Breast Health and Musculoskeletal Conditions

Women have lots of reasons to question what is the right thing to do if they want to be proactive about breast health.   It is pretty hard not to have heard that Mammography, the once gold standard for breast cancer detection, has come under scrutiny for a myriad of reasons.   So many women have turned to other adjunct breast thermal findings assessments such as Medical Breast Thermology in order to do more.

The truth is that no imaging study, in and of itself, offers a holistic approach to breast health.  While Mammography, Breast MRI and Breast Ultrasound offer structural assessments for abnormalities in breast tissue, and Medical Breast Thermography offers a complimentary physiologic assessment, both are for the most part still pretty focused on breast tissue in isolation.

But is that the whole story?  Does any tissue in the body function in isolation?  Of course not.   So what else might impact breast health?  Plenty.  Some are occasionally spoken of and some are just plain old commonly missed.  These range from hormone imbalance and lymphatic or venous congestion to a myriad of musculoskeletal conditions that can impact breast health.

Some musculoskeletal condition examples include chest wall pain, head and neck pain, thoracic outlet syndrome, cervical-brachial syndrome, myofascial pain syndromes, and well just too many others to list.  Fortunately, if your doctor is thinking about these conditions they are for the most part easy to diagnose and treat.  More importantly we have seen numerous instances were treatment of the same improved breast health and reduced severity of breast health risk.

Think of it like this:  if the muscles of your neck, or front or back of the chest wall, are tight and restricted then the affected tissues become painful; that leads to a further reduction in motion and even more congestion.

Lack of motion in and across those tissues of either the front or back of the chest means that there can be in adequate lymphatic drainage and that venous congestion can occur.  If that persist over time tissue oxygenation is reduced and nodules can form.  Once the cycle has started it will likely not reverse itself on its own.  The good news is that almost all musculoskeletal conditions can be diagnosed one way or another with diagnostic tests ranging from electrodiagnostics such as EMG & NCV, Musculoskeletal Ultrasound, and Medical Musculoskeletal Thermal Imaging.

Once the condition is proven a personalized treatment plan can be created and most often the condition can be taken care of.  With reduced pain and tightness motion is restored, function is improved, lymphatic and venous congestion reduced, and breast health risk is improved.  Plus, you get to feel better!

The next time you find yourself thinking about what you can do for breast health try also thinking about what you can do for yourself.  Call us at Piedmont Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, PA to make an appointment and let us help.