It is estimated that since 1962, between one and two million women have had silicone breast implants to enhance their physical
appearance. Some 30 years later, thousands of women are second guessing the wisdom of this choice because they are now
suffering with a new illness, silicone toxicity and immune dysfunction syndrome. This major health problem arose because of
failure at many levels to protect the well being of humans in our world. I think it is important to understand a little bit about the
silicone implant itself, which is covered by a shell or the envelope which is made of silicone in the form of a semi-permeable
membrane.
I think the big problem here was that it was thought that this membrane would keep the silicone inside the bag. It does not and
the silicone leaves the bag and is found outside of the silicone implant. As a matter of fact, it has been found all over the body,
not just in the capsules surrounding the implant. The silicone is picked up by scavenger cells (macrophages) of our immune
system and carried around the body. Various things happen where the exact mechanisms are unknown, but there is definite
immune system dysregulation that occurs leading to a new syndrome. I think that this is an important point.
Until now, researchers have been trying to link this silicone disaster with old diseases of the autoimmune type like scleroderma,
rheumatoid arthritis, and Lupus. In fact, they will never be able to link this problem to those diseases because we have the new
disease and they are not looking at it in that way. I will go on to describe the characteristics of the new disease, but to try and
link them to the old disease will get you nowhere. I don't know why researchers think that this is the direction to follow.
I think that in addition to the immune system being dysregulated. (I won't go into the details which explain how that happens),
there is the onset of molecular damage called free radical or oxidant injury that occurs from the silicone being in the body. This
causes another set of symptoms that are part of the syndrome. There are so many possible symptoms that the patient
experiences. We will mention only the major ones. They are:
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Central neural toxic neuropathy
- Cervical and axillary lymphadenopathy
- Fibromyalgia
- Myocytis
- Fatigue
- Night sweats
- Hair loss
- Abdominal pain
- Pulmonary hypersensitivity with dyspnea
- Emotional instability
- Joint and tendon pain
- Multiple chemical sensitivities
- Food and inhalant sensitivities
- Skin problems
|
|
|
