Breast augmentation is an aesthetic surgery done to improve the size and firmness of the breasts. The techniques of surgery and the implants used have evolved from the initial attempts. At present, saline filled implants are the most commonly used implants.

If you have decided to go ahead for breast augmentation, it is important to choose the plastic surgeon carefully. Do and evaluation of the practice of the surgeon, get the references of the clients who have had the surgery with the same surgeon and talk to them. The surgery would affect the presentation of your body, it might be more painful if you do not get the desired outcomes.

The period before and after the surgery is very important.

breast-augmentation_before-and-after-the-surgery

Who is an ideal candidate for breast augmentation surgery?

1.  An ideal candidate for breast augmentation surgery would be a woman seeking to improve her self image. These are grown up women and are in stable relationships.
2.  There are women who would come to the surgeon on the insistence of their male partner, or women who seek a potential male partner. The ideas and expectations of these clients have to be discussed in detail, as there are higher chances of disappointment with these people.
3. The women who have post partum atrophy of the breasts. They would say they were happy about the appearance of their breasts only during the pregnancy.
4. Young women who have minimal breast development.

breast-augmentation_process

Pre-operative management of the patient:

1. The surgeon would consult you before the breast augmentation surgery. During this initial visit, the expectations of the client are discussed in detail.
2. The family history of the individual is taken, with attention to incidence of breast cancer.
3. A physical examination of the breast is done to assess for any nodes or axillary lymph nodes.
4. If the client is over 35 years of age, a pre operative mammography is also done.
5. The preoperative photographs are also taken during the visit to the surgeon.
6. The expectation of the patient regarding the size of the breast is also discussed during the preoperative visit to the surgeon. The surgeon and the patient would have to come to an informed decision together regarding the size of the implant to be used.
7. The patient is advised to avoid aspirin for a week before the surgery. It is advised as aspirin is associated with increased bleeding.
8. Smoking and alcohol is also to be avoided during the pre operative period.

 Post-operative management of the patient:

1. After the surgery, minimal care is required. the patient can return to her normal daily activities from the next day of the surgery.
2. An analgesic may be given to reduce the amount of pain.
3. Any significant pain, not controlled by the analgesics is to be reported immediately.

 Complications:

There are very few complications that happen after a breast augmentation surgery.

1. A hematoma is the occasional complication that occurs after the surgery. It would present as inflammation and pain, and some times as echymosis. If it is small, it might resolve on its own. But in case of a bigger hematoma, the patient might have to undergo evacuation in the operation theatre.
2. Infection is another very rare complication. In case of infection, the surgeon is left with no other option than to remove the implant.

According to the existing documented history, breast augmentation was first attempted in 1904. it was done using injection of paraffin and the patients were left with hard masses and draining sinus tracts, not to talk about the pain the patients had to go through. Later in 1950s and 1960s, the practitioners tried injecting liquid silicone to augment the breast. This procedure was considered success, as during the initial period after the injection, the results were very good. But the patients inevitably developed nodularity and inflammation some time later and the surgeons had to resort to mastectomy to correct the problem. This practice was later abandoned by plastic surgeons, but may still be used by some unconsiderate practitioners.

Once this was also ruled out as a technique for breast augmentation, attention turned to developing an implant to be surgically placed in the breast resulting in augmentation. The first used surgical implant was made of Ivalon sponges, in 1958. It was made from polyvinyl alcohol. There were problems associated with this technique as well. Fibrous tissue would grow into the sponges and cause them to shrink in size. Once this happens, there is no other option than taking out the sponges. Efforts were made to cover the sponges with plastic covers, one or several of them, to protect it from the growth of fibrous breast tissue, but all of them failed.

Breast augmentation again became a surgery of questionable future. The prospects seemed a little better when in 1963, Cronin and Gerow reported the use of silicone gel prosthesis. This became a standard practice for breast augmentation and the practice boomed.

Silicone gel prosthesis was the choice for breast augmentation implant till recently and the question was risen only when some organizations raised issues on the development of several diseases as secondary to the exposure of silicone. Due to this hue and cry, the government has restricted the use of these implants and it can be said that the use of silicone gel prosthesis in breast augmentation surgery has ended.

During this time, saline filled implants also became popular along side of silicone gel implants. And the practice of using saline filled implants increased once the axe fell on silicone. It is the most common implant in use in the present times.

The initial presentation of the disease is by forgetfulness. The person tends to forget recent events, names of people who are associated with him/ her, numbers etc. Most of the time, this is attributed to age related changes ( if the person is an elderly) or stress if it happens in a younger person. Measures are advised to avoid stress so as to see whether there is a relief of the symptoms. In Alzheimer’s disease, there would never be a remission of the symptoms, but the memory loss only worsens. The initial stage of the disease is termed as predementia.

Once there is onset of the disease, the signs and symptoms only worsen. The patient becomes generally withdrawn, often irritable or aggressive, agitated when he can’t remember things, may not be able to find the location of his own house, starts wandering off, seems lost, may seem not able to remember words or phrases when speaking, writing abilities also might be impaired. There are often instances where elderly people are found wandered off a long distance from their homes, and then cannot remember anything related to their families (names, phone numbers etc). This level of the Alzheimer’s disease is called early dementia. The patient is still able to remember the incidents related to his childhood, may recognize people from early life, might be able to undertake activities of daily living under supervision and lead a life at home.

The disease then progresses to a stage where the patient might not recognize his own family, may not be able to speak or write properly, gets agitated or irritable more often, the distant memories which was retained till this stage also seems lost, control of body movements like urinary or fecal continence might be lost, may not be able to maintain the activities of daily living. This is moderate dementia.

The end stage of Alzheimer’s disease is advanced dementia when the patient is very terminal with all the bodily functions gone. Feeding has to be done by another person, other activities of daily living are also done by another person, and the patient is often bedridden and deteriorated. At this stage, infections or other diseases often set in and death results mostly because of the secondary illnesses.

Though a patient with predementia or early dementia may stay at home and requires only supervision, the patient with moderate or advanced dementia needs constant professional care. At the initial stage, measures like keeping a tag with the details of the patient and contact numbers of the family may be helpful. At advanced stage, relatives might consider transfer to a home care facility where skilled care is available.

Heres 25 tips to stay healthy

Over the counter weight loss pills:
Bitter orange- it is a herbal supplement, aimed at increasing the body metabolism. This would enable you to lose weight in a short time.

1. Chitosan- this is a drug which would block the fat absorption in the body. All the fat is eliminated and you lose weight.
2. Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) – this is said to decrease your hunger, resulting in your eating lesser calories in a day, enabling weight loss.
3. Ephedra- decreases appetite and you eat less.
4. Guar gum- acts on the body to lessen the fat absorption.
There are other prescription weight loss medicines as well. ALLI is one of the FDA approved prescription medicine for weight loss. It acts to decrease the fat absorption in the body.
But do these weight loss pills work?
It is true that the weight loss pills do work to some extent. As suggested, they increase your basal metabolism, resulting in increased rate of calorie burning, or decrease the level of fat absorption in the body. Much of the excess calories stored as fat in the body comes from the fatty food people eat. Hence, if the absorption of fat is decreased, the accumulation of fat also decreases. But the long term effects of the weight loss pills are really doubtful.

Long term effects of weight loss pills

Most of the weight loss pills would work when taken regularly. But there is a catch. They work only till the time they are taken regularly. If you make no permanent life style changes related to diet and exercise, and discontinue the pills, the lost pounds come back and real fast. There is a scientific reason behind this. Weight loss pills act in your body in a specific manner. On discontinuation, the action stops as well. The metabolism gets back to normal, and the body stores everything as fat.
Side effects of weight loss pills

Many people who want to try on a weight loss pill are not even aware that there could be side effects. Most of the over- the- counter weight loss pills are not just one medicine. There might be different components in them. In many of the herbal supplements, even where the ingredients are mentioned, you might not recognize the components are and how they affect you.
If you are taking some medication for some medical condition, there are chances that one of the components might react with the drug and cause some adverse reaction. Some of the drugs may act adversely with some ingredient in your diet or even alcohol. There are even chances that you get side effects because of the drug itself.
Some of the common side effects of weight loss pills are vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, flatulence, irritability, sleeplessness etc. There are reported side effects as increased blood pressure, irregular heart rate etc due to some weight loss pill, though such severe side effects are relatively uncommon.
Is there a way to lose weight quickly?

No. There is no quick way or short cuts to losing the excess weight. It is only continued efforts and life style changes that would help you with this. And losing the weight in the proper way is better than going through short cuts, starving yourself, losing the weight only to regain it.

What do I do to lose weight?

Described below are the measures you can employ to lose weight. And the weight lost would be gone forever.
1. Make dietary changes. Increase fiber in the diet. Limit the intake of refined foods. Reduce the intake of fatty foods.
2. Eat lesser number of calories. Limit your portions.
3. Eat frequently. It helps to eat frequently than eating three whole meals in a day. This would boost your metabolism and keep it running all through the day.
4. Increase your exercise. Add more physical activity to your life. Take the stairs, walk more, do some moving around every hour if you have a sedentary job.
Make all this part of your life. And the result would be a healthy you in no time.