Does Breast Implant Illness Decrease Sex Drive by Dr. Robert Whitfield

So on this episode today, we're going to talk about does breast implant illness affect your libido? And so the questioning that gets involved with understanding the deeper causes of what we term breast implant illness involves every, you know, system of the body. And I do ask about foods that trigger someone and gut health. And this was recently discussed on a podcast with sex with Dr. Emily, with Dr. Will Cole. And they dove into how eating affects your sex life. And in my patients with breast implant illness, and they have on top of loads of chronic inflammation in terms of gut health, this is problematic. There may be impaired absorption, constipation, diarrhea, not knowing what foods trigger you. So to achieve what we call full healing after an explant, we start preoperatively with evaluating someone's genetics. So let's dive into why that's important as it relates to your sexual health and ability function. If we look at our immune system and what we need to have a properly functioning immune system, our metabolism of vitamin D is incredibly important. And in both men and women, vitamin D metabolism leads to better sexual function, provided it's not impaired. And there's, there's ways to have impairment in vitamin D function on the genetic level. So everybody knows that if we go out in the sun, we are supposed to have better levels of vitamin D. And so sun converts vitamin D2 to vitamin D3. And that's why you're told to go out in the sun. It's better for you. So there are a couple issues that obviously, too much sun exposure can obviously affect your skin and the things like skin cancer. But from a genetic standpoint, we want to know, do you have the genetic components to actually use that vitamin D2 that gets converted to D3? Do you have that ability or are there problems? And so if you have problems, we'll say converting that can be a problem with a gene. So even though you're getting proper amounts of, you know, sunlight and you feel like you're helping, if you have poor genetic function, basically converting D2 to D3, which is the active form, then you won't get the benefit of being out in the sun. If you have a problem with transportation of activated D vitamin or D3, then you'll have reduced amount because you can't Transport the activated D3. And then if you have poor function where the activated vitamin D, the D3 has to bind to its receptor in order to help your body function, then it doesn't matter that you got sunlight, it doesn't matter that you transport it well, because you're still not getting the activated D3. So thereby, you know, from your personal genetics, if you have impaired function at those three levels, it's going to affect your ability in terms of sexual function. And that's just vitamin D metabolism. So how do we combat this? I, in my formulations, have concentrated on liquids over capsules or pills whenever I can, because people get pill fatigue. And then a liquid is simple. It's a mouth spray. You hold in your mouth for about 30 seconds and it absorbs, and then you've met that requirement. That's just your vitamin D metabolism. What other vitamins or, you know, that we just on a daily basis are important. And so vitamin B6 is important for sexual function. So let's talk about that for a minute. So vitamin B6 regulates sex hormones and increases libido. It also, it does this by women regulating estrogen and males and females regulating estrogen, testosterone, red blood cells, or neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. And so foods that are rich in B6, like bananas, avocados, potatoes, cottage cheese and tomatoes contain vitamin D6. So if we get those in our diets, then those can be beneficial. But once again, remember, most of my patients who have breast implant illness or chronic inflammation may have gut absorption issues, may have sibo, may have leaky gut. So once again, I'm not concentrating on getting all these nutrients for my patients through their diet. So preoperatively, you know, through genetic testing, we look at are they able to actually use their B vitamins. And so to be able to utilize B vitamins, you have to methylate. So methylation, you take a methyl group and you're able to combine it to the B vitamins and then utilize it for these important cellular functions. So if you cannot methylate your B vitamins, which I'm one of those, I have, I'm homozygous for the MTHFR gene. And there are five basic genes for this and there's others as well. But you are more likely to have problems with a poor inflammatory response for the sexual side of this. If you can't methylate your B vitamins and we'll just say B6 in general, then of course you would have impaired or reduced sexual function. So now we've talked about vitamin D and its metabolism and vitamin B6 and its metabolism. So are there any other things that we can think of, you know, just from our genetics as it relates to immunity, that would affect us? So I always think about just like energy and detoxification, both at the cellular level. And we'll say eliminating toxins from our system by, you know, being able to go number two, if you will. So if you take our livers, for example, which detoxify the majority of toxins. So in that instance, the genes that affect glutathionation take care of all the chemicals we get exposed to. So like detoxifying things from our environment, certain medications or pharmaceuticals, if you want to think of it like that, heavy metals. And then in Texas, I worry about everybody with mold exposures. And more and more patients travel to see me from out of state, and I worry about them having mold exposure as well. So mycotoxins are handled that way as well. So if you have that pathway, then glutathione can bind to those and you'll eliminate them in your bowels by pooping. Remember, we only eliminate toxins by sweating, pooping and peeing. So if we don't eliminate, well, if you got constipation and, and. Or that pathway for glutathione doesn't work well, then you can't clear things as well, and that slows you down. From an energy standpoint, in order to have good function, we have to have good energy levels. And say, for instance, at a cellular level, you have trouble with clearing what's called just basically cellular waste. So all the cellular functions are happening. The mitochondria are producing energy from that energy production. There's waste products. If your pathways to help get rid of those waste products don't work well, then you have impaired ability to produce more energy. And so something that is important in an antioxidant pathway is something like vitamin C, also A and E. So we'll just talk about vitamin C, because everybody knows about vitamin C. So once again, if you have impairment in absorption and you have this lower function of your antioxidant pathway, then definitely you have decreased energy. Decreased energy levels will obviously lead to reduced sexual function. And so when we give vitamin C to folks to help with their energy levels, it's the same thing. It's in a liquid formulation. So those are four things genetically that can impact your sexual function. And you can change those through supplementation, like we use oral supplementation so that you're bypassing gut until it's healed and functioning properly for use. Absorption's better. And then certainly if someone like my patients are commonly in a stress state, so they have super high levels of cortisol, they get a lot of adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue leads to lack of cortisol production. Which will also lead to lack of hormone production and ultimately lead to more sexual dysfunction secondary to a lack of the hormone production. So the key in all this is to have more balance and to really evaluate root causes of inflammation and start getting taken, you know, taking care of those, you know, one at a time, as much as possible. And that's why, you know, I constantly look at genetics, food sensitivity testing, stool testing for gut microbiome, health, hormone testing, to look at balance, and then certainly looking at toxicity testing through urine testing, to just look at toxins and how they may be impacting your system, especially females who have very, very sensitive endocrine systems. So, in summary, breast implant illness or chronic inflammation, which is how I look at breast implant illness, certainly can affect your libido in a negative way.