Fibrocystic Breast Disease Treatment Naturally

Fibrocystic Breast Disease Treatment Naturally

Fibrocystic breast disease, also known as benign cystic mastitis, has certainly frightened many women who, on awakening in the morning, have found painful lumps in their breasts. The conditions strike almost half of all women at some point in their lives, usually between the ages of 30 and 50.

Immediate relief is gained by minor surgery, either in the doctor's office by needle aspiration or in a hospital on an outpatient basis for surgical removal of the lump. You may feel better at first, but the disease tends to be chronic, so you may find yourself returning for repeated removal of lumps or fluid.

Vitamin E seems to offer a safe, effective remedy for these cysts. It seems to reverse the abnormal ratio of estrogen and progesterone circulating in the body during the menstrual cycle. That change in hormone levels is an antidote to estrogen's disturbing effect of cyst formation in the breast.

Robert London, director of clinical research at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, has observed promising results from daily oral doses of 600 IU of alpha tocopherol (a type of vitamin E) in one group of women studied. 'We treated 26 women patients in the study, ' says Dr. London. 'The cysts cleared up in 10 of them. Twelve more had fair responses, and only four showed no response to the treatment. That's an overall positive response of 85 percent, and no side-effects were noted. It certainly seems to be a rational therapy for this common problem if further studies bear out our preliminary observation. '

Of course, Dr. London was not entirely surprised at the results. In an earlier experiment, he and his colleagues had prescribed vitamin E to a dozen women with breast lumps. In seven, the lumps vanished, three experienced fair improvements, and only two didn't improve for some reason.

Right now, Dr. London is looking for the most effective dose level of vitamin E. If all goes well, it might eliminate the need for hormone-adjusting drugs, which many doctors prescribe for fibrocystic breast disease. Daniel (danazol), a male-hormone-based synthetic steroid, apparently works but has been known to cause nausea, hot flashes, nervousness, depression and menstrual irregularities in some women. Although some women respond better than others, says Dr. London, relief usually follows within, at most, two months of starting vitamin E.

The role of diet

Eliminating coffee, tea, chocolate and colas from your diet also may help. All of those substances contain bioactive chemicals called methylxanthines, which accelerate chemical activity involved in the body's cell metabolism and cause certain sensitive tissues to proliferate.

John P. Minton of the department of surgery at the Ohio State University College of Medicine found that benign breast lumps completely disappeared within two to six months in 13 out of 20 women when they completely eliminated these items from their diet. He says that the condition will return in patients who resume their former methylxanthine intake and that the disorder is more quickly reversed in younger patients.