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Breast Pain
Sharp Pain In The Breast Tissue
There is nothing more emotionally upsetting than having breast pain. However, in the vast majority of cases, sharp pain in the breast, or under or below the left or right breast is NOT serious or life threatening. Usually, breast cancer is not painful. So if you have breast pain or you have a pea sized lump, this is not breast cancer. (Rarely, breast cancer can include breast pain. But I want to emphasize that pain is usually not breast cancer.) The lump you want to worry about and see your physician immediately is NOT painful. The painless lump in the breast is most worrisome. The next question that women usually ask is," Why do my boobs hurt?"
70% of all women will experience breast pain sometime in their lifetimes. The medical profession classifies the pain into two categories. The first category is pain that varies with your menstrual cycle. Women explain that their breasts feel heavy, sore, with a feeling of tenseness, or a feeling of fullness. If you take a finger and deeply poke (palpate) the breast, the dull pain will intensify. The pain can vary with the menstrual cycle, usually intensifying just before your period and during your period. After the menstrual period finishes, then the pain usually gets better. The soreness or heaviness can seem to go up to the armpit. Normal breast tissue can be found in the armpit. The breast tissue will also be sore and and contribute to pain there. This is a normal variation found in some women. The pain can also be worse before or during ovulation. After menopause, the breast pain goes away. Obviously, this pain varies with the menstrual cycle and is global throughout the body, therefore, it usually occurs in both breasts. Usually, I find that this kind of tense pain is linked to water retention. The water retention usually gets worse just before the woman's period and during her menstrual cycle. The water retention again is due to endocrine disruptors, hormone disruptors, or xenoestrogens that act in synergy with your own hormones to give you estrogen dominance and breast pain. PMS is caused by Estrogen Dominance. Women in America usually have PMS and will gain one to 3 pounds just before her period due to water retention. The water retention is caused by estrogen dominance. The estrogen dominance will cause the breast tissue to swell, and there will be water retention in the breasts, causing sharp pain. So, breast pain that consistently varies with the cycle has a hormonal etiology.
Table Of Contents |
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1. Sharp Pain In The Breast Tissue 2. Estrogen Dominance Causes Breast Pain |
6. Emotional Stress Affects The Body 7. Roots And Solutions For Non-cyclical Breast Pain |
Estrogen Dominance Causes Breast Pain
Estrogen dominance is simply too much estrogen. Xenoestrogens are a type of estrogen that are foreign estrogens. These foreign estrogens mimic or pretend to be estrogen to your body. They are not real estrogens, but fool your body into thinking that they are estrogen. They are strange estrogens that do strange things to your body, like give you breast cancer and breast pain. See the explanation at www.breastcancerfund.org. The medical profession believes that pain in the right or left breast or both breasts is normal. In my medical practice, I have come to believe that breast pain is abnormal. The answer for sharp shooting pain in the right or left breast that consistently varies with the menstrual cycle is to avoid xenoestrogens. Xenoestrogens cause the retention of water that gives rise to the feeling of fullness heaviness and soreness. Xenoestrogens also can cause fibrocystic breast disease. The answer to the question,"Why do my boobs hurt?" or "Why do I have breast pain", is "Xenoestrogens are causing your pain."
Xenoestrogens are causing your boobs to hurt. If you simply eliminate xenoestrogens from your environment then your boobs will stop hurting. The cyclical water retention will go away. The soreness, tenseness, and heaviness will stop if you eliminate xenoestrogens from your environment. Where are these xenoestrogens coming from? Surprisingly, most of the xenoestrogens are absorbed through the skin. This is because whatever is put onto the skin goes directly into the body. Estrogen patches rely on the fact that estrogen is absorbed directly through the skin into the body. The dose of estrogen patches is 10 times more potent through the skin than taken orally. This is because estrogen taken orally through an estrogen pill is 90% first pass inactivated by the liver. Thus, estrogen patches are ten time more potent than estrogen pills. Similarly, lotions, shampoos, toothpaste, deodorant, cosmetics, lipstick, and laundry detergent are all absorbed through skin and go directly into the body. The actions of all these topical chemicals and herbs are 10 times more potent absorbed the skin then when eaten. Anything on the skin does NOT first go through the liver, they go directly into the body.
Xenoestrogens can be natural herbs. In the early 1940s in Perth Western Australia, a strange infertility epidemic began to hit the flocks of sheep. The first sign was an increase in stillborn lambs. Then, the ewes pregnant with lambs did not go into labor. The ewes died along with their baby lambs. After several years, many of the ewes simply did not become pregnant at all. I'll bet these ewes also had breast pain. The ranchers faced bankruptcy. Agricultural specialists and research scientists determined that the cause of the sterility epidemic was subterranean clover. 15 years earlier, the ranchers planted subterranean Clover native to the Mediterranean region and Europe in Australia. The subterranean clover was well suited to the environment and for a while increased productivity, but then caused an infertility epidemic which they named Clover disease. They determined that a natural hormone produced by the clover, fomononetin was the culprit. Claude Hughes, a researcher studying hormonal effects on the reproductive system, says that, "Plants are making oral contraceptives to defend themselves." Some plants involve fascinating defenses. Some have thorns, smell bad, are poisonous, have thorns, have spines, or indigestible substances in their leaves. Some plants even disrupt insect growth by mimicking growth regular hormones. This growth disruption typically makes the insects sterile[1]. In this case, subterranean clover was making an oral contraceptive to combat the sheep eating it. Unfortunately, many herbs found in cosmetics and toiletries found in the health food store are hormone disruptive. Some of these popular herbs were traditionally used to create miscarriage. We use them unknowingly to spike our shampoos and lotions because they "smell good" or make our skin softer.
Xenoestrogens can be synthetic chemicals. DDT is the classic pesticide designed to kill insects. DDT injected into young roosters feminized them. Males treated with DDT have extremely underdeveloped testes. Males treated the DDT fail to grow ample combs and wattles[2]. Verlus Frank Lindemann at Syracuse University noted that DDT looks a lot like DES in chemical structure. He hypothesized that the DDT similar structure to the artificial hormone DES made the DDT act like estrogen in the human body.
Effects Of Xenoestrogens Causing Breast Pain
The United States routinely uses artificial estrogen to raise beef during the last 50 years. The standard of raising cattle is to castrate the male and to inject a pellet of artificial estrogen subcutaneously behind the ear of the steer. For female cattle, you don't need to castrate them, you just inject a slowly dissolving pellet of artificial estrogen subcutaneously behind the ear. This has been the standard of raising beef for the last 50 years in the USA. One such artificial estrogen is derived from the fungus family Fusarium, and is a common contaminant in fungus infected crops. The name of the chemical is Ralgro (zeranol). Zeranol is a mycotoxin approved for use a growth promoter. Zeranol mimics estrogen. Zeranol increases cell proliferation in existing breast cancer cells. Depending on the dose of zeranol, zeranol may start a breast cancer or be anti-cancer. But the overal evidence points to zeranol being a breast cancer promoter. Synthetic estrogens used on cattle makes them retain water, have more increase fat marbling through the muscle. In other words, they get fatter, and zeranol helps them grow faster. Since the meat retains more water, the beef is more tender, and the rancher gets more money because of the increased weight. More fat marbling also means tender beef. Europe has banned imported USA grown beef with synthetic estrogen. One woman who learned this told me she knew exactly how the the cattle felt. She had pain in her breasts because of the retention of water due to xenoestrogens.
Some researchers have blamed precocious puberty on xenoestrogens. Girls are getting their periods at 12 years old. Historically, they used to get their periods at 16 years old. Marcia Herman-Giddens, adjunct professor of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina published a landmark study on the start of puberty in young girls in the 1997 journal Pediatrics. She found that among 17,000 girls aged 8, one half of the black girls and 15% of the white girls began sprouting breast buds at age 8. Herman-Giddens is quoted as saying that her worry is that medical groups will now classify this as the new normal. And that we shouldn't worry about it. She believes that we should worry about it. Early breast bud development is abnormal, not normal. It is the girl's body "response to an abnormal environment." Herman-Giddens says, "I myself am shocked sometimes to see very thin girls, 8 and 9 years old, with breast development." This would argue against obesity causing early breast bud development. (Fat cells produce estradiol. Some scientists claim the obesity epidemic is to blame for preccocious puberty.) She exclaimed, "But with estrogen like elements in the environment, it's virtually impossible to study. There's no place to find an unexposed population."[3] The girls who suffer from precocious puberty typically experience cyclical breast pain.
We don't need to do the experiments any longer, we have already done experiments for 50 years on beef cattle. We know what happens when we give synthetic extra estrogen to animals. They swell up with water retention. It's happening to all the women in the USA. This is why you have sharp breast pain. They are filled up with water and swollen tissue from xenoestrogens and you have pain because of this water retention.
If you want to get rid of pain in the breast during or before your period, or during ovulation, then you want to eliminate all the xenoestrogens that contact your skin including laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, cosmetics and toiletries. Taking natural progesterone will also help balance out weak xenoestrogens. However, taking one strong xenoestrogen with natural progesterone will make it worse. I'll tell you why later. Taking iodine also helps your body convert strong estradiol to weaker estriol. Buy any product from us and you'll get a list of recommended products that are xenoestrogen free. You will also get a list of xenoestrogens to avoid. Since 1999 to 2015, I have treated over 25,000 patients for female diseases, almost all of whom have breast pain.
Breast Pain That May Not Vary With The Cycle
According to the medical profession, the second category of breast pain does not vary with your ovulation, period, or menstrual cycle. This sharp pain may be in the right breast or left breast or both breasts. This sharp pain in the breast is a shooting pain that is localized to one small pea sized lump in the breast. The most common cause is fibrocystic breast disease, or breast cyst. A breast cyst is merely a fluid filled space surrounded by a membrane. It is like a grape. Fibrocystic breast disease is a liquid bubble surrounded by a thin membrane. Read more about fibrocystic breast disease and the pain it can cause here. There may be several cysts. The breast cysts commonly start as a pea sized lump in the breast that is painful. Again, estrogen dominance, an excess of estrogen from your own estradiol and xenoestrogens synergistically acting, causes fibrocystic breast disease. As you have more xenoestrogens and your estradiol peaks then the fluid inside the cyst increases and presses against the tense membrane. Thus, you have a sharp shooting pain in the breast. The medical profession states that this sharp pain in the breast does not vary with the cycle. However, in my experience the breast cysts grow bigger and smaller according to the menstrual cycle and pain will peak just before your period and during your period. However, if you have a very large intake of xenoestrogens, the breast pain could be constant throughout the entire cycle with crescendos of pain just before your period or during your period. It is possible also not to have crescendos of breast pain and simply have constant pain in the breast all the time. If you want to get rid of your fibrocystic breast disease, then read about breast cysts here.
Essentially, you can get rid of your fibrocystic breast disease permanently if you get rid of xenoestrogens in your environment. Pay special attention to what you put on the skin because whatever you put on the skin is 10 times the oral dose in potency. If you buy any product from us, we will give you a list of xenoestrogens that we have used in our practice since 1999. Also, we will give you a recommended product list to use that are free of xenoestrogens. Taking natural progesterone will oppose effect of xenoestrogens and a natural estradiol if and only if the xenoestrogens in you are taking are weak and few. If you have one strong xenoestrogen and take progesterone you may get worse. I'll tell you why later. Also, take iodine. Iodine helps convert strong estradiol to weak estriol.
Emotional Stress Affects Your Body
Emotional stress can impair your body's ability to excrete xenoestrogens. When you have emotional stress, histamine levels and interleukin six levels rise, and your ability to excrete all chemicals is impaired. Therefore, when you have emotional stress, the levels of xenoestrogens in your body goes up because you can't excrete them well. Therefore, when you have emotional stress, the breast pain due to fibrocystic breast disease goes up because you can't excrete xenoestrogens well.
Roots And Solutions For Non-cyclical Breast Pain
A hard painful lump in the breast is frequently a calcified breast cyst, or it is likely that the fluid has built up in the cyst pushing against the enclosed membrane making it hard and painful. Estrogen Dominance causes the breast cyst and breast pain. Estrogen Dominance causes magnesium to go low. When magnesium goes low, calcium goes high and begins to deposit in places where calcium should not be. Magnesium going low makes calcium deposit around the breast cyst. The solution is to take a good Magnesium Citrate and keep increasing the dose until you begin to have diarrhea. Then, back off on the dose to stop the diarrhea. The magnesium will help dissolve the calcification around the breast cyst. You also need to eliminate all hormone disruptors or xenoestrogens from your skin, and then the magnesium deficiency will correct itself. Then, you will not have to take magnesium supplements forever. Once all xenoestrogens are stopped and they wash out of the body in 2-3 months, then the magnesium deficiency will go away.
It is also possible that the pain is due to a fibroadenoma. A fibroadenoma is a benign solid tumor. Most the time a fibroadenoma is not painful but the fibroadenoma could cause breast pain. Once again, I believe fibroadenomas are caused by xenoestrogens. Typically, fibroadenomas disappear after menopause. After menopause estrogen levels drop to 40% of levels before menopause. Therefore, fibroadenomas are estrogen sensitive. I have not had any luck getting rid of fibroadenomas with progesterone.
It is also possible for a woman to have sharp pain under or below her right or left breast. If there is no breast tissue under the breast, then there is no pain generated by breast tissue. What other tissue could be under or below the breast? There is the muscle between the ribs. Think of the meat you eat when you eat ribs. You may have pulled, strained or injured the muscle between your ribs. Also, there is the cartilage that joins the ribs to the breast bone. Think of the cartilage you eat on the ends of the ribs. You may have physically injured or inflamed the cartilage that joins the ribs to the breast bone. This is termed costochondritis. I make sure of this diagnosis by firmly palpating (poking firmly and slowly) the intercostal muscles between the ribs. If I can elicit a pain response by poking between the ribs then it is the muscles that are inflamed and not breast pain. I can then also palpate the cartilage and see if I can elicit a pain. If the cartilage is sore then of course this is costochondritis and not breast pain. If I can firmly poke with my fingers between the ribs or cartilage and elicit more pain, then I can be sure that this is damage to the muscle between the ribs or costochondritis and is not breast pain.
I give 5 to 10 g per day of methyl sulfonyl methane, and several grams of vitamin C per day, and 200 to 400 µg of chromium nicotinate per day for both muscle damage between the ribs and costochondritis. The methyl sulfonyl methane acts as an anti-inflammatory. Also the tendinous tissue between the ribs and the cartilage both need sulfur as building blocks. Frequently among the middle-aged to older people, I see malabsorption in the gut and a deficiency of sulfur which leads to tendon weakness. Many times the malabsorption may be triggered by a psychologically traumatic event. The traumatic event triggers gut malabsorption. Several years of gut malabsorption gives rise to a sulfur deficiency. A sulfur deficiency gives rise to weak tendons. As a result, many tendons tear easily because of the nutritional deficiency of sulfur. Make sure to use a methyl sulfonyl methane that is a crystalline form. I like to give my patients methyl sulfonyl methane in capsules that have crystals in them. The reason why is that this kind of methyl sulfonyl methane is easily dissolvable and water. I have used methyl sulfonyl methane in solid pills and have had trouble with them dissolving. I've seen the solid methyl sulfonyl methane pills undissolved in toilet bowls after a bowel movement. In the case of intercostal muscle strain, the pain usually subsides in about 4 to 6 weeks. In cases with costochondritis, it may take a year to heal. This is because the cartilage is fed by diffusion. There are no arteries that feed directly to the cartilage. So white blood cells go in during the first six months and take away all the damage. Then the cartilage is at its weakest. During the next six months, the cartilage is being built up. So it takes an entire year for costochondritis to resolve. Commonly, the patient will feel great at six months go out and exercise and injured it more. So, the trick to is to rest for an entire year for the costochondritis to resolve. However, taking methyl sulfonyl methane can cut the recovery time from a year down to three months. Proper supplementation is critical to heal cartilage and tendons. The methyl sulfonlyl methane will also decrease inflammation of the intercostal muscles and the tendinous tissue between the intercostal rib spaces.
It is also possible you have an inflammation of the membranes that surround the lungs. In this case, every time you take a breath, the membrane on the lung rubs against the membrane in the chest cavity and there is pain and irritation. This is called pleurisy. Sometimes there is also inflammation of the membrane around the heart as a heart pumps heart. It is a sharp stabbing pain behind the left breastbone and may be perceived as a sharp pain under the left breast. Uncommonly, some patients describe this as a dull achy big or small pressure. This is called pericarditis. Usually, the pain of pericarditis is better if the patient is sitting up and leaning forward. This is because the heart is moved away from the membrane and does not rub against it. There may be fluid in the heart cavity. Both of these types of pains tend to be shooting and stabbing and sharp.
Heart attack pain is also possible but unlikely. This kind of heart attack pain usually feels like an elephant is sitting on your chest. At any rate, it is wise to consult your physician as he is able to offer a more personal diagnosis of your pain.
Taking Progesterone For Breast Pain
The most important thing to do about breast pain or breast swelling and to heal fibrocystic breast disease or breast cysts permanently is to eliminate xenoestrogens from your environment. If you buy any product from us, we will send you a list of products to use that are free from xenoestrogens and also a list of chemicals and herbs that are known to be xenoestrogens to avoid. Progesterone can oppose the effect of weak xenoestrogens. So, taking progesterone can help with breast pain and breast swelling and to heal fibrocystic breast disease if and only if you eliminate all strong potent xenoestrogens. If you take progesterone with one strong potent xenoestrogens, the breast pain due to water retention and swelling as well as the sharp pain in your breast due to breast cysts will actually increase. There are five outcomes:
1. You completely eliminate xenoestrogens. You become normal. No more sharp shooting pain in the breast. No need for progesterone.
2. You take progesterone with weak xenoestrogens. Progesterone opposes the effect of the week xenoestrogens. You improve. You continue to take progesterone for the rest of your life.
3. You take progesterone with one strong potent xenoestrogen. The pain gets worse. This is because chronic xenoestrogens exposure causes your body to shut down its sensitivity to estrogen. Progesterone wakes up your estrogen receptors. You have become more sensitive to estrogen. The sharp shooting pain in your breast becomes worse.
4. You take progesterone with xenoestrogens. The progesterone works for the first two months, and then the progesterone does not work. Again, your body to protect itself against chronic xenoestrogens exposure shuts down its sensitivity to estrogen. You take progesterone and it wakes up your estrogen receptors after two months. After two months, the progesterone does not work anymore.
5. You take progesterone with herbs that block the progesterone receptor. Many herbs such as mint, aloe, oil of tansey, and many others block the progesterone receptor. These herbs typically are used by folk medicine practitioners to create miscarriages. They block the progesterone receptor. Thus, taking progesterone with these herbs makes the progesterone impotent. You don't feel anything bad or good taking progesterone because the herbs are blocking the progesterone receptor. You feel nothing.
The most common complaint I get from patients is that the progesterone does not work for breast pain. The reason why the progesterone does not work is that everything else that they are putting on the skin is interacting with progesterone. When you put progesterone on the skin, the progesterone goes directly into the body. However, laundry soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, dishwashing detergent, cosmetics, and lotions also go directly into the body when put onto the skin. Some of the chemicals and herbs in these topical products act like estrogen or block progesterone. If you do not modify your lifestyle, as high as 40% of the people taking progesterone will complain that the progesterone will not work for the pain.
Again, the most frustrating thing is that the body shuts its estrogen receptors down due to chronic xenoestrogens exposure. You become less sensitive to estrogen. However, when you take progesterone, the estrogen receptors wake-up. Then, your sensitivity to estrogen becomes greater and you react greater to the estrogen like chemicals on your skin, and your breast pain increases. Please blame xenoestrogens for the pain. Do not blame the progesterone for the pain.
According to Dr. Jonathan Wright at the Tahoma clinic, iodine helps to convert strong estradiol to the weaker estriol. The breast pain is due to the combination of xenoestrogens and your own strong estradiol. It is this combination of xenoestrogens and estradiol that causes estrogen dominance with water retention breast swelling and breast pain and the creation of breast cysts and sharp pain in the breast. Thus, if you can convert some of the strong estradiol to weak estriol, then the estrogen dominance and breast pain will become less. Wright, MD has consistently measured estradiol and estriol levels in patients before and after giving iodine. In several hundred patients, he saw estradiol levels decrease in the estriol levels increase. However, it has not been formally written up. You can visit his Jonathan Wright, MD's website here. Jonathan Wright, MD believes iodine helps reduce breast pain because the strong estradiol is converted to weak estriol.
I advocate taking either Lugol's iodine or Iodoral because this type of iodine contains both atomic iodine, I2, and ionic iodide, I-. According to the late Abraham M.D. of Optimox Corporation that produces Iodoral, the body needs both kinds of iodine because some body tissues take up atomic iodine and some body tissues take up iodide ion. Abraham M.D. believes that the maintenance dose for iodine should be 12.5 mg per day because this is the average intake of iodine of the Japanese citizen living in Japan. The main problem with taking iodine is that it forces out toxic bromine. Bromine is toxic. Bromine substitutes for iodine in the thyroid hormone. As you know the thyroid hormone, T3, has three iodine atoms surrounding it. Similarly, T4 has four iodine atoms surrounding it. Bromine may substitute for some of these iodine atoms. Then, the thyroid hormone does not act normally in the body. Where is the bromine coming from? Bromine is coming from soft drinks, sports drinks, commercial bakery products, most wheat flours, commercial bakery products, asthma inhalers, and brominated swimming pools. Taking iodine forces bromine out of the body. Some people may get rashes from bromine. Some people make get acne from the bromine coming out. So people may have increased salivation, increase mucus production, paresthesias, a feeling of pins and needles in certain parts of the body, mental confusion, heart palpitations, and vivid dreams. The most common side effect that I see is vivid dreams. However, after the bromine washes out of the body, there are no side effects of iodine. So, please blame bromine. Do not blame iodine.
1. The heavy tense pain in both the right and left breast that varies with the cycle is from xenoestrogen exposure. This can be a sharp shooting pain that is most common before and during a period. However, this sharp stabbing pain in the breast can occur before and during ovulation. Painful lumps in the breast are fibrocystic breast disease. All of this breast pain can be eliminated by eliminating xenoestrogens from your skin.
2. Progesterone can help to balance out xenoestrogens if and only if the xenoestrogens are weak and few. Taking progesterone with the one strong potent xenoestrogen may make the breast pain much worse.
3. Taking iodine can help to reduce estrogen dominance by converting your strong estradiol to weak estriol. Abraham M.D. has seen a reduction in the fibrocystic pain using iodine alone. You may go to his iodine website to read his scientific papers. However, when taking iodine you must beware of bromine toxicity and start off with a very small amount of iodine and work your way up. Do not blame iodine for your adverse reactions. Blame bromine. If you continue to take bromine in your food or drink, you cannot detox from bromine. Iodine forces bromine out of the body.
Notes:
1. Theo colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers, Our Stolen Future, Penguin Group, NY 1997, pages 75-77.
2. Theo colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers, Our Stolen Future, Penguin Group, NY 1997, pages 69.
3. Marcia Herman-Giddens, Eric Slora, Richard Wasserman, Carlos Bourdony, Manju Bhapkar, Gary Koch, and Cynthia Hasemeier, "Secondary Sexual Characteristics and Menses in Young Girls Seen in Office Practide: A Study from the Pediatric Research in Office Settings Network, " Pediatrics, 1997, 99:4 505-512;doi 10.1542/peds.99.4.505.