Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine is a Toronto naturopathic clinic dedicated to providing safe and effective treatment of a wide variety of health conditions using natural therapies and the principles of naturopathic medicine.
Breast pain (mastalgia) is well treated using naturopathic medicine. Breast pain is a common symptom, particularly during menses or postmenopausally.
The cause of breast pain unclear, but likely contributing factors include reproductive hormones levels, fatty-acid imbalances (fatty acids affect the sensitivity of breast tissue to circulating hormones), medication use (e.g., including oral contraceptives, medications used to treat infertility, antidepressants) and breast size and architecture (e.g., having breast cysts.
Seek professional medical care if you have breast pain that persists daily for more than a couple weeks, seems to be increasing over time or interferes with your daily activities; or if you have very localized breast pain.
Symptoms of Breast Pain
Breast pain can be cyclic or non-cyclic.
Possible symptoms of cyclic breast pain include:
• Intensifies during the two weeks preceding menses and eases afterwards
• Dull, heavy or aching pain
• Often accompanied by breast swelling or lumpiness
• Usually affects both breasts, particularly the upper and outer sections, and can extend to the underarm
• Usually affects premenopausal women in their 20s and 30s, and perimenopausal women in their 40s
Possible symptoms of non-cyclic breast pain include:
• Unrelated to the menstrual cycle
• May be constant or intermittent
• Tightness, burning or soreness
• Usually affects one breast in a localized area, but may spread more diffusely across the breast
Naturopathic treatment of breast pain
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, the goals of breast pain treatment are to reduce pain intensity, address potential causes and triggers of breast pain in order to prevent recurrence, identify and address associated health conditions and manage side effects of any conventional medications used.
Conventional treatment for breast pain may include physical therapy, and variety of medications including topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, oral contraceptives, danazol, bromocriptine or tamoxifen which may have short- or long-term side effects. For this reason, you may choose to try natural treatment to possibly avoid use of conventional medications, or together with conventional medications in order to decrease dosages of conventional medications required to manage your breast pain symptoms.
Naturopathic treatment of any chronic health concern must be recognized as a process that involves identifying specific treatment goals, a thorough understanding by your naturopathic doctor of all factors affecting your health, including physical, psychological, emotional and lifestyle factors, development of a comprehensive treatment plan and execution of that plan through periodic monitoring and adjustment.
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine a typical approach to treating breast pain may be to first identify and address underlying factors in your lifestyle (e.g., poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, stress, smoking, weight management, poor fitting bras, contraceptive use, progesterone or estrogen therapy) or general health (e.g., obesity, fatty acid imbalance, infertility, menopause, depression) that may be contributing to your symptoms, ease breast pain using hydrotherapy, botanical (herbal) medicines or Bowen therapy and correct hormonal imbalances by adjusting diet and use of botanical (herbal) medicines.
Where appropriate, a number of therapeutic options are available, to be used alone, or more often in a complementary fashion, including:
• Hydrotherapy
• Botanical (herbal) medicines
• Acupuncture
• Diet therapy
• Nutritional supplements
• Homeopathic medicines
• Bowen therapy
• Suikodo™
• Relaxation techniques
• Exercise prescription
• Homotoxicological medicines
• Cleansing protocols
References
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Breast Pain [Online]. [cited 2010 Jan 29]; Available from: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/breast-pain/DS00760.