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Detox Nation with Sinclair Kennally
Breast Implants Exposed! The Hidden Dangers Doctors Won't Tell You… | Dr. Rob Whitfield
00:26:10
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- [00:00]
A
They fail, they rupture, they leak. I don't think anybody should ever be told these are lifetime devices because they're not 29% of the patients we find bacterial contamination. Drug companies are not trying to help, they're trying to make a profit. You don't leave broken things in. People can't ever undo that. You can't walk that back.
- [00:16]
B
You are a plastic surgeon who has specialized in a really important and overlooked epidemic that's happening silently in the US and now for women. Talk to me about breast implant illness, how it happens, how it develops, and why it's not getting understood still. Why is it getting overlooked?
- [00:35]
A
The 50 million this affects, and women are affected by this because of problems with hormones and underlying detox problems, chronic exposures, gut health problems, hormone imbalance, all the things that we hear about all the time. But chronic inflammation plus an implant, it's not a great recipe for success in life.
- [00:57]
B
Sounds obvious. So what, what are the factors that have increased this inflammation? Is it the materials in breast implants themselves? Is it the toxins in the environment and the compounding factors? Like what do you see as those main drivers?
- [01:10]
A
So I get asked all the time, is there any implant that's safe? And it doesn't matter if it's a hip, knee, breast, dental implant, none of them are, quote, unquote, not going to react with your body. As soon as you place it in someone, your body is walling it off, forming a little scar caps around it that's made of collagen, essential. And over time, it's infiltrated by cells like histiocytes and giant cells. Those are just the cells of chronic inflammation. And we see this on every specimen we take out of every single patient. More importantly, on 29% of the patients that we explant, we find bacterial contamination. Now that's probably the thing that most is most underappreciated. If you had this chronic indolent biofilm stimulating your immune system and causing more and more symptoms, it would be great to understand that better. And the biomarker Oxylipin tenhome is hopefully what will become commercially available to illustrate that. But I think the problem with Sinclair is that because a woman doesn't show up with a red swollen breast and a fever, it's not a problem. Just look at all the evidence. So I take all these out and there's chronic inflammation on every single pathology specimen. And 29% in our study that we published have chronic or have bacterial contamination. So you have chronic inflammation, you have bacterial colonization on a foreign Body underneath the breast, on top of your heart.
- [02:38]
B
Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
- [02:40]
A
Not good.
- [02:41]
B
It's not great. Let's be honest. It's not great. Why isn't this explained to a patient as part of getting implants? What are the ethical obligations there and why hasn't that been addressed?
- [02:54]
A
Yeah, so I try to think of it this way. Implants aren't going away, but the patients should. And the provider should have the best information to help them make an informed decision, because anybody can make an informed decision. Once they have all the information, they can make their choices. So I don't think anybody should ever be told these are lifetime devices, because they're not. They fail, they rupture, they leak. If it's saline, it deflates. If it's silicone, it can rupture. Even though it's cohesive in nature, meaning it's more like jello rather than syrup, it can still migrate within the, the, the capsule. And all those things are really, for lack of a better word, poorly understood. The studies done during the implant crisis, during the moratorium, I would say were limited because of the tools used at the time. PCR analysis was not being used at the time routinely. I use it commercially and have since 2019. I don't want to underscore it, but everybody knows when you put a device in, you create an environment for inflammation, so that should be understood. And how you genetically detoxify. We have the genome project. We shouldn't act like it doesn't exist. And whole body sequencing or whole genome sequencing is becoming less and less expensive. And certainly with artificial intelligence and its growth, all these costs that used to be extravagant for testing for some of these things are going to go down. So we already know that our patients have multiple problems in detox genetically, which further sets them up for a problem. If you look at the exposures like I know you're very keen on looking at environmental toxins. We see a lot of dda, ddp, dde, tph, glyphosates, phthalates. I've seen a host of heavy metals, so probably more so than any plastic surgeon around the world. We've looked at carefully and audited our patients environmental toxin exposure, which is very high relative to the reference ranges or the norms. Now why is that? Well, genetically, they already don't detox well, and they have a device in place that furthers a distraction to their immunity. So you can see how the balance will get off much more quickly in those patients.
- [05:05]
B
So given all that, what do you wish was being said? In that very first consult, I would love to see a summary of what you just shared. Like, hey, this is important. This over you. You have informed consent, but is there any other piece that you think must be said in that initial consult in order to have real informed consent?
- [05:19]
A
Right. I think overall I would do it the same way that actually I was taught, like, any device can get infected, right? It's not meant to be a lifetime device. And if it's a silicone device, it can rupture. And because it's silicone, not saline, it's not going to deflate. It's going to potentially migrate and affect the other tissues. It's not supposed to be as big of an issue because it's cohesive and more like jello ra than syrup. But still, if a woman and I took care exclusively cancer patients for a long period of time, if a woman with breast cancer reconstruction came in with a ruptured implant, I of course would get her on the schedule to get it taken care of. Because you don't leave broken things in people. A broken knee or a broken hip implant isn't left in someone. You wouldn't be able to walk. So we shouldn't be leaving broken devices in anybody for any amount of time. That's unwarranted. So I always say, like, the same things, like, devices are not going to go away, but it would be great to be able to check someone's genetics and understand their toxicity, burden, and gut health and hormone balance before you ever put one in somebody.
- [06:23]
B
So when you say things like, you know, that device ruptures and then, you know, the material migrates and could affect the tissue effect, sounds very benign. What specifically do you mean by that?
- [06:34]
A
Yeah, you'll get local inflammation at the site. So you see those cells on, on pathology, histiocytes and giant cells. Those are the cells typically you see of chronic inflammation with or without a rupture. You'll see those. And then when people have a rupture and leach the components of the shell into the tissues, it gets picked up by the lymph, and then they'll see it in the lymph node. So I always get folks bringing scans or messaging us. Hey, I have silicone in my lymph nodes. How can you get that out? What can I do, and for me personally is you don't ever go tooling around someone's axilla trying to pluck lymph nodes out, because that'll create lymphedema. So we get all of it cleaned out, and that's why I'm a proponent of capsulectomy. We didn't talk about that. So I do a capsulectomy on every patient. I don't ever leave caps on anybody. 29% are infected. So like I can't guess who's going to have that problem. So I always take it all out. Obviously I'm very efficient. I've done several thousand of these and over 10,000 operations over almost 30 years of operating now. So it's not dangerous. It's a safe procedure to do incompetent hands. So that's the way to move forward for EXPA is in my opinion, is to do a capsulectomy, send everything off to get it tested, let patients heal up, recover them properly. We have a very specific methodology called sharp. We do pre op preparation with all the testing we described previously. We have ultrasound guided nerve blocks, intraoperative nerve blocks. Most of my patients do not need or require any narcotic, that's iv. Afterwards they may need a little bit of oral, which is fine, and they come to the office the next day for treatment. We have hyperbaric oxygen lymphatic massage from New Zealand with lopresso. We have the human regenerator, one of three clinics in North America with one of those to help with parasympathetic activation and red light therapy of course, and nanov therapy. So the things that can help us move along quickly from the, you know, biohacking and the longevity work that's being done, we try to employ when we can to blend it all together to give patients really good outcome.
- [08:41]
B
Yeah, I think that's what's really special about what you do because it's such a hard road for women to first of all understand what's happening to their bodies and second of all, gear up to actually do something about it because another surgery is scary, especially when you don't feel good. And then so many of them feel like they've gotten left for dead afterwards because a surgeon cuts and then the surgeon is done. And you have a really different approach. So can you just highlight, like simplify what you just shared? Because those are a lot of tools to throw at somebody very quickly. What is your philosophy that actually gets somebody from being sick to all the way? Well, post, you know, explant.
- [09:16]
A
Yeah. First I think the easiest thing is to focus on what you can without coming to see me or talking to me. Either learn from what we've put out online, on YouTube or through books and then we focus on prioritizing sleep, an anti inflammatory diet, so cutting out gluten and dairy and seed oils, taking in as highly filtered clean water as possible, cutting out anything that has garbage in it. You can't drink energy drinks or other shit, basically. And then from a supplementation standpoint, we're very, very concise and clear what we want, we use liposomal supplements, so they're liquid. And the point that I make to my patients is, the reason I do that is your absorption is not something that I need to predict. I would rather it be liquid and liposoma and absorbed as quickly as high in the GI tract as possible. So you get it. And then I already know you probably have problems with constipation or diarrhea based on your exposures. So it's something that from a absorptive standpoint, I ramp up protein for healing because we need amino acids and proteins to heal. We don't need a bunch of carbs and fats. That's not really going to help us heal. We need rest, we need to be able to get restorative sleep. And then all the magic will happen at night because that's when you heal. You don't heal during the day when you're up and about doing your things. So I haven't spoken about testing, but I know your genetic profile usually when I hear you in an interview. But we confirm specific things to help them understand their genetic profile. So if you have a poor vitamin D pathway that's going to lend itself to osteopenia and osteoporosis for a woman, which you have to avoid, obviously. And then most people have heard of MTHFR and all of its clever descriptions, but about 36% of the Caucasian population has an MTHF4 problem. I do, right? That's not a new thing. An antioxidant pathway. So for cellular stress we build up all these anti from the antioxidant pathways, we build up oxygen free radicals and they have to be metabolized. But if we have a poor pathway, we'll have more of that buildup and that'll contribute to more inflammation. And then finally, the thing that you and I both probably deal with a lot that we still struggle with is certain people have mold exposures or parasitic exposures. And those are by far the things I've had to learn the most about as a allopathic physician. And I was trained and understanding this better because is poorly understood and contributes a lot to what my patients experience. So we look carefully at gut health and we try to identify all their environmental exposures pre op so that we're not reacting to problems post op in terms of healing. So we try to help everybody get a proper foundation to begin with and then help them over that year that we take care of them and then afterwards we get them into more of a, a maintenance program depending on what they need.
- [12:16]
B
Yeah, I think that's phenomenal. First of all, thank you for providing the service. I'm serious, because you have to. Somebody has to set a standard here to help these women because I feel like they're getting left for dead. Can we comment just a second on the plastic surgery industry and how it has exploded in the last few years? I think what's happening is people don't feel well and, and they don't feel like they look like themselves. And because they don't have enough tools for their own root cause assessment and resolution, they're trying to fix it from the outside in. And that is part of the explosion in procedures. There will always be people that want procedures, but I think that's a big factor in this explosion. What do you see in your industry?
- [12:59]
A
I think the unfortunate thing we're not talking about is considered to be body dysmorphia. We'll say the quiet part out loud. I worry about that as a growing problem and that contributes to what you're describing as a growing number of procedures being done. Not necessarily just for that specific problem, but you want to say the symptoms of that problem. Like constantly being on your phone looking at filtered images of people, including yourself for that matter. GLP1 drugs burn away facial fat. I've seen and that's a very concerning know problem to me because aging, especially of your face, is due to three things. Resorption of your bone, resorption of the fat and then just laxity in your skin. Now that's usually a fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth decade depending on how you picked your parrots. But if you had a GLP one and you lose five, ten pounds and it affects your face more so than you anticipated it could because nobody actually knows what it will do. And the term ozempic face has been talked about. It's a real problem. So the only way to combat that is actually put fat back. So over the next decade you'll see an explosion in all sorts of facial rejuvenation procedures. Because people have burned their facial fat, it's affected their cheeks, their jowls, their necks. It'll make what happened during the pandemic in zoom look very small.
- [14:28]
B
That's something to look forward to. Okay, what are the risks inherent in that do you have any concerns about this? Because you don't look excited.
- [14:35]
A
I don't. Because young people are going to get faceless when they shouldn't. And then you're constantly going to have a visible scar. And I've already had this happen. I saw somebody who's in their early 40s or was 40 had a facelift. I couldn't tell they had a facelift other than they had a really shitty scar down the front of their ear and what's called a pixie earlobe. So it's a very stigmatizing thing that happens. The scar pulls the earlobe down. And so it's very obvious you can't ever undo that. You can't walk that back. And it was not probably needed. It was, you know, if you come in pulling your face in a plastic surgeon's office, they're going to sign you up for a facelift. Most people won't say no. I say no to more people than I say yes to anymore, which is fine with me. I don't think you should do a facelift on someone in their 40s. I think it's the wrong thing to do. Facelifting has traditionally been the purview of the sixth, seventh, eighth decade of life. And that's due to laxity, especially in the neck. So these new things that we're seeing in terms of Ozempic face are happening in people in their eyes. I hate to say this, people in their 20s are getting put on semaglutide, which is Ozempic. And the fact that. And we haven't talked about it, but the concept of microdosing is off label. So the on label use of the drug is very specific for diabetes treatment. And now it's been expanded to weight loss. And when you say microdosing, there is no FDA approval for microdosing. So when you say that, the thing I think of is you don't know what the fuck you're talking about. And you shouldn't be doing that as a provider. Cause you don't have the data to support what you're doing. And in some people that may work well to lower inflammation and make them feel pretty good. In some people, it'll make them feel like they don't have to eat for days. We'll be very frank. So some women will lose weight and their breasts will deflate. Some women will lose weight and their breasts will stay exactly the same. And that has to do with the fatty layer. So think of that. That's not to do with breast tissue. Breast tissue doesn't magically disappear. Fat does. So if you take that same person who deflates and look at their neck, their neck will get lax. Now if you're in your mid-30s and your neck gets lax and deflate your bre, what's that going to do for your self esteem? Yeah, how's that going to help you? Yeah, you lost ten pounds, but now you look worse than when you started and you feel worse than when you started. About yourself, you may physically feel better, but now you look in the mirror, that person has a little body dysmorphia. Now that's 10x body dysmorphia.
- [17:11]
B
As somebody with a history of eating disorders, I mean that I couldn't complete my, my freshman year of high school because I could not go to school and they would not accept me in there because I was a danger to myself and others because I was a young girl and we were getting competitive with each other and teaching each other how to get better and better at it. So I got politely invited to be sent into the medical system rather than the school system at that time. Yeah, I know, it's amazing stuff. So I'm always very skeptical of anything that promises to be too easy in shifting people's bodies because I have to be so intentional about how to take care of myself. So they never return to any of those territories.
- [17:53]
A
But don't think these drugs would have been approved had they known how well they would work.
- [17:57]
B
Oh, that is a really interesting statement.
- [17:59]
A
So if you just think about what it's done, it's affected trillions of dollars worth of industry. It affected the fast food industry, the soft drink industry, the coffee industry, the dialysis industry, the organ transplantation industry. Drug companies are not altruistic. They're not trying to help, they're trying to make a profit. So you just took money away from all of those companies that they also are stakeholders in.
- [18:27]
B
Right.
- [18:28]
A
So you wouldn't have done that if you're thinking about the business. So I would say going back in time, those drugs don't come out. The new drugs are going to become more efficient, they're going to kill more fat and target it, and then they'll have a drug that makes you more muscular.
- [18:42]
B
You know, I gained 60 pounds when after I had healed myself from chronic illness. So I went back to full life, you know, thought I had solved everything. But then I moved into a new moldy home and I lost several family members. It was trauma after trauma after trauma. And then after that experienced long Covid once I was way far into that process. And it was just like wearing my grief suit on me, like excess, you know, protection and sadness that I just could not, literally could not get the oxygen into my tissues fast enough to let it go. And I had to be really disciplined about taking over three years to slowly, gently release that in a loving, intelligent, root cause resolution way. Working with the nervous system and yes, detoxing the mold again, you know, and all the things and understanding long Covid and what to do about it. But it was absolutely one of the hardest things I had to do as a health professional with my face out there and I'm standing on stages and I'm wearing this grief meat suit. Look how sad I am. Everybody, I am alone, I am at a loss. I'm experiencing loss and grief. So I understand and I have deep compassion for people that are looking for a way to heal themselves and feel like themselves and be in their own bodies and feel at home again. I just want to make sure that they understand the tools that they're using and that they're actually at choice and they're not a victim of a predatory industry.
- [20:17]
A
No. And I think I try to tell everybody, you know, the last thing anybody wants to do Sinclair, is to show up in Austin, Texas and have me take out the Rustin blankets. You make it sound so much fun. You would fight tooth and nail not to do that. You would do every, you would try every alternative. So it's a long journey to get to see me at Austin, Texas if you ever do that. And I tell I'm very straightforward with folks. I don't trickle code anything. And the hardest thing to do, the most important thing you have to do, first and foremost is your own self work. Because I am not a psychologist and I'm not a psychiatrist and if you have problems with image, I'm not going to make that better.
- [20:58]
B
If you could talk directly to your fellow surgeons right now, what do you think your responsibility is as a plastic surgeon in this day and age? And what do you wish your fellow surgeons would also take responsibility for?
- [21:10]
A
I think first and foremost you have to listen to patients and be able to say no far more frequently than yes. And you know, in an economic situation where we're in a recession currently, despite what everybody may report, that is not the reason to say yes to someone who wants something done for the sake of having something done. And the device size that I see placed typically is too large for the patients. And a common complaint of patients is they asked to be a certain size and they woke up when they were larger. Now that should never happen. That needs to go away. So informed decision making, agreeing on what someone wants to the best of your ability and sticking with that is really the core to doing a good job, whether it's cosmetic or cancer. Obviously they're very different situations, but breast reconstruction with implants is not going away. Breast augmentation with implants is not going away. What I would like to see is patients being offered fat transfers and them being explained in a very straightforward ethical way, because fat transfer is a very good option if somebody just wants to go up a cup size. And many times that's fine. So I have patients routinely seek me out just to do that because they don't want implants and they're done having children. And you could accomplish many of the same esthetic changes with a breast lift to reshape and lift the breast and a little bit of volumization with their own fat. And that will last as long as they're taking care of themselves. And it's not a device. It can't rupture. It's your own genetic material. So provided everything heals and you take care of yourself, it'll be there. And you can't take GLP1s. That's part of my now intake form, if you will. Like, I have to be extremely diligent about that because those are being snuck in all the time because of companies. I don't want to say a company out loud and get you in trouble, but you can go online and get this drug sent to you to inject, which is blasphemy to me. That's just ridiculous.
- [23:20]
B
So what would you say to a woman who's hearing this and resonating with it and is realizing she doesn't feel well? I've already started cleaning up my diet, Dr. Robert. I've already started doing this research. I'm scared. How big of a problem, Ellie, is this for me? How will I know? What should I do?
- [23:37]
A
Well, I think you take some solace in. Our data shows that you can lower your inflammation by doing things you just said. So there's. There's hope, certainly starting that way and concentrating on getting your nervous system calm down because I have folks who come in and obviously very heightened states of sympathetic activation. So the fight or flight system is on full tilt. So try to get that under control. And simple things like breathing in and out through. In through your nose, out through your mouth, like box breathing at night before you go to bed and when you wake up and getting enough rest, those are the ways to kind of start getting things in the order you need to come see someone. You know, if you're coming to see me, you're going to get a whole dose of this reality, not just we're going to take your implants out and you're going to feel better. Because that's really a disservice to most patients. In patients who have an infection or have a shell, think, think like it's breaking down. When you take those out, that's relieving the body of a significant inflammatory burden. Now, they all have chronic inflammation, but those two instances are the ones where you have more of a, you know, a brain buzz and unicorn response earlier.
- [24:49]
B
So there's a lot of reasons to hope here, a lot of control over your own future.
- [24:52]
A
And we've put out so much material that's free to consume, whether it's on YouTube or the podcast or now. We have a couple books out. We have a new book out on breast implants, explant surgery and breast implant illness. And it's all there to consume and just take your time and you don't have to rush. Rushing does not improve your chances of a positive outcome.
- [25:12]
B
Where can people find you in your work?
- [25:14]
A
Yeah, I would direct everybody now. We've put everything onto our new landing page that has an AI clone of me to ask questions to. And it's all my podcasts are loaded, the books are up. So.
- [25:25]
B
Dr. Robertwitfield.com thanks for spending this time with us today.
- [25:30]
C
I know these conversations can bring up a lot and I want you to have room to sit with what you learned and let it land in your own body. If you want more support or you're curious about the next step on your healing path, you can always connect with me. Find me on Instagram hedetoxnation and explore resources mentioned in this episode at detoxnation.com this conversation is shared for education and personal reflection. And isn't medical advice. Please always work with your trusted healthcare providers for your care. I'm really glad you're here and I'll see you in the next episode.