on.
It is heartening to note that although the incidence of breast cancer continues to rise, its mortality rate has been decreasing year by year. This is not only due to the concept of early prevention and treatment, but also relies on a series of effective and standardized multifaceted intervention strategies. Chinese medicine interventions as an adjunct have opened a new pathway for breast disease treatment.
Focus 1: Acute mastitis
Combating acute mastitis requires “internal and external cooperation”
Although the treatment of breast disease falls under the category of surgical disease, the physiopathology of the breast is influenced by the function of the internal organs of the body, so for the treatment of certain breast diseases such as acute mastitis, both internal and external treatment should be given equal importance. The guiding idea is to emphasize a holistic concept and use a variety of internal treatment methods to adjust the malfunctioning internal organs and meridians in order to optimize the treatment.
The key is early detection
Acute mastitis is a purulent infection of the breast caused by the invasion of bacteria into the breast. It often occurs in women who have not yet reached the full term after childbirth, and is especially common in first-time mothers. It is called “canker sore” in Chinese medicine. The common symptoms are redness, swelling and pain in the breast, poor milk production and fever. The key to “stopping” acute mastitis is early detection. Early interventions should be used to dissipate the lumps, and once they become septic, they should be treated promptly and accurately.
Extending the cycle both internally and externally
The treatment of acute mastitis requires a combination of internal and external factors depending on the course of the disease. As the initial stage is dominated by simple lactorrhea. The treatment principle of internal treatment is to dredge the liver and blood, to promote lactation and reduce swelling. At this time, the external treatment of Chinese medicine is particularly important. When the nipples are broken or cracked, external herbal compresses can be applied first, and then correct breast massage can be used, starting with gently pulling the nipples several times, and using five fingers to gently massage from around the breasts towards the nipples, gradually pushing out the milk that has become clumped in the breasts.
In the middle stage, the breast lumps are obvious, red, swollen, hot and painful, or accompanied by generalized high fever. The treatment principle of internal treatment is to clear the heat and detoxify the toxin, and to penetrate the pus. When the abscess in the breast is mature, a radial incision should be made to drain the abscess in time at the place where the abscess is softest and the pressure pain is most obvious.
At the later stage, after the abscess is cut and drained or broken by itself, the abscess can be lifted and the poison extracted, and the abscess can be drained with medicinal threads and golden yellow ointment applied externally. When the pus is exhausted and there is only yellow thick water, the mouth should be closed by using raw muscle powder instead, and red oil cream or raw muscle yuhong cream should be applied.
Focus 2: Breast cancer
Adjuvant Chinese medicine: add to the quality of survival
With the continuous improvement of diagnostic methods and treatment means, the treatment of tumor is increasingly shifting from simply pursuing the shrinkage and disappearance of tumor to attaching great importance to the quality of life of patients. Experts suggest that the total benefit rate of tumor treatment = survival benefit + quality of life, especially for patients with postoperative radiotherapy, the improvement of quality of life is of great significance.
Don’t forget the quality of life during chemotherapy
Nowadays, although the incidence of breast cancer continues to rise, the mortality rate has started to decrease, mainly due to more patients being detected early and treated in time, as well as the application of more effective treatments (radiotherapy, endocrine therapy, biological therapy, Chinese medicine treatment, etc.). Regardless of the approach used, the aim is to add to the quality of patient survival through standardized means. The TCM approach as an adjunct also focuses on improving the immune function of the patient’s body,
Reducing the possibility of recurrence and metastasis.
Reduction of adverse effects in treatment
We have gradually realized that there may be some adverse reactions during the course of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and endocrine therapy for breast cancer, such as: gastrointestinal reactions, stomatitis, cardiotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, cardiac toxicity, bone marrow suppression and bone and joint pain. How to minimize the degree of impact of these adverse reactions is a topic of widespread concern in recent years.
As an important adjuvant, the use of TCM evidence-based treatment can provide comprehensive adjustment and individualized treatment for different clinical symptoms or symptoms at different stages of the disease. It can help to eliminate or inhibit the development of tumor and improve the clinical symptoms of patients. This can reduce the toxic side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, overcome the multidrug resistance of tumor cells, and regulate the immune mechanism of the body. Therefore, it can better improve patients’ quality of life and prolong their precious survival period.
In addition, Chinese medicine interventions to benefit qi and nourish yin, warm the kidneys and help yang, and regulate flushing can be used to regulate the balance of qi, blood, yin and yang in the body and restore the normal function of the internal organs, thus alleviating other concurrent symptoms.
Focus 3: Emotional and spiritual care
Emotional regulation goes hand in hand with treatment
The occurrence of breast disease is closely related to emotion and will, and the malfunction of the internal organs caused by poor emotion and will, among which liver depression is the most common, leading to qi stagnation, phlegm coagulation and blood stasis, thus showing different clinical symptoms. Chinese medical theory attaches importance to mental adjustment, and always considers emotional and mental disorders and physical diseases as one. Therefore, emotional and spiritual care, physical and mental treatment together have an important place in the treatment of breast disease patients.
Emotional and mental disorders can lead to illness
It is well known that emotional disorders are one of the “sources” of many malignant diseases. Emotional changes often affect the normal regulation of the endocrine system, leading to the occurrence of breast diseases. It is common to see patients with mastocytosis who have more obvious psychological factors as triggers before the onset of the disease, and the disease grows and grows with emotional changes, i.e., breast swelling and pain and lumps, especially during mood swings, accompanied by chest tightness and belching, mental discomfort, and sleeplessness.
In addition, the secretion of milk is also influenced by prolactin, which is directly influenced by hypothalamic neuromediators. Therefore, worry, panic, anger, sadness, anxiety, excessive stress and exertion can reduce the secretion of milk or even deplete it.
Scientific interventions, not “absence” of concepts
Therefore, if emotional disorders and physical diseases are always considered as one, then it is possible to prevent the unwanted visit of breast diseases early and help patients to stay away from diseases earlier.
For example, for patients with mastopathy, it should be clearly understood that mastopathy itself is not a pre-cancerous lesion, and only a small percentage of them will have highly atypical epithelial hyperplasia to have the possibility of cancer. If a person is always in the mood of fear of becoming cancerous, the impact on the breast is imaginable. In addition, even if one has breast cancer, after surgical removal, radiotherapy, Chinese herbal medicine and other treatments, it is believed that with the development of science, the survival rate and quality of life of breast cancer patients are constantly improving, and they should participate more in group activities that are beneficial to their health, and they should build up confidence to overcome the disease.
Health care tips]
6 major dietary contraindications to reduce the risk of morbidity
For the breast, what kind of diet can make the breast develop well, and what kind of diet will increase the risk of breast disease? Different stages of the human body have different characteristics.
Infancy should have good eating habits and reasonable meals, do not blindly take health care drugs and tonic products, some of which contain a certain amount of hormonal ingredients that may bring adverse effects on the growth and development of children.
Adolescence is a period of rapid breast development. To properly increase the intake of animal protein and fat, such as eggs, fish, meat, dairy products, peanuts, etc.. But the intake of fat and animal protein should also be restrained, because too much fat accumulation in the body may make the age of menarche early.
The mother should eat more soups, such as meat soup, carp soup, chicken soup, ribs soup, light vegetables, etc. Do not eat excessively greasy food, so as not to cause milk stagnation. Reduce the intake of watery food during the breastfeeding period, and take Chinese herbal medicines such as raw hawthorn and raw malt.
Patients with mastopathy and mammary fibroadenoma should control the intake of fat appropriately and prefer a low-fat diet.
Patients with acute mastitis and breast duct dilatation syndrome should avoid eating spicy and fishy foods during the red and swollen lump period, and should have a light diet.
Patients with postoperative breast cancer should not make the mistake of eating more high-fat and high-protein diet as a means to enhance immunity. Because too much fat can be mellowed into estrogen, which is not good for the body instead.
[Did you know]
Don’t be sloppy in wearing a bra
What is the disadvantage of too loose or too tight bra on the breast? The bra is too loose to play a role in the attached, easy to be damaged in the activity, with the growth of age may cause breast sagging; too tight may affect the development of the breast, resulting in nipple depression, and chest tightness, breathlessness and other discomfort, and too tight too small bra long-term strangulation in the lower part of the breast, will cause local ischemia and breast fibrosis.
It is better for breastfeeding women to use a front button bra to facilitate breastfeeding of the baby, and a small towel or gauze can be padded inside the bra and replaced in time to keep the nipples and areolas dry and clean. For post-operative breast cancer patients, it is necessary to use a padding with roughly equal weight inside the affected side and the healthy side, otherwise one shoulder will be easily deflected.
[Knowledge Sharing
Unseen lumps may also be cancerous
Studies have shown that it takes about 30 times for breast cancer to develop from the initial division and proliferation of a single cancer cell to a clinically detectable lump of 1 cm in diameter, and the growth period is at least 3 years. In recent years, more and more physicians and researchers have begun to pay attention to the detection of microscopic cancers with lumps less than 1 cm in diameter and cancers that are not clinically palpable in the primary lump.
Therefore, the traditional concept of basing the diagnosis on the presence or absence of lumps should be changed, and attention should be paid to any abnormal signs that appear in the breast, even if they are very mild: such as thickening of the breast gland, nipple overflow and mild nipple erosion, mild edema of the areola, and breast pain after menopause, or those who have the above abnormal signs and have high risk factors for breast cancer should pay more attention to them.