Empowered Explant

Are Your Breast Implants Making You Age Faster?

September 17, 2024 • Darnah Mercieca • Season 3 • Episode 55

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Could breast implants be the hidden culprit behind your premature aging? In this eye-opening episode, we confront the reality that implants might be causing chronic inflammation leading to symptoms often misattributed to natural aging, and encourage women to scrutinize their symptoms rather than resign themselves to the inevitability of getting older.

We'll also dive deep into the holistic healing journey after explant surgery, covering everything from proper nutrition and exercise to managing stress and reducing toxic load. The emphasis is not just on longevity, but on achieving a vibrant health span.

Links and resources:

  1. Get your free BII Symptoms Tracker:
    tracker.empoweredexplant.com

  2. Free 33-Step Explant Planning Checklist:
    checklist.empoweredexplant.com 

  3. Empowered Explant Website Resources
    www.empoweredexplant.com/resources

  4. For coaching and support before or after surgery, email me!
    darnah@empoweredexplant.com

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Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/ilya-kuznetsov/anticipation

Disclaimer: This podcast does not constitute medical or mental health advice. Darnah is not a medical practitioner. She shares from personal experience, research, and conversations with other people. If you are experiencing symptoms, pain, post-surgery complications, or mental health concerns, please seek care from your medical provider or surgeon.


Darnah Mercieca:

Could the implants we got to make us feel sexier actually be aging us faster and stealing away our vitality? This is Empowered Explant the podcast helping women ditch their breast implants with confidence. I'm Darnah Mercieca board certified health and wellness coach and explant warrior. Aging is a natural part of life, but what if I told you that your breast implants might be speeding up that process? Today, we're diving deep into the ways that breast implants can contribute to premature aging, both inside and out. We'll explore everything from the superficial signs to the more hidden internal effects, and I just want you to know that everything that I'm talking about today is based on real stories from women like you, including my own personal journey and the incredible transformation I've seen in my mom. A quick disclaimer please know I'm not a medical doctor and this podcast does not constitute medical or mental health advice. I share from my personal experience, research and conversations with other people. If you're experiencing symptoms, pain, post-surgery complications or mental health concerns, please seek care from your medical provider or surgeon, and please make any medical decisions in consultation with a qualified and experienced healthcare professional.

Darnah Mercieca:

Let's start with something we talk about often in this community Inflammation. Chronic inflammation is like the dark angel of death lurking in the shadows, slowly chipping away at your health. I know that sounds morbid and dark, but it's true and it's the reason why chronic inflammatory diseases have been recognized as the most significant cause of death in the world today. In case you're not aware, breast implants cause chronic inflammation in our bodies. When your body is constantly fighting off something it sees as foreign, like breast implants, this inflammation can become a constant low-level stressor on your system. How much this actually affects us and shows up as symptomatic or visible depends on our body's ability to handle the inflammation and foreign objects, which has a lot to do with our genetics. But no one is completely unaffected, even if you're a beast and your body is really able to handle the implants. It's really just a matter of time. Now, how does this tie into aging? Well, inflammation doesn't just cause discomfort. It accelerates the aging process overall. Systemically, inflammation is linked to many of the things we associate with getting older right, like joint pain, muscle weakness and even cognitive decline. And if you've got BII or you're familiar with BII, some of this starts to sound familiar. It can also affect your hormones, pushing you into early menopause or throwing your immune system off balance. And when your immune system is compromised, your body's ability to repair and regenerate cells diminishes, leading to even more signs of aging.

Darnah Mercieca:

Now let's talk about the things we can actually see in the mirror. Okay, because I know that we be looking in the mirror a lot. I mean, let's face it, we do and we notice all the things. Okay, I mean, I'm 36 now and I am noticing all the things. And it really started to hit me when I had my breast implants and I was looking in the mirror and I was seeing, you know, noticeable signs of aging, and some of that is completely normal and beautiful and natural and just a part of life. But when it comes to, you know, talking about inflammation, it can cause major problems with your skin. It can lead to dullness, wrinkles, age spots, random lumps and bumps and pigmentation issues. We just start seeing all of these things that we're like that wasn't there. I don't remember seeing that, you know, and all of a sudden, these things, and I think you start to see it more and more and more. And then hair loss is another big one. You might notice thinning hair or even patches where hair just doesn't seem to grow back. And let's not forget about weight gain, with women having really stubborn weight gain, around the midsection especially, that just seems to be stubborn, no matter what you do.

Darnah Mercieca:

Now, these changes that we notice in our body, they can often make us feel older, older than we are for sure, and I think they're often just dismissed as normal, as just a part of getting older, right? I mean, how many times have you said I guess I'm just getting old? I know I have and did. I just thought, oh, I guess this just what happens when you hit your thirties. Um, you know, it's something that I heard my mom say a lot I'm just getting old, I'm just getting old. And it just frustrates me now when I hear that, because what if these signs are actually your body's way of telling you that something's wrong? They usually is right, it's not usually just getting old. And I think it's time for us to start really investigating that and not just settling. Not just settling for I guess I'm just getting old. Every time we feel something in our bodies that isn't quite right.

Darnah Mercieca:

And it's not just about the looks. I just want to make that clear. Just about the looks, I just want to make that clear. This is not just about looking in the mirror and looking older because, first of all, like I said earlier, aging can be a beautiful thing and not every wrinkle is bad. It doesn't mean you have to run out and get Botox and getting gray hairs and stuff like that. There are natural progressions to aging and then there are signs that our body is in a state of decline. But, like I said, it's not just about looks.

Darnah Mercieca:

The physical toll that it can take on us can be just as, if not more, significant, and I know a lot of women in this community can relate to this. So joint pain, posture changes, muscle weakness all of these things can make you feel like you're aging faster than you should be as well. Vision problems, fatigue and cognitive issues like memory loss and brain fog are all super common. Now I, just when I think about all of these feelings that I used to have, it makes me emotional, because I I just remember waking up every day and going like, oh, wow, like I just feel like I am getting older. I just feel like I can't do the things I used to do. I can't remember the way I used to. I can't even speak the way I used to or put together sentences or go for a nice day out or a hike Just so many things that changed and shifted for me.

Darnah Mercieca:

I've heard from so many women who feel like they're losing themselves, not just physically but mentally. It's as if the implants are stealing years from their lives. But, my dear breasties, there is hope from their lives. But, my dear breasties, there is hope. I recently asked women in a Facebook group to share their experiences with how their implants have aged them and what they had experienced. Let me tell you the response was overwhelming, which is scary because it goes to show that the breast implants are having an effect on women. But it also gives so much hope to hear from the women who have explanted and are feeling so much better and are seeing and feeling the shift in their youthfulness, in their vitality, in their energy. Over 60 women commented, sharing stories that echoed these exact struggles and also validated that explanting can make a big difference.

Darnah Mercieca:

Many women described how their implants made them look and feel years older than they actually were, only to have those symptoms reverse or improve dramatically after explant surgery. Some of the ladies have, for sure, aged backwards. They're posting photos and I just love seeing the before and after photos because that difference is really obvious sometimes, you know, you can see it in their face, you can see it in their eyes, you can see it just in the way they're carrying themselves and their posture. It's really cool to see, and a lot of them were just happy to return to their lighter, natural frame. You know, after noticing their implants making them look more matronly, dumpy and grandmotherly those were their words. I just I took their words and used them, because I just thought that it really painted a picture, and I think a lot of us can relate to that and how our implants make us feel after many years of carrying them around. It's incredible to hear these stories, though, because it just validates that we're not alone in this, we're not crazy, and while we are getting older, ladies and we cannot stop that maybe aging doesn't have to mean saying goodbye to our health and vitality.

Darnah Mercieca:

You know, before my own explant surgery, I was dealing with so many of these issues fatigue, memory loss, joint pain, weakness and just a general feeling of being old before my time. You know, I was like I am 30 years old. I am not ready to feel like this, but after removing my implants and kind of coming to terms that that's what I thought was wrong in my body and taking that chance of removing them and and um, and really betting on that. It was like hitting the reset button on my life, I kid you not. My energy came back, my memory and mental clarity improved. My physical fitness, just, I mean, took such a turn for the better. My posture shifted. I just remember immediately waking up from surgery and feeling like I was an inch or two taller just because I could sit up straight. I didn't have this weight kind of rounding my shoulders and I remember that feeling of just like I feel taller. So there were a lot of things. My skin got its youthful glow back. I didn't feel like that gray, kind of washed out, pasty, half dead look anymore and my hair actually started to regrow. So you know lots of cool things there.

Darnah Mercieca:

And then my mom is another incredible example. Oh my goodness, I just I've loved watching her transformation. So much she had been struggling with low energy, constant aches and pains and cognitive impairment that I mean it was scary how bad her memory was and how much she was struggling with brain fog and putting together sentences and things and it was really affecting her quality of life and her confidence. But after her explant surgery. It was like watching her come back to life. It was the most beautiful thing ever and, oh my gosh, like at 59. Now she is thriving, seriously. She started her own business. She hits the gym five days a week. She crushes it. She's more vibrant and full of life now than she has been in years.

Darnah Mercieca:

So you know, it's fun to see what the change looks like at both my age you know make explanting in my early thirties versus my mom who explanted in her later fifties, and just seeing how it made a big impact in both of our lives and kind of helped us both reverse the aging effects on our body, both internally and externally. And within three months after explanting I felt a huge improvement. But the real magic happened, I'm going to say, after about a year. That's when my body truly had the time to heal and regenerate from the inside out. It was a similar timeline for my mom as well. The difference was noticeable immediately for her, but after a year she was like a new person. It's important to remember that this timeline doesn't look the same for everyone. Okay, some women take longer to feel the improvements after explanting. But you know it makes sense.

Darnah Mercieca:

Our bodies have a ton of healing to do. They have to process everything, like the years of having implants and inflammation taking a toll on our body and our system. So it takes time for that to all reverse and to heal and improve. But there are things that you can do to support your body in getting its vitality back faster. Think of it as removing your breast implants being just one layer of this process, and that alone is addressing the root cause and will make a big difference. But your body needs to repair and the chances are your system is probably pretty compromised and needs help getting back on track.

Darnah Mercieca:

In my opinion, the key to bouncing back faster after surgery and experiencing a really noticeable transformation more quickly is preparing your body before surgery with things like the right nutrition and exercise, reducing toxic load in your environment, in your food, in your skincare, in your household products all the things increasing hydration and decreasing stress and worry I know there can be a lot of that leading up to eczema and then continuing to support your body with what it needs to repair during recovery, of course, and beyond. So you know this is a lifestyle change, especially if you want to reverse the effects of aging in your body. This you really have to show up for that. You know, it's not like, oh, I'm just going to take my implants out and then everything's going to be good. I mean, it's going to make a difference. Yes, of course it's going to make a difference, but like it's just. It's just so much more than just taking them out and then putting some fancy skincare on your face and being like all right, am I? Am I young yet? Um, so it's it.

Darnah Mercieca:

All of this really happens. All of this change really happens at a cellular level. It happens at an epigenetic level. It happens at a gut health level, at just like the deepest level you could possibly imagine. Your hormones come into play and this is just a new way of showing up for yourself and honoring your body. And it can be one of the best things to come out of this explant journey a complete transformation in your life and how you look after yourself.

Darnah Mercieca:

Aging doesn't have to feel like the life is slowly being drained from us. It shouldn't feel like that. It can and should be a gradual and healthy transition through the chapters of our lives. So are your breast implants aging you? If you're noticing these signs that I talked about, it might be worth considering. Trust me, your health, your energy and your sense of self are all too important to ignore this. Okay, I have a free symptoms tracker that lists all of the symptoms of breast implant illness, which are also very closely associated with the signs and symptoms of inflammation, which, as we discussed, causes aging. Okay, so if you want that symptoms tracker, you can download it at symptomsempoweredxplantcom. It might be helpful for you. I hope that this conversation was helpful.

Darnah Mercieca:

I think we talk about breast implants and breast implant illness a lot from a symptoms and illness perspective, but not so much from a aging perspective, and I think that that's so important because, let's face it, we want longevity, we want to feel good. We don't just want a long lifespan, we want a quality health. Health span meaning we want the years of our lives to feel good. We want the years of our lives to be filled with health and fun times and quality memories with loved ones and all of those good things. You um going after our dreams. Just all of the things that that I felt were being stripped away from me when I had breast implant illness, all of the things that I saw being stripped from mom when she had breast implant illness, and the amazing ladies in our community. We just deserve better and, and I think, instead of just band-aiding this with botox and energy drinks and too much coffee and uh, a gazillion supplements and like, put the band-aids away and address the root cause so that your body can do what it's supposed to do at a cellular level right, your body knows what it needs to do anyway.

Darnah Mercieca:

I feel like I could rant on this for so long, because because aging can feel good, and my life is now proof of that, thank God. Anyway, thank you for joining me today and listening to my rants. If this conversation resonated with you, please share it with the women in your life. The more we spread the word, the more we can help others reclaim their health and their beautiful, sexy, youthful energy. I'll see you here next week, rusty.