Is mastocytosis really that scary?
A. Understanding the mammary gland
The mammary gland is a characteristic structure shared by both mammals and humans. On the one hand, the mammary gland, as a lactation organ, plays the role of reproducing offspring; on the other hand, it is part of the sexual organ, carrying women’s sex, love and beauty. However, with the development of social economy and culture, the role, identity and status of women are constantly changing. Modern women are faced with late marriage, late childbirth, reduced breastfeeding, fast-paced life, high-intensity work, emotional tension or depression, and so on, making more and more women face the problems of breast diseases. The purpose of this article is to popularize the knowledge of breast diseases. Only by understanding the breast and doing a good job of maintenance and protection in time can we make the battle for breast health invincible.
The second, breast enlargement ≠ breast enlargement disease
Most women who go to the hospital for breast pain or feel lumps in their breasts will be diagnosed with “breast enlargement”. The doctor will say: “It’s okay, breast enlargement is very common, do not worry too much.” However, the pain is real, and the lumps are actually growing there, so how can you say it’s okay? If “nothing” is wrong, then why do the pain or lumps often recur? The most worrying thing is: will it become cancerous?
”Breast enlargement is not breast enlargement, it brings women not the joy of fullness, but endless worries: pain, swelling, nodules …… and the fear of cancer.
The actual fact is that many of the patients have settled down after seeing the doctor and getting the explanation that “breast enlargement is a benign disease”. However, experts also emphasize that breast enlargement and mastopathy are two different concepts and should not be confused with each other. The reason is that during a woman’s normal menstrual cycle, the ovaries secrete estrogen and progesterone, and the breast tissue undergoes regular enlargement and rejuvenation. Therefore, breast enlargement is a normal physiological manifestation. However, mastopathy is a different situation, which is caused by the imbalance of estrogen and progesterone in women’s bodies due to various factors, resulting in an absolute or relative increase of estrogen, which causes the breast tissues to grow and then not recover, showing a continuous pathological hyperplasia.
Although there is only a word difference between the two, the meaning is different.
Pain is not necessarily all bad. In essence, mastopathy is a disorder of the breast structure caused by incomplete restoration of breast tissue after hyperplasia, which is a benign proliferative disease that is common among women aged 25-45.
This benign disease often manifests itself in various degrees of adverse reactions such as breast pain, nodules or nipple overflow, with breast pain accounting for 80% of the cases. While experts have reached a consensus on pain, which is the most troublesome problem for people, 80% of the pain is not related to breast cancer. The reason is that when the hormone level is disturbed, the breast tissue is overgrown and the nerves in the breast are stretched and squeezed, then pain is produced.
Regular medical checkups are most important to determine whether cancer is present. Although the pain is disturbing, it may pass with a little attention. A nodule in the breast is less reassuring. Almost all patients with breast enlargement disease ask: Will it become cancerous? In fact, the cancer rate for mastocytosis is about 3%, mainly in patients with atypical hyperplastic lesions. Although most clinical cases of mastocytosis do not have a high risk of turning into breast cancer, patients do not need to worry too much. However, not being overly concerned does not mean that you can relax your vigilance, because mastocytosis is not exactly a paper tiger. On the contrary, women with breast enlargement disease should pay more attention to regular checkups.
Mammograms and ultrasounds are the “golden pair” of regular checkups for women today. However, there are some issues that need to be noted.
One is the means of examination. For ultrasound, it is suitable for women of different age groups and should be checked every 3-6 months according to their different conditions. But for MG, it must be noted: it is generally suitable for women over 40 years old with looser breasts and lower density of breast glands; for women under 40 years old, the dense breast glands can reduce the contrast between breast lesions and surrounding tissues, making the lesions unclear, while X-ray examination is radioactive, so the age of the person being examined should be strictly controlled in terms of examination time.
The possibility of cancer cannot be ruled out before surgery is performed. In fact, which patients with breast enlargement need treatment? It depends on their symptoms and examination results. Short-term medication can be given mainly considering cases of breast pain, which affect work and life, or accompanied by systemic symptoms. For hyperplastic nodules and localized lumps where the possibility of cancer cannot be ruled out by ultrasound or X-ray, a biopsy is required.
Regardless of the treatment, patients need to make necessary dietary adjustments and change their poor lifestyle habits. This is because psychological stress, if not relieved, also makes the disease easy to recur.
Third, the right treatment, but also eat the right
Many patients with breast disease will ask their doctors what to eat and what not to eat, doctors generally require dietary contraindications, because “dialectical meal”, “identify the evidence with meals”, has an important impact on the effectiveness and prognosis.
Do you want to avoid hormones? Very often, doctors will advise patients not to take natural pollen, royal jelly, fish eggs, bird’s nest, placenta and other stews. The development of breast cancer is closely related to the secretion of hormones, therefore, breast cancer patients with high estrogen and progesterone receptor levels should abstain from estrogen-rich foods, such as the above-mentioned foods. High-fat and high-sugar diets have a great influence on estrogen secretion, so breast cancer patients should preferably have a low-fat and low-sugar diet.
Diversified diet and balanced nutrition: The diet should be balanced, diversified, not partial, with meat and vegetable, coarse and fine. The food should be steamed, boiled and stewed, and less fried. You can eat foods that have the ability to enhance immunity and prevent recurrence, including mulberry, kiwi, asparagus, etc.
In conclusion, because of the many attributes carried by the breast, doctors are gradually realizing that the treatment of breast diseases is not only a simple physiological problem. I hope this article will pass on some of the necessary knowledge so that we can see breast disease as an “opponent” that needs to be attacked on all fronts, and hopefully make you more aware of breast health and take care of your breast health on all fronts!