Episode 101: Dr. Rob Whitfield Explains Breast Implant Illness and the SHARP Program

Foreign Dr. Rob Whitfield, the board certified plastic surgeon specializing in explant surgery Breast implant illness is a topic that is not often talked enough about, especially in medical community, but is something that affects many women. In this podcast I'll be discussing the latest research, treatment options and personal stories of women who have undergone explant surgery in an effort to heal breast implant illness. In this podcast, we'll explore the symptoms of breast implant illness and delve into the latest surgical techniques for explantation and the recovery process. Whether you are currently experiencing breast implant illness or are considering explant surgery, this podcast is a valuable resource for anyone looking to take control of their health and wellness. So let's dive in. Welcome. We're going to talk about explant surgery, breast implant illness, the Sharp program, all the things that make it a unique experience when you come to Austin, Texas. Basically this year we're expanding our offerings to all patients interested in taking part in our programming. So the Sharp method is our way to care for patients who we consider to have chronic inflammation, who have breast implants, who are looking for alternatives to what they've been given in the past, either from their traditional gps or other specialists or functional medicine providers. So what is Sharp? How does it relate to breast implant illness and explant surgery? So I know that not everybody can make it to Austin, Texas to have explant surgery with us. For the first time, we're allowing patients to participate in Sharp and that will help more patients both before surgery, if they're having surgery with us before surgery, if they're having surgery somewhere else, or if they're choosing not to have surgery and just want to run Sharp to help lower their inflammation now. So Sharp looks at genetic testing. Everybody has a unique set of genes they inherit from their parents. This genetic material allows you to carry out your day to day cellular reactions in your body and how you will say for instance, utilize certain nutrients. So I don't methylate. Well, many people have heard of MTHFR and MTHFR governs we'll just make it simple adding a specific chemical group to your B vitamins in this setting. So I take a methylated B complex vitamin. It allows me to recover faster from whether it's an illness or a workout. It just increases my ability to cope with the inflammation that my cells can produce from their functionality on a day to day basis or if I get faced with an illness or if I have a stressful event or a workout or something like that. So that's just one aspect of it we look at toxicity and what is toxicity. So there's environmental toxins, things like glyphosates. Glyphosates are what are sprayed on our food supply. Other things like atrazine, those can be sprayed on golf courses. There can be all sorts of chemicals that are sprayed to eliminate insects. If you live in environments where there's a lot of water, you may have a lot of mosquitoes. So there's all sorts of things we get exposed to all the time that are environmental. Say for instance, if you drink out of a plastic water bottle, the plastic can be made with a plasticizer called a phthalate to make the water bottle more firm. So drinking out of stainless or glass is better for you to avoid exposure to more phthalates. Using products that are paraben free is important. Many products that have been promoted over time as beauty products contain parabens in them. So you want to make sure you're using something that's paraben free. You can also just type your product into the environmental working group and that will help evaluate your product and help you better understand the ingredients if they're potentially a problem for you. Moving through the toxicity test, we look at mycotoxins. Those come from fungus. So fungus is. Mold is a fungus. So I have a lot of patients that get exposed to mycotoxins through travel through their home or work environments. I'm particularly sensitive to mycotoxins, so I drink mold free coffee. I don't really eat a lot of grains that could also have aflatoxins. I don't eat a lot of nuts. The black mold that can grow or the mold that can happen from a water leak in your home or at work, I'm particularly sensitive to that. So I have air filters. I use Jasper co, I use Swiss IQ air filters. Those help filter out those potential allergens to me. And mycotoxins, spores, things like that, that could affect me personally. And then of course, an environmental test. We're looking for any kind of heavy metals. So I grew up in an environment that had a lot of arsenic in the groundwater. Arsenic in groundwater was a common contaminant and I drank from a water hose. Growing up, that's kind of how I was taught washing the cars, drink out of the hose. So those are just a few examples of that. We also look at gut health, food sensitivities, metabolism issues, hormone balance. And that's all done pre op because I want to know those things pre op to better help you. So once again, the program runs comprehensively at everything. Now, based on that, you can create a detox program. I have a whole detox team of functional practitioners, health coaches that help run Sharp for me and that helps the patients lower their inflammation now. So once again, we're using Sharp as a method to lower inflammation because we know it works in our patients and we want patients to decrease their inflammation. Patients often ask me if they can have just the program and see how they do. So for the first time, we're allowing patients to run the program. So if you go to DrRobert Whitfield.com and fill out a contact form and say you want to participate in Sharp, or you can go to our store and purchase the inflammation support bundle, which are supplements curated to help patients lower their inflammation. Now those are ways to get started. So as it relates to breast implant illness, you know, for me, breast implant illness is a chronic inflammatory process of which the patient happens to have a medical device, in this case a breast implant, they can have other medical devices, they can have other implants. I've had a biologic dentist on, Dr. Kelly Blodgett. Big shout out to Dr. Blodgett. He's a great biologic dentist in Oregon. He talked about root canals and how they have so many findings of bacterial contamination and viral contamination on these root canals where the bone has died and it's become contaminated and that leads to similar chronic inflammatory symptoms. So I have a lot of patients who get their explant done. They get their fillings or root canals addressed based on evaluation by the biologic dentist. Are you looking to boost your body's natural defenses and energy levels? Meet liposomal glutathione from Dr. Rob's Solutions. This powerful supplement supports glutathione production, a crucial antioxidant that detoxifies the liver, neutralizes harmful toxins and enhances immune function. Plus, it's essential for energy production and mitochondrial health. Made with high quality liposomal technology for maximal absorption, liposomal glutathione is your ally in maintaining optimal health and vitality. Visit the link in the show notes or go to DrRobsSolutions.com to learn more and elevate your wellness today. So there's a host of things that can happen in the chronic inflammatory process. And the top symptoms that I see are always brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, depression, heart palpitations, chest pain, chest pressure, arms and leg pain, like muscular pain, joint pain, tons of gut, issues with bloating, swelling, constipation, diarrhea, difficulty with reflux. There can be skin rashes, problems with UTIs, problems with Candida overgrowth or parasitic overgrowth. They can just have a host problems that don't make a lot of sense from a traditional primary care perspective or if you're looking at it as a functional provider, if the functional provider doesn't have experience with breast implant illness, it's going to be difficult for them to really help you. Breast implant illness is as we look at it today, it's relatively new in terms of its understanding. So Last year in 2024 paper was published by Dr. Muthoon Sina, who I've had on my show done videos about, so you can go reference those here. He showed that the interaction between bacterial contamination and the breast tissue, specifically the fatty acid, the breast tissue called oleic acid, can create a product called Oxylipen 10 Home. This product, Oxylipine 10 Home, was found to be higher in symptomatic patients with breast implant illness. And it showed that these symptoms were quote, unquote reproducible. So the Oxylipin 10 home can contribute to what we're seeing in patients. They don't have a test for this yet. This was done in a research setting. So we're hoping that through his work and work of other scientists that we'll learn more about this. A paper was also published in Commentary about his paper explaining how strong the work was. That was by a professor of surgery out of Michigan. So more and more work is being done all the time to help elucidate and identify, you know, what's in terms of root cause behind breast implant illness. For our part, we published a paper last year that showed that approximately 29% of the patients that we explant have bacterial contamination on PCR testing. So all in all, the way we look at breast implant illness, it's chronic inflammatory process of which a implant is playing a role. We have sharp to help with patients with testing and supplementation to help get them prepared if they're going to go on to have surgery or they can just run the program as a way to improve their health by lowering inflammation. If someone goes on to have explant surgery, obviously patients are interested in the aesthetics. It's very difficult sometimes because the aesthetics are going to change. It's very hard to adjust for volume loss in a very, very thin patient. So there can be skin tightening done with skin only lift surgery. We don't want to take out or remove breast tissue. We do take out capsule completely. We feel that's important. We don't want to leave any capsule behind. We found a handful of breast cancers and a lymphoma, so we don't want to ever not answer those questions. So we send everything for pathology, we send everything for PCR test, then see patients frequently and communicate with them during that first year. We want everybody running sharp as really a way to help them be as healthy as possible. We know this works and we want to support patients in the best way possible. So if you want to learn more, obviously you can follow me on different platforms. On Instagram, Rest Implant Illness Expert on Facebook, Dr. Robert Whitfield on TikTok, Dr. Field and here on our YouTube channel. Subscribe to Explant Surgery and Recovery and then you follow our show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Breast Explant Surgery and Recovery and look forward to our next video. Thanks for joining me today. I hope you found the information and stories shared on this podcast helpful and informative. Remember, if you Taking control of your health and wellness is key to recovery from breast implant illness. If you're looking for additional resources and support, be sure to visit our online store, Dr. Rob's Solutions at drrobsolutions.myshopify.com you'll find a wide range of wellness products and supplements to support your journey to recovery. From specially formulated detox supplements to personalized skincare products, we have everything you need to aid your recovery. Visit Dr. Rob's Solutions today at drrobssolutions.myshopify.com thank you for listening and we'll be back with another episode soon. Remember, you're not alone in this journey and together we can overcome breast implant illness. Take care.