What does traditional Chinese medicine believe is the cause of breast hyperplasia?

Fibrocystic breast disease is a relatively common breast disease. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, poor liver and kidney health can easily cause mental and physical distress. It is easy to cause qi stagnation, qi and blood imbalance, etc., and these qi and blood imbalances are easy to stagnate inside the breast, causing blockage in the breast meridians. When the meridians are blocked, pain will occur, leading to breast pain and breast hyperplasia.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the liver and kidney meridians are most closely related to the breasts, followed by the Chong and Ren meridians. Liver depression, qi stagnation, and emotional injury have an important influence on the pathogenesis of breast ulcers. Usually, people are depressed, have stagnant qi, and have loose circulation of qi and blood, which accumulate in the breast and stomach meridians. The breast meridians are blocked, which causes pain and breast pain.

The liver qi goes against the flow and attacks the stomach, the spleen fails to function properly, phlegm and turbidity are generated internally, qi stagnation and blood stasis cause phlegm to gather into a nodule, which follows the meridians and accumulates in the breast, thus forming lumps in the breast. Liver and kidney deficiency and Chong and Ren meridian disorders are also important causes of breast problems. Kidney is the foundation of the five internal organs. Kidney Qi transforms into Tiangui, which stimulates Chong and Ren. Chong and Ren start from the uterus and connect to the breast. The Qi and blood of Chong and Ren go up to milk and go down to menstruation. If the kidney qi is insufficient, the Chong and Ren meridians are out of balance, qi and blood stagnate, and blood stasis accumulates in the breasts and uterus, or there may be breast pain and lumps, or menstrual disorders.

It is a consensus in the academic community that the main cause of breast hyperplasia is endocrine hormone imbalance. However, there is no unified and clear understanding of which hormones become disordered in what environment.

The more classic etiology theory is that the balance between estrogen and progesterone is unbalanced, manifested by a decrease in progesterone secretion during the luteal phase and a relative increase in the amount of estrogen, which causes long-term estrogen stimulation of breast tissue and a lack of the restraint and protection of progesterone. The mammary ducts and lobules proliferate excessively and incompletely during the repetitive menstrual cycle, thus leading to the occurrence of fibrocystic breast disease. In recent years, many scholars believe that increased prolactin is also an important factor causing breast hyperplasia. In addition, studies have shown that hormone receptors also play an important role in the pathogenesis of breast hyperplasia.

It is generally believed that multiple factors such as nerves, immunity and trace elements can cause imbalance of various endocrine hormones in the body. The external environment in which people live, work and living conditions, interpersonal relationships, neuropsychiatric factors caused by various stresses, etc. can all change the internal environment of the human body, thereby affecting the function of the endocrine system and causing abnormal secretion of one or several hormones. For example, under long-term state of tension and anxiety, opioid tension increases, the neurotransmitter environment changes, and estrogen/dopamine disharmony occurs, which leads to increased PRL secretion and may cause or aggravate breast hyperplasia.