Breast health knowledge

More than 90% of the breast tenderness and palpable small masses that we encounter every day are benign hyperplasia or fibroadenomas and will not become cancerous. Compared with buying health care products indiscriminately and going to beauty salons for violent chest massages, the three things of "regular screening + correct self-examination + adjusting your work and rest" are really good for your breasts.

During the more than half a year of follow-up in the breast department, the most common thing I encountered was girls who scared themselves. Last month, I received a 21-year-old student who was taking the postgraduate entrance examination. I stayed up for two months and nights studying the questions. When I was taking a shower, I grabbed my left breast and found a small lump sliding around. I came to the emergency room crying. A color ultrasound revealed a 1cm benign fibroadenoma. If I don’t want to have surgery, I can just check it regularly. There is no need to panic. Many people always think of their breasts as being particularly delicate, and they feel that something big is going to happen if there is any slight disturbance. Instead, they are easily harvested by various IQ taxes.

Let’s talk about breast massage, which is the most frequently asked question. Different schools of medicine have different opinions on this: Traditional Chinese medicine believes that moderate acupoint massage by a masseur from a regular traditional Chinese medicine hospital can indeed dredge meridians and relieve premenstrual swelling and pain. However, both traditional Chinese and Western medicine have a consensus that violent massages like those in beauty salons that claim to "knead away nodules" and "enlarge breasts and relax breasts" must not be done. I met a 32-year-old patient before. It was originally a benign type 3 nodule. The beautician rubbed it hard three times. The pain was so painful that it was difficult to put on underwear. When he came back for examination, there was bleeding around the nodule. In the end, he had to undergo surgery to remove it. He suffered for nothing.

Speaking of rumors, there is another saying that has been circulating for more than ten years. You must have heard it: drinking soy milk can induce breast cancer. In the early years, there were indeed small sample studies that suggested that the phytoestrogens in soybeans may bind to human estrogen receptors and increase the risk of disease. However, later cohort studies involving hundreds of thousands of people have long overturned this conclusion: drinking 300-500ml of ordinary soy milk every day can actually regulate estrogen levels in the body and reduce the risk of breast cancer. What you really need to avoid are animal-derived estrogen supplements such as royal jelly and snow clams, as well as breast enhancement supplements with unknown ingredients sold on social media. These are the ones that may actually stimulate abnormal breast hyperplasia.

Many people say that they always feel wrong when doing self-examination at home. In fact, it really doesn’t need to be too complicated. Don't just reach out and grab it as if you were kneading dough. Most of the hard lumps you pick out are normal breast glands, and you will scare yourself in vain. Just apply shower gel when taking a shower, place your palms flat on your breasts, and slowly rub in clockwise circles, including the armpits. If you feel a hard lump that is not painful, does not slide, and has unclear boundaries, just go to the hospital for a check-up. Most of the rest of the premenstrual swelling and pain, and the soft and grainy feeling are normal.

As for screening, there is no need to over-medicalize. Most girls under 35 years old have dense breasts. Mammograms are not clear and they are exposed to radiation. A breast ultrasound every year is enough. If there is no family history and no abnormalities are found, it is perfectly fine to do it once every two years. Women over 40 years old can have color ultrasound every year, and mammography every 1-2 years. If your mother or aunt or other immediate family members have a history of breast cancer, the screening time can be advanced to the age of 30. Don’t take it seriously or be too nervous. By the way, many people panic when they see the BI-RADS classification in the color ultrasound report. In fact, just remember a simple thing: what should be done for Category 1 and Category 2, 98% of Category 3 are benign, and a reexamination once every six months is enough. If it reaches Category 4 and above, go to the doctor to see if further puncture is needed. Don’t lose sleep after seeing the word "nodule". It is really unnecessary.

There is another question that everyone has been arguing about for a long time: Should I wear underwear when sleeping? Frankly speaking, there are some that can compress lymph nodes and cause cancer, but there are also those that can cause sagging. In fact, there is no final conclusion in the academic circles at present. To put it bluntly, it just depends on how comfortable you are. When wearing underwear during the day, don’t choose the kind of underwire that makes you unable to breathe. It is the most friendly to the breast glands. If you feel uncomfortable wearing it at night, it’s okay to wear loose underwire-free sleeping underwear. Don’t be fooled by marketing accounts into buying “anti-cancer health underwear” worth hundreds of dollars. It’s purely IQ tax.

To be honest, I worked on a project for a week in the past two years. My premenstrual swelling was so painful that even raising my arms hurt. I didn’t take any medicine. I walked for half an hour after get off work every day and lay down to sleep before 11 o’clock. In the second month, nothing happened. In fact, your breasts are just like your stomach and heart. They are ordinary body organs. Occasionally they hurt because you stay up late or are sulking. This is a signal to you that it’s time to take a rest. Don’t make it special, and don’t ignore it completely. It is more effective than any health care product or massage.