Daily attention points for breast health

There is no need to engage in fancy maintenance, and by doing these three things: "regular monthly self-examination, avoiding clear cancer risk factors, and not blindly following popular folk remedies/influencer maintenance methods", you can screen out more than 90% of unnecessary risks.

To be honest, during the half-year rotation in breast surgery, I encountered too many mistakes made by girls. What impressed me the most was a 26-year-old Internet operator who went to a beauty salon every week for three months to get a "breast knot-removing massage." Originally, the physical examination showed only some physiological hyperplasia, but in the end, a 2cm cyst was discovered, which was so painful that I had to gasp even if I was wearing underwear. Of course, not all massages are useless - if you have breast blockage during breastfeeding, you can definitely avoid mastitis by finding a breast massager in a regular hospital to clear it with gentle techniques. The problem is that the so-called "masseurs" in beauty salons can't even understand the anatomy of the breasts.

After talking about the most common pitfalls, let’s talk about the self-examination that ordinary people can do easily. You really don’t need to remember any complicated techniques, just two scenes: one is to stand in front of the mirror while taking a shower, raise your arms to see if there is any asymmetry in the size or skin of the breasts on both sides. If the skin is sunken like orange peel and the nipples are inexplicably leaking brown/bloody liquid, then use the flat fingertips to press in a circle and slowly move from the outer ring of the breast to the nipple. Don't grab it - anyone can feel the hard lump if you grab it. It is normal glandular tissue. There is no need to scare yourself. For girls of childbearing age, it is best to check 7-10 days after menstruation. At that time, hormone levels are stable and the results will be accurate. For menopausal aunts, just check on the 1st of every month, which is easy to remember.

Speaking of this, I have to mention the dietary issue that everyone has been arguing about for several years: Can soy milk be drunk? Will honey cause nodules? In fact, academic circles have been arguing between the two schools of thought. The current consensus is that a normal drink of a cup of soy milk a day and an occasional spoonful of honey water cannot reach the level of estrogen intake that can cause disease. On the contrary, studies have shown that East Asian people often eat soy products, and the incidence of breast disease is much lower than that of Europe and the United States. However, if you already have a history of estrogen-dependent tumors, such as after breast cancer surgery, you must follow your doctor's advice to control your intake of foods such as soy products and royal jelly, and do not eat related health products blindly. I also met an aunt who heard that soy milk causes cancer. She hadn’t had a bite of soy products for three years and was finally diagnosed with osteoporosis. It was really not worth the gain.

Oh, by the way, there is another rumor that has been circulating for more than ten years: Underwire bras can compress lymph nodes and cause cancer? There is currently no clear scientific evidence to support this conclusion. As long as you wear it comfortably and wear it for eight hours without causing chest pain or armpit redness, it doesn’t matter whether there are underwires or not, and whether there is sponge or not. On the contrary, many people spend thousands to buy "adjustable bras" that are so tight that even breathing is difficult. Wearing them for a long time will affect local circulation. I have seen a girl before who wore adjustable bras for 12 hours a day in order to get in shape. In the end, her armpits hurt for half a month. After checking, there was no problem, and she took off her underwear and rested for a week and everything was fine. There is still a school of thought that wearing underwear for a long time will increase the risk of breast disease, but there is no solid evidence. In short, you can do it as comfortable as you want. No one will care if you are naked at home, so don’t put any psychological burden on yourself.

As for those clear risk factors, I really don’t need to say more. Staying up late for a long time, always suppressing emotions, eating a high-fat and high-sugar diet all year round, smoking (including second-hand smoke) and drinking alcohol will not only damage the breast glands, but no other organ in the body can withstand it. Last month, there was a 32-year-old planner who stayed up late at night for three months to work on a project. A physical examination revealed three benign nodules. She was so frightened that she gave up the habit of staying up late when she got home. After half a year, two of them were gone during a follow-up examination. Of course, don’t be overly anxious. It doesn’t mean that you will get breast cancer if you stay up late once. It’s just that if you stay up late for a long time, the risk will be higher than that of people with a regular schedule.

After all, the breast is an ordinary human organ. There is no need to deify it and require "exclusive maintenance", nor should it be completely ignored. There is really no need to cry if there are small growths or nodules. More than 90% of them are benign. If there are no high-risk factors, a breast ultrasound should be done once a year if you are under 35 years old. A mammography target is enough if you are over 35 years old. If you really have a problem, go directly to a regular hospital. Don't believe in any folk remedies that can dissolve knots by applying herbal medicine or acupuncture.