Transcript #493 Warning: Breast Implants Can Contain Mold and Heavy Metals with Dr. Andrew Campbell

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1. Find out what’s in store on this Myers Detox Podcast with Dr. Andrew Campbell, who joins the show to talk about breast implant illness, the signs and symptoms of BII, and what you should do if you think you have it. Dr. Campbell goes over how platinum, used in the manufacturing of the implant capsule, goes straight to your brain, affecting brain performance and cognition. He also discusses how the silicone or saline in breast implants can grow mold, leading to health symptoms caused by mold mycotoxins. Dr. Campbell goes on to cover his various research studies on breast implant illness, and the best supplements and detox protocols to recover from BII. This is a must listen for any woman who’s considering getting breast implants, as well as anyone who may think they are suffering from BII!
2. Learn more about Dr. Campbell and how he got involved in researching BII and how breast implants have heavy metals including platinum in them.
3. Learn about some of the many symptoms of BII.
4. Learn about some of the inflammatory and autoimmune responses to breast implants.
5. Find out the first steps you should take if you think you have BII.
6. Learn about the tests that you should take if you think you have BII.
7. Find out all of the supplements you must take in order to heal from BII once the breast implants are removed.
8. Read one of Dr. Campbell’s patient’s stories, and how he helped heal her BII.
9. Read some of Dr. Campbell’s final recommendations for women looking to do a breast explantation.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Hello everyone. I’m Dr. Wendy Myers. Today we have a special treat for you. We have Dr. Andrew Campbell on the show, and he’s going to be talking about breast implant illness, the signs and symptoms of breast implant illness, and why these aren’t the common symptoms that can be attributed to a lot of different health issues. We also talk about how platinum is used in the manufacture of the implant capsule and also how that goes straight to your brain, affecting brain performance cognition and causing brain fog. We also talk about how breast implants that are silicone or saline can grow mold in them. And a lot of symptoms women have are in response to mold mycotoxins. Very interesting.

  Dr. Campbell also talks about the various research studies that he has done on breast implant illness and the issues with breast implants and his many years of experience, 30 years of experience in treating women with breast implant illness. And we also talk about what supplements you need, how to detox, the various things you need to do to recover from breast implant illness, and the importance of finding the right surgeon as well, someone who has experience in removing breast implants. So a really good show for you for anyone concerned that they can’t find an underlying root cause of their health issues and they have breast implants.

  This is a must-listen for any woman who’s considering getting breast implants and the realistic health issues that they may be facing. And doctors typically, plastic surgeons doing these surgeries are not going to disclose or fully disclose these health issues, or they may just be ignorant of the research and the health issues or in denial about that. But these issues are real. There are thousands of women and Facebook groups that claim that their breast implants are causing them health issues, so this is a very good show for you to hear.

  I personally had my breast implants removed about five, six years ago now. I definitely saw a lot of improvements in my health. I felt like I had less inflammation, I had better energy, I had better sleep, I had less fatigue, I had less brain fog. I feel like I have a lot better brain functioning now and have done a lot of detox for sure. But I’d done a lot of detoxification before I had my breast implants removed, and I was still having a lot of just minor issues, but issues nonetheless that I kind of was exasperated about that I didn’t really seem to have any answers for. So I’m very, very happy I had my implants removed. But like many women, I had concerns about how my breasts were going to look following surgery. I was willing to take those risks, but I also found a very, very good surgeon. And we talk about how to do that on this podcast.

  And I also had to have a breast lift as well because if you have fairly large implants, you’re going to have a lot of extra skin. So I actually had implants removed but also had to have a breast lift as well. So that’s going to be a reality for a lot of women removing their implants. So a lot of things to consider, but an excellent show today.

  So I know you guys listening are concerned about your body’s burden of toxins. And so, I created a quiz you can take at heavymetalsquiz.com, and it takes us a few minutes to get your results and get a free video series following, doing the quiz to answer a lot of your frequently asked questions about how to detox, what that entails and just answers a lot of your questions. So just take it; it takes a couple seconds at heavymetalsquiz.com.

  Our guest today is Dr. Andrew Campbell. He is a medical clinician, director, officer, advisor, and medical consultant, also editor-in-chief of several medical journals and research studies. Dr. Campbell has also treated the most complex breast implant illness patients having extensive experience with testing for molds and mycotoxins from environmental and toxic exposures. Dr. Campbell’s areas of expertise include his treatment of thousands of patients with complex medical conditions from toxic exposures, specifically mold and mycotoxins, Lyme disease, pesticides, household solvents, silicone breast implants, industrial chemicals, and more. Upon moving to Texas, he began serving as a medical director at the Medical Center for Immune and Toxic Disorders for over 25 years. And aside from his medical career, Dr. Campbell has been a sought-after lecturer and speaker nationally and internationally at medical conferences for over 25 years at Oxford University in England and Harvard School and Medicine. He’s also published over 100 studies of his findings in peer-reviewed medical journals and medical textbook chapters, including 23 studies on breast implants and their health effects.

  Dr. Andrew Campbell, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Well, thank you for having me. It’s very exciting.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes. Yeah. So why don’t you tell me a little bit about your background and your research on breast implant illness.

Dr. Andrew Campbell: I practiced in Houston for a number of years. When I was down there, I saw a number of women who had all kinds of problems with fatigue, aches and pains, developing autoimmune disorders, et cetera. Some were young, some were not so young, some were tall or short, some were. All kinds, all ages. And I couldn’t figure out the commonality between them, so I used to stay up late at night back before computers would help and look through charts, “What did they have in common? Why do these women all have the same symptoms?” And then, it showed in reviewing the charts that they had breast implants. So I started looking. And in those days, it was not easy. There was no email.

So I started looking in the medical library. There are two medical schools across the street from each other, Baylor and the University of Texas School of Medicine. So it was one big library, and I used to spend my weekends down there looking through, and I found a few mentions in there of autoimmune disorders, et cetera. I went to a conference, and I saw an exhibit by a laboratory in which they looked at immune cells and sophisticated testing, flow cytometry it’s called. And I said, “This is it.” Well, this laboratory was in Los Angeles, and I’m in Houston. So I started sending blood serum to them from these women. And sure enough, the tests came back that their immune system was dysregulated, that they were developing autoimmune disorders, et cetera.

So I called the director of that laboratory, Dr. Vardani, Ph.D., and he knew somebody else that was also seeing these types of patients in Los Angeles, Dr. Barber. And so the three of us got together and decided that we’ve got to share this information because a lot of doctors were just treating these symptoms without knowing what was going on with the patient. And basically, that’s how it started. And we eventually ended up publishing ’22-’23 studies in medical journals and medical textbooks. And then, I was called to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda to testify about my studies on breast implants. I did, and six months later, they shut down the breast implant industry because they were not safe.

What happened is breast implants existed before the FDA. So when the FDA was founded, the breast implants were grandfathered in. They never had to go through proving that they were safe. So that’s basically the background. And then I couldn’t figure out if women would get it explanted. Silicone or saline created the same problems. There was no difference. Finally, after looking all over, I found a doctor in Montreal, Canada, and a Ph.D. also, Dr. Pierre Blais. Dr. Blais and I got along famously because I was educated in the French part of Switzerland, and he spoke basically French with a smidgen of English. So that made it a lot easier to communicate with all these scientific issues and medical issues. And he told me, I said, “I can’t understand why the women don’t get better.” And he said, “Have you thought about mold?” I said, “What do you mean molds?” He says, “Well, the implants have molds in them.” I said, “Where do they get the molds into the implant?” He says, “During the manufacturing process.”

And then he told me, “Did you check for heavy metals?” I said, “Where would heavy metals come from?”

“Well, during the manufacturing process, part of that includes platinum. So here’s heavy metals, and here’s molds. And molds have mycotoxins, and mycotoxins are very toxic to the human body.” So that’s the general background of silicone breast implants and molds and mycotoxins.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Wow. Yeah, and it’s tough because women are not being warned. Or even if they go to their plastic surgeon, they’re like, “Oh, there’s no scientific evidence that breast implants cause autoimmune diseases or other health issues, and it’s nonsense.” I was also told by a plastic surgeon who is explanting me, told me that there’s just no scientific literature that breast implants are causing autoimmune diseases or other health issues, and I said, “Well, that doesn’t really make sense. If you can develop an autoimmune response to a blueberry or a banana or food, why wouldn’t you be able to develop an immune response to a breast implant?”

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Correct. And although there’s epidemiological evidence, not only just evidence from a number of studies, yes, 20 some odd from our group, but there’s many other groups that also have written Dr. Jean Feng up in Cleveland was with Cleveland Clinic and now she’s out on her own, has written extensively also about what her findings are and how much better patients eventually get with the right treatment after explantation. And it didn’t matter whether it was studied with silicone implants or saline implants. The same goes for European studies. A Dutch study from Holland did the same. And they took hundreds of women, not just a few. And on and on. It’s all over the world. Their studies have come out and this is what they show. But you have to understand, if you have a business and that business is making implants, you don’t want it to diminish. And if you’re someone else and you have a different business in putting these implants in and you’re making a very good living off of that, you don’t want that very good living to go away.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my doctor was doing explant surgeries, and so he was making money explanting them as well, and I’m still being told this. So I think there are a lot of doctors who aren’t reading all the literature, or they’re just outright just not telling their patients the 100% truth. Can you tell us what some of the symptoms are? I mean, you mentioned a few of them, but what should a woman be looking for in regard to symptoms or health issues if she has breast implants and is concerned?

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Fatigue, aches, and pains, especially in joints. I’ve treated women who are in their early 30s. And for them to get up from a sitting position and start walking, they’re like a 90-year-old. It’s amazing. So that ache and that pain in joints and muscles, weak muscles. They also have brain fog. They can’t think straight. And some of them actually develop autoimmune disorders. We’ll go see a rheumatologist who will put them on rheumatological drugs, which only serve to basically hide the symptoms, but it doesn’t cure anything. Whereas the explantation and treatment do cure.

So these women also will have problems with balance. They’ll have anxiety and depression because these heavy metals affect the brain. And yeah, if you feel terrible and you have aches and pains and brain fog, of course, you’re going to be depressed and anxious. But don’t go see a psychiatrist because that’s only going to cover this. It’s going to sweep the problem under the rug. It’s not really an effective treatment. And, plus, for women who go see a psychiatrist, most of the drugs used in psychiatry will not have an effect on them. They also have issues with learning new things, short-term memory loss, and gut issues. They’re sometimes diagnosed as having SIBO or irritable bowel syndrome, or some other inflammatory bowel disorder. And they’ll also sometimes have problems breathing, respiratory issues. And those are, in general, the main problems affecting these women.

Dr. Wendy Myers: And do you think that the body would launch an inflammatory response to the implants? Because if you have body-wide inflammation, that’s going to contribute to weight gain, resistant weight loss as well, I imagine.

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Oh, yeah. So it goes both ways. Some women will lose weight because of their gut issues. And other women, don’t matter if they go on a salad diet and all they eat all day, every day is a salad. They won’t be able to lose an ounce. And so it’s very disheartening because they’re trying very hard to improve their health, and it won’t work because you have these implants that are causing an immune reaction, what we call immune dysregulation. So the immune system gets confused and starts attacking things it shouldn’t attack, which means it attacks itself, and that’s the autoimmune part. But these women have problems with, say, going down the aisle at the supermarket where there’s all the cleansers and soaps, et cetera because the odors make them sick. They become sensitive, what we call multiple chemical sensitivity. Perfume or some makeup they used to use, now they can’t use it because it either breaks out or they feel bad when they use it. So these are all the immune dysregulations that silicone breast implants can cause in women.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Now, I imagine with this immune dysregulation and overstimulation, they can also develop food sensitivities and reactions to things they would normally react to.

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Yes. So it’s not only the perfumes and the odors, but it’s also the foods, and it’s also what is in foods or how it’s packaged. So all those things they become sensitive to because of the glass. Well, imagine a glass and their glass or bottle is full to the top, so even one drop of something makes it spill over. They can’t tolerate anything. In the end, they can’t do anything else. And it’s very frustrating, of course, and produces a lot of anxiety.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of people listening to the show that are looking for answers, and that they’ll get to that point where they can’t tolerate food, they can’t tolerate supplements, they can’t do detoxification. As you said, their bucket is completely full. They are just kind of at a standstill as to what to do. So can women get well again after having breast implant illness and having the breast implants explanted?

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Oh, of course. Again, I’ve treated thousands and thousands and thousands of women. And fortunately, now, women, there are doctors who can explant knowledgeably and have the experience that leaves cosmetically okay. But 30 years ago, plastic surgeons were taught how to put them in, not how to take them out. But now, fortunately, they have learned. The first thing to do, of course, is the first rule of toxicology; these things are toxic to their bodies; the first rule of toxicology, get the toxin away from the patient or the patient away from the toxin. So by explantation, that’s the first step. The other step is you got to find out if the molds affected you. And for that, you do a serum test for mycotoxins, and you treat that, and all of a sudden, the clouds go away, and the sun shines through, and you’re fine again. You’re like you were before.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. And so, are there any other tests the doctors should order to find out if you’re reacting to your breast implants? Or you said to do a serum test for mold?

Dr. Andrew Campbell: There was a test at the time with silicone antibodies. It’s no longer available because the person that ran it retired. What is still available is the test for the serum mycotoxins. You can’t use the urine; it won’t work. You have to do the serum mycotoxins. And that’s from a laboratory, mymycolab.com.

The other part of that is in some patients, they’ll have immune dysregulation, and that comes through on examination as well as the history. If that’s so, there is a laboratory that you can use to do what we call this flow cytometry to find out how it’s dysregulated. But many women at that point have already spent money and don’t want to spend another, I don’t know, a thousand dollars to find out how their immune system is. It would be better for them just to get rid of these problems so that they get the explant out, they find out if they have mycotoxins, they get treated for this, and they tolerate it. That’s a very important factor because when they have the implants, they don’t tolerate anything, any vitamins even have a lot of problems. So once they get treated, we publish the treatment, and we have several papers that show what the treatment is.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. Yes, tell us that. What is the treatment for breast and implant illness? How do people recover?

Dr. Andrew Campbell: So you take the implants out, and then you do the blood serum test for mycotoxins and treat that because once your immune system is dysregulated, you can’t count on it to help you, so you’ve got to go to medication such as an antifungal, Sporanox for example. That’s the one I’ve used in the great majority of women. And you help the immune system by giving antioxidants. What are antioxidants? One of the best ones is vitamin C. Vitamin C we can’t store, and we don’t make vitamin C. So every day, some vitamin C. You’ve also got to give anti-inflammatories such as not medical, not medication. But curcumin, for example, is a great anti-inflammatory. Resveratrol from the skin of dark grapes. All those things are anti-inflammatory and help the woman as well.

They’ve got to take some extra amount of magnesium. In taking magnesium, they’re six types of magnesium; you have to take the right kind because some don’t get absorbed as easily. And in taking magnesium, you need a hefty dose. Now, normally magnesium, if you take a tablet of magnesium at, say, 1:00 PM in the afternoon, by 3:00 PM, 4:00 PM, that’s peaked in your blood and already gone out through the kidneys. So you’ve got to find the right kind that is a long-acting one. And this is all available. There’s a supplement lab in, I think, somewhere in the southwestern United States. It makes what is called Mag SRT, it’s called. It’s a company called Jigsaw Health. And that magnesium, you need to take 1,000 mg in the morning, and you need to take 1,000 mg in the evening. And plus, it’ll help you sleep if you’re having problems sleeping.

The other thing you have to take is melatonin, but only 3 mg, not these massive doses that some people are thrilled with. Why? Because melatonin studies at the University of Texas San Antonio branch have shown that it helps clear toxins from the brain. And if we have platinum in our brain, we need to clear that out, and that’s what melatonin helps to do. And phosphatidylserine, which is also a supplement, and I recommend Klear Labs for that one, with a K. Klear Labs. Phosphatidylserine has shown in double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized studies that it helps with remyelinating nerves. Why? Because heavy metals affect the myelin. The myelin coats all our nerves. And when that is affected, that’s when you get the balance issues, the numbness and tingling issues, the brain fog issues, short-term memory loss, sleep disturbance, et cetera. Well, it helps bring all that back.

Lastly, you should take a good high dose of vitamin B complex because B complex should stand for brain complex because that’s B1, thymine, B2, B3, B6, B12, folic acid, and folate, all of that help the brain immensely. There was a study done in Manchester, the University of Manchester in England, where they took people who had this kind of situation of brain issues, et cetera and divided them into two groups, 250 and 250. They did brain MRIs and neuropsychological testing on every one of them and told one group, “Do what your doctor tells you.” And the other group said, “Do what your doctor tells you, but also take this high dose of vitamin B complex.” One year later, they repeated the MRI and repeated the neuropsychological evaluations. And the group that took the B complex high dose was much better off. So it’s a good way to ascertain that women take these things to help them get back to where they once were before they had the implants. And it doesn’t matter if you’re 20, 40, or 60; it’s the same process. It affects the body the same way, and the treatment is the same.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Okay, fantastic. Yeah, and I love that giving hope to women who are dealing with health issues, and you have to rule all these things out, including maybe your breast implants as a cause. Can you tell us some stories of some patients that came to you and what their symptoms were, and their stories of recovery?

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Sure. Sure. Well, one of them you’ve seen in movies. She was very distressed because, I mean, what she did was act, and she couldn’t remember her lines. She couldn’t remember how to do, what she was supposed to do, walk from A to B. Well, she’d get confused, halfway turn around and go back, and they’d have to cut and cut and cut. So finally, she says, “There’s something wrong with me.” Beautiful, beautiful actress, very popular still. She had brain fog. She couldn’t remember things. She had to write. She walked around with one of these little Post-it pads because she’d forget everything. And, of course, she had an assistant who kept her on schedule for everything, but it wasn’t working anymore. She couldn’t sleep, and she became irritable. She had joint aches and pains shoulders, neck, back, hips, knees, wrists, and elbows. So acting was becoming impossible.

And finally, because, I mean, someone talked to her, not a doctor. But someone talked to her and said, “There’s this guy in Houston who has helped a number of women. Why don’t you go see him?” So she came, and she came with her assistant and various other people to help her that she depended on now because she was very, very in distress.

That’s a common thing in women with breast implants because they’re distressed. They don’t know what to do. “I want to look beautiful, but I don’t want to lose my health. What should I do?” They need guidance, they need help, and they need hope, most of all, that, “Yes, you can get well again.” So we did the testing. And yes, she showed up with all kinds of immune dysregulation, and she showed up with a number of mycotoxins. And, of course, she had to fly back to Los Angeles. So we did it at that time by phone, would you believe it? No Zoom or anything like that. I had to go give a lecture at a medical conference in Los Angeles.

I borrowed a colleague’s clinic because, obviously, she didn’t want me driving with a taxi cab to her home. So we met at the clinic where she could get in anonymously and kept on. And after about six, seven months, she is absolutely fine. She was back. Oh, every time I saw her after that because I’d go out to Los Angeles for a conference or whatever, I’d get this huge hug around my neck from this beautiful, gorgeous woman. But she had a good heart. She has a very good heart. A very intelligent, very bright young woman. Well, she’s no longer young, but she’s a great person.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Fantastic. Yeah. And is there anything else that you want to say to women that are thinking about getting breast implants or thinking about removing their breast implants and what to expect?

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Okay, and thinking about your breast implants, you’re young, or you’re not young, but you’ve had four babies, and you want to look good again, and you go to the gym, and you do all the things to bring your body back into shape, so to speak, but you feel that you need that implant, those implants to help you look fabulous in a bathing suit, et cetera, or just for your own sake, it doesn’t have to be for other people, I would say to you, be very cautious. Be very cautious. And if they say, “Oh, saline is safe.” No, every study published in peer-reviewed medical journals shows that it doesn’t matter if it’s one or the other. They all have inside of them things that you don’t want, molds. And they all are made, their shell, the process of making them goes with platinum. And you don’t want any mercury, platinum, arsenic, lead, or anything like that in your body. It’s bad. It’s terrible for the brain. It’s the first place that I go to.

On women that have come to the position where they’re ready, not only physically but mentally, to have this removed, make sure that the doctor who’s removing them is experienced. You don’t want to go to someone who’s done three of these. You want somebody who’s done 300. So make sure you look for either in your area. Or maybe, yes, you might have to travel to a nearby city, but make sure that whoever you go see is experienced so you still have some form and shape that is pleasant, not just remove it, and that’s it.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, I think that my biggest fear in removing my implants was how I was going to look afterward. I’m super happy. I’m very happy with the way that I look. I was very surprised. I went to a very good doctor, though, and I interviewed several doctors. This doctor had done over 300 explants and done a study on them, published a study about it, and whatnot. But it cost $15,000. It’s not covered by insurance. I’m sure there are some women that can get their insurance to cover the surgery. But yeah, I’m very, very happy with it. But one of my biggest fears was how I was going to look afterward.

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Yes. And it’s a realistic fear. This is not a, I don’t know, a myth or anything. It’s a real fear because it changes you. The only person I can recommend is the one I know. It’s not that there aren’t any others. I’m sure there are many others like the one who helped you. Dr. Jean Feng, F-E-N-G-up in Cleveland, has this 30 years of explantation, thousands and thousands of explanations. So she’s an expert at leaving a woman looking absolutely lovely. Plus, she’s a woman, and that helps a lot, in my opinion.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah. I mean, I’m happy with mine. I went to Dr. David Stokes in Reno and Del Ray in Los Angeles, California. But I interviewed with another surgeon who I later found out was just a cosmetic surgeon. He wasn’t even a board-certified plastic surgeon, yet he was advertising his services as being an explant surgeon. So you really have to be careful. I was very fearful of what would’ve happened if I had done my surgery with this person. So you really have to do your homework, and it’s not to be taken lightly. But is there anything else that you want to say to people or anything that comes to mind when it comes to breast implants or breast implant illness?

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Yes, the explanation is the first step. Then you need to help your body return to normal. And you do that basically through certain supplements. We’ve mentioned them here. There are a few others that can be used as well. And those are very, very important to get you as a woman back to this wonderful. Yesterday was International Women’s Day. So this is a very appropriate discussion because it’s not only an explanation that is part of the problem. It’s not all the problem. That’s the first big step. The second is to get you back. And that takes about six months. And at six months, you’re healthy, you’re strong again, you feel wonderful, you’re no longer depressed, you don’t have any anxiety, you sleep well. You’re ready to make a difference in the world.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Yeah, I have to say I did feel so much better. Not right away, but over time I had less fatigue. I just felt so much better. I had more energy and more mental clarity. And I didn’t have any major health issues or autoimmune or things like that, but I don’t know what kind of immune processes I had. I didn’t do any testing or anything of that nature, but I absolutely felt better. And I got sick less often and just made lots of improvements. But I’ve had friends do it before, and after their explanation, the inflammation in their faces came down dramatically. You could visibly see the reduction in this person’s inflammation. And this is real. I mean, there are Facebook groups with tens of thousands of women in these breast implant illness groups. And so it’s definitely not just in the research, but there are lots of women struggling with this issue. And that’s why I wanted to do this podcast with you. So thank you so much for coming on and for the work that you’ve done over the years to publish all these studies warning women about the dangers of breast implants.

Dr. Andrew Campbell: Well, thank you. Thank you. That’s very kind of you to say that.

Dr. Wendy Myers: Yes. Well, everyone, thanks so much for joining us for the Myers Detox Podcast. I’m Dr. Wendy Myers. Every week I bring you experts from around the world to help you upgrade your health and give you those little pieces of the puzzle that you’re searching for while listening to this podcast. So thanks for tuning in every week.