Hollywood, and now my neighborhood, is rife with breast implants and shapelier women than nature intended. For a time women became wary of silicone implants because the FDA took them off the market claiming that the manufacturers had not proven their safety. 
The fears of lupus and cancers steered women away from silicone toward saline implants or away from implants altogether. Silicone implants were put back on the market in 2006 because the FDA couldn’t find solid research linking the implants to disease.
Recent information links both types of implants to a rare lymphoma: anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). Although only 60 cases have been identified worldwide out of all the women who have had breast implants, which number in the millions, doctors are being asked to report any cases. The cancer was found in women who came to doctors complaining of swelling, lumps, hardening or pain well after the implant surgery sites had healed. ALCL apparently begins in the scar tissue surrounding the surgery site.
In conjunction with research conducted at the University of Colorado and the University of Michigan that suggests rolling back new recommendations that women get mammograms only every other year after age 50, breast cancer is back on the front page. The new study claims that the old recommendations of annual mammograms beginning at age 40 may save as many as 65,000 women from breast cancer.
It’s unclear what could make it seem worthwhile to put yourself in such danger, either by getting implants to impress other people or by delaying mammograms based on one recommendation. No one is going to watch out for your health, or your breasts as well or as diligently as you. Know your risks and don’t add new ones!
Written by www.labtestingnow.com
