Woman dies after injecting Vaseline into breasts

A 39-year-old Argentinean woman died after attempting to enhance the size of her breasts by injecting them with Vaseline

Sonia Perez Llanzon was admitted to the Lucio Molas hospital in Santa Rosa, Argentina after experiencing trouble breathing. Though Llanzon initially denied what she had done, she eventually confessed to doctors that she had injected herself with Vaseline several weeks earlier in the hopes of making her breasts larger. Doctors found several lesions on both breasts as a result of the home injections.

The Vaseline had entered Llanzon’s blood stream, causing blood clots that travelled to her lungs. Llanzon experienced a pulmonary embolism – a blockage of an artery in her lung – which resulted in her death.

“In all my medical career, I’ve never seen a case like this. The human body has antibodies to remove bacteria and viruses, but it hasn’t got any mechanisms against this type of product,” Julio Pla Cardenas, chief of surgery at Lucio Molas told La Capital.

Pla Cardenas said he has noticed an increasing number of people using Vaseline injections as a form of body augmentation, including men who have injected the product in the hopes of enhancing penis size.

Source: Fox news


8 ways to keep your breasts young

In a new study of UCLA medical school is reported that women’s breasts age at a rate two to three years is ahead of the rest of their body. Before you schedule a consultation with the plastic surgeon’s office, here are some natural ways to keep your breasts healthy.

• Sunscreen. Most swimsuits and summer tops make the décolleté a prime target for sunrays, and it often gets missed with that slather of SPF moisturizer during your morning beauty routine. Some companies make all-natural, organic décolleté creams, but a broad-spectrum sunscreen will work too. Just make sure to visit the Environmental Working Group’s website, Skin Deep, to find natural, non-toxic products. You don’t want to add to the aging process by slathering chemicals on your breasts either.

• Organic coconut oil. Your breasts need moisture, especially with all the stretching the skin has to go through in the course of a lifetime. Through pregnancy, weight gain or loss, and monthly fluctuations that coincide with your menstrual cycle, you need to nurture the skin on your breasts. All-natural, organic coconut oil is a great choice, and you don’t have to worry about toxins.

• Support. Reports suggest that approximately 80 percent of women wear the wrong bra size. Lack of support can leave you with back pain, sagging and bad posture – advancing the aging process even further. Although monthly fluctuations are inevitable, getting fitted for new bras yearly will help ensure you are wearing the right size most of the time and avoid poor support that can contribute to advanced aging.

• Self check-ups. Do regular self-exams. If you know your breasts and monitor them regularly, you can detect abnormalities early and improve outcomes. Each month after your period, schedule a monthly self-exam and note changes in size, sensation, color or rashes, discharge, dimpling or bulges.

• Workout. Strengthening your pectoral muscles is an effective way to get a natural lift in the breasts. Your breasts sit right on top of these muscles, meaning if those muscles are sagging, your breasts will be too – and vice versa.

• Posture. Poor posture can cause your breasts to sag and droop, while sitting up straighter can actually make your breasts appear much bigger (and without surgery!)

• Nutrition. Your diet is a key factor for anti-aging, preventing disease and just about anything and everything that has to do with your health and quality of life. Your breasts are no different. Diets lacking in vitamins and minerals cause advanced aging. Vitamins A and C, for example, nourish the skin and promote collagen production, while too much sugar can lead to wrinkles.

• Excess alcohol. Moderate consumption of alcohol has its place, but excessive drinking – even wine – can cause increase in levels of estrogen. Estrogen contributes to increased risk of breast cancer, especially in high-risk individuals. Keep consumption moderate to protect your health. Aging is inevitable, but diligent care and a healthy lifestyle can turn back the clock a few years and preserve your health across the lifespan.

Source: News.am


When Men Get Breast Cancer?

That is the message of a provocative new photography series featuring the faces, and scars, of men with breast cancer.

The vast majority of the photos in that project are of young women, shown topless with scars where their breasts used to be. The pictures, which are both shocking and beautiful, are featured in a traveling exhibition that will be on display next month in Toronto.

But most visitors to the Scar Project find the photos on the Internet, where they have been viewed by millions of people. One of those people is Oliver Bogler, a cancer biologist in Houston who found out that he had breast cancer 18 months ago after noticing a lump in his chest.

As in a woman’s breast, the duct cells in a man’s breast can undergo cancerous changes fueled by hormones that influence the growth of cells. It is not clear why some men get breast cancer while most do not, but risk factors include a family history of breast cancer, inherited gene mutations, radiation exposure, extended occupational exposure to certain chemicals or intense heat, obesity, liver disease, alcoholism, and other cancer treatments.

All of these factors can influence the level of hormones in a man’s body and potentially spur breast cancer. That said, many men who develop breast cancer do not have any of these risk factors.

Fewer than 1 percent of breast cancers are diagnosed in men, but that is little comfort to the 2,400 men a year who learn they have the disease. For Dr. Bogler, 47, the diagnosis was particularly shocking because his wife had learned five years earlier that she had breast cancer.

“I struggled with the huge coincidence,” Dr. Bogler said. “We were both diagnosed when we were 46. It seemed a bit unlikely. I couldn’t imagine having this conversation with her, either: ‘Honey, I think I have what you have.’ ”

Like many cancer patients, Dr. Bogler found himself spending time online in hopes of learning more about his disease. He stumbled across the Scar Project and asked Mr. Jay if he would consider including men in the series. As a result, the Male Scar Project was created.

The photo of Dr. Bogler shows him next to a radiation machine, his chest covered with marker lines used to guide the radiation beam.

The photos of men with breast cancer are admittedly less jarring than those of women. One reason may be that it is less surprising to see a shirtless man, and the absence of his breast and nipple is not as immediately noticeable. But the portraits of the men are still haunting and show, in a more subtle way, the spiritual ravages of cancer.

The photos are also similar in that they capture both the vulnerability and the strength of breast cancer patients, regardless of their sex.

One of the subjects, William Becker, of Bridgeport, Conn., said he had wanted to be photographed to raise awareness among men who may be ignoring a lump, not realizing it could be breast cancer.

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“I was dealing with a lot of health issues that could have been avoided had I done something sooner about the lump that I had found on my chest,” Mr. Becker said. “No man should be going through what I was enduring.”

Mr. Becker said he felt the photo captured his experience better than words could.

“The photo is very striking,” he said. “It gives you a sense of fear, in that there is this man with a scar on his chest and burn marks surrounding it from the radiation treatment — a kind of ‘don’t let this happen to you’ image.”

Dr. Bogler worked with Mr. Jay to include men in the Scar Project because he felt that more awareness was needed about the male experience with the disease. He also believes that more research into male breast cancer could help unlock new knowledge about the disease for both men and women.

Dr. Bogler added that while ovarian, uterine, prostate and testicular cancers are inherently gender-specific, breast cancer is no more gender-specific than lung or colon cancer.

“I was surprised to learn how little awareness there was for men,” he said. “Breast cancer is skewed toward women, but it’s not just a woman’s cancer.”

Even when filling out forms at the doctor’s office, Dr. Bogler found that many of the questions were aimed at women.

“I live in this very pink world,” he said. “I’m not complaining about it. I don’t mind skipping the ‘Are you pregnant?’ part of the form. But I realized most people don’t even know men get breast cancer.”

Source: New York Times