Nikki Burnett Asks 'Could Breast Implants be Making You Sick?'
Nikki Burnett, MS CNTP MNT is a Functional Nutritionist and founder of Taste Life Nutrition. Nikki works with ambitious professionals to help them overcome hidden barriers to health and success. Challenges such as pain, brain fog, low energy, anxiety, and stubborn chronic conditions frequently have their roots in unhealthy foods, lifestyle factors, and unknown inflammatory conditions.
Functional Nutrition is based on the science of functional medicine - find the root cause through functional lab testing, history, and lifestyle then create and individualized program that brings balance to the body, so it can repair. Nikki is trained, in part, by The Institute for Functional Medicine. Throughout her career, she has been in the veterinary, nutrition, and medical fields in various capacities.
Nikki is a speaker, writer, and educator. She is the host of Taste Life Nutrition Radio, streaming live on KUHSDenver.com and host of Taste Life Nutrition Podcast. Nikki also co-hosts Real, Raw Health with Matt Rowe of Parsley Pet, a weekly Facebook Live about canine health and nutrition, as well as Functional Friday, a monthly Facebook Live with her Functional Health Coach, Gabrielle Grandell.
Editor’s Note: This article is for information purposes only. Please check with your medical provider before beginning any treatment.
PHOTOGRAPHED BY ESTHER LEE LEACH
Nikki Burnett
We are hearing more stories about women who are getting their breast implants removed after suspecting that they had something to do with the mysterious symptoms they were experiencing. The multitude of symptoms is commonly referred to by some women and their doctors as Breast Implant Illness.
They include (but are not limited to): fatigue, brain fog, headaches, menstrual symptoms, and hormonal imbalances, chronic pain, autoimmune symptoms, inflamed lymph nodes, memory loss, rashes, pain and swelling of joints, hair loss, mood swings, shortness of breath, allergies and sensitivities, tingling, and digestive issues.
I’m sharing a story from one of my clients to bring awareness to the effects of breast implants on women’s health. (This article is being written with the full consent of the client.) If you have breast implants or are considering getting breast implants, I hope you will find this informative and useful in making the right decisions for you, your health, and your body. While not every woman who has implants will have the same experiences, if you are suffering, I hope this empowers you to get the help you need.
This client initially came to me because she and her husband wanted a second child but had not been successful. In addition to fertility struggles, she was also suffering from extreme fatigue and hormonal imbalances. When we ran lab tests, what stood out the most was the significantly elevated levels of candida—a type of yeast natural to the body. When the body becomes unbalanced, candida can become pathogenic.
Because she is a seeker, she started doing her own research as to how and why she could have this infection. What came up was a bit of a surprise.
She had gotten breast implants ten years ago and was told that the saline implants were safe. What she discovered was that women who have had breast implants had an increased risk of systemic candida. She also learned that toxic chemicals and heavy metals from the breast implants may leak into the body, creating a toxic burden on the body.
Additional health complications of breast implant illness include an increase in potential pathogens such as systemic fungal overgrowth and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Other potential risks may also include increased toxicity from heavy metals, mold overgrowth, and Breast Implant Associated-Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (BIA-ALCL).[1]
The body may begin to treat the implant as a foreign object, which causes a condition known as capsular contracture. Although this is not fully understood, “[…]it would appear that capsular contracture is a multifactorial process which involves inflammatory processes which then cause a fibrotic reaction in the tissue surrounding the implant […].” [2] Basically, the immune system has an adverse reaction to the materials in the implants.
Because so many women are suffering side effects from potential implant toxicity, there is now a black box warning.[3]
I believe there are many women who have been suffering for a long time, but don’t realize the cause could be from the breast implants they had placed many years ago. The process of figuring this out is often long, difficult, and mentally and emotionally exhausting because breast implant illness is not well understood or researched and is not recognized as an official medical diagnosis. Currently, the treatment that is most likely to improve symptoms over the long term is removing the implants and the surrounding scar tissue—and the explant surgery carries its own risks.
When we suffer, it is often difficult to manage. I have worked with clients who have struggled for years because the root cause of their symptoms have not been uncovered.
If breast implant illness is something you may be experiencing, do your research and seek out a board-certified plastic surgeon who has experience treating patients with the condition—or at the very least, one who takes your concerns seriously and isn’t dismissive about your symptoms. We must be our own best advocate and create a team who will support us through our health journey.
Today, I’m happy to report that the client has had her breast implants removed and is feeling much better. Recovery from breast implant illness is possible.
Additional resources:
FDA Testimony by Dr. H. Jae Chun for the Breast Implant Advisory Team
Dr. Susan Kolb discusses Saline Breast Implants
[1] FDA Letter to Healthcare Providers 2019 July
[2] Arch Plast Surg. 2015 Sep; 42(5): 532–543.
[3] FDA 2020 September
Nikki Burnett: @tastelifenutrition // info@tastelifenutrition