Short YouTube interview (Robert Whitfield MD) discussing breast implant illness (BII). Whitfield defines BII as a chronic inflammatory process in which a medical device (breast implant) can play a role; he lists common symptoms (brain fog, fatigue, muscle and joint pain), explains how infections can seed implants via bloodstream and complicate diagnosis, and notes overlap with conditions like perimenopause and the importance of listening to patients. The clip also references a PDF/book giveaway for patient support.
Chapters
And you know, the obvious question, since most plastic surgeons are known for putting breast implants in, and now you're getting known for taking them out, what got you interested in this?
First of all, I try to define breast implant illness as a chronic inflammatory process of which a medical device, in this case a breast implant, is playing a role. Some of those are inherited that we got from our parents. Environmental, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the fluids we take into our body, the things we apply to our skin. So this lady unfortunately had been living with a infection for a period of time, unbeknownst to any of the providers. And so everybody then, you know, will insta, you know, send me a message on Instagram, DM me like, why did that happen? How was that missed? And so for everybody listening so that we're all on the same page, infections as it relates to a device, hip, knee, breast, dental implant, usually occur one of three ways. And if we get a urinary tract infection or a lung infection or a skin infection, all of that bacteria from that can get into our bloodstream and that can attach to any device. A cardiac device, a neurologic device, you know, a neurostim for a problem with your back, a breast implant, a hip implant, an implant. So those things, you know, this is where I think we have to be a little bit more careful about how we talk about devices, because devices are inherently, they have a risk profile, they're.
Creating problems in some people. So you finally validated which this situation that women knew was happening, you know.
But I think the women have been very intuitive. They know when something's not right. And I, I give credit to the patients for not listening to folks telling them that there's nothing wrong and someone.
Suspecting, like, I'd love to hear just what the most common symptoms are of breast implant illness or a joint, you know, you know, a foreign object illness.
I have brain fog, I have fatigue, I have muscle and joint pain.
I have, I mean, all the things that could be perimenopause.
It's super confusing.
I'm just playing like I'm listening to this going, okay, so here's a woman, she's got breast implants, she's got low grade fatigue, she's got, you know, some, some low grade inflammation, she's not recovering well from workouts, some brain fog, but she's also going through perimenopause. So it sounds like, you know, listening to this, I can't really think of a time, especially if you have any kind of implants, breast implants on down when you wouldn't want to be looking at. I'm glad you're giving away the PDF of the book when you wouldn't want to be going through this because you need to give that support to your body because it can't. It sounds like it would be very easy to overload it.
