Robert Whitfield MD explains breast implant illness as systemic inflammation triggered partly by implants but not caused by them alone. Symptoms range widely: brain fog, anxiety, joint pain, chronic infections, extreme fatigue. The scattered symptom profile and unclear mechanisms make it hard for doctors to recognize and diagnose.
Breast implant illness. And in full disclosure, I think of it as just inflammation. And the amount of inflammation has become so significant that you can no longer manage it system wide in your body. And breast implants play a role, but it's not the only factor. It's become more common that patients present with these symptoms of anxiety, depression, brain fog, which is, you know, can be memory loss or difficulty expressing themselves. There can be dry eyes, dry mouth, shortness of breath, tightness of the chest, heart palpitations, muscle and joint pains, nerve pain, problems with chronic infection, sinusitis, UTIs, bacterial vaginosis, extreme fatigue, and the list goes on and on and on. Makes it very complicated from a provider standpoint to recognize the pattern of this, because it's not well understood. And people ask me, well, you know, why isn't this a diagnosis?
