Breast Lumps
A Brief Discussion

Note: The following is for informational purposes only.

What are those breast lumps?

Basically, a clumping together of cells within the breast tissues. Some women say they feel like marbles under the skin, other say they are like lumpy bags. However described, nearly two-thirds of women at some time in their life experience them.

These lumps are hormonally influenced, changing size and shape according to the menstrual cycle. They literally enlarge and swell up and become most painful just prior to menses.

Are these lumps dangerous?

Usually these lumps are not dangerous in and of themselves. Breasts with extensive lumps or bumps do make it more difficult for radiologists to interpret mammograms when screening for certain disorders. Their presence can hide suspicious lesions from being discovered until a much later date.

Estrogens are known to increase the size and proliferation of these breast lumps. Although controversial, birth control pills have been given in the hopes of shrinking them. In my experience, birth control pills can make matters much worse. (Remember, birth control pills contain synthetic hormone mimics, not true human bio-identical hormones.)

Breast lumps and iodine deficiency

What is not known – in fact, virtually unknown in mainstream medicine – is that these lumps are almost always associated with significant iodine insufficiency or depletion. 

What is also not generally known is the female breast requirement for iodine is actually as much or higher than the thyroid’s requirement. It is not a coincidence that women who have thyroid problems usually have these lumpy tissues in their breasts. Iodine deficiency is a body-wide condition. If your thyroid is lacking in iodine, so are your breasts.

Breasts, ovaries and iodine

This also explains why women seem to be affected more often than men by low iodine symptoms. The physiologic fact is that a woman’s breasts require nearly twice the amount of iodine supplementation on a daily basis than the average man.

Another organ that requires a lot of iodine are the ovaries. One observation that made me question over the years is why do women seem to develop a rapid presentation of low iodine problems just after childbirth?

Iodine used up during pregnancy

I think the reason is that ovarian consumption of iodine goes way up during pregnancy. Because Nature is intent on preserving the fetus at all costs, iodine gets drained from other sources during pregnancy. Once you give birth, the body can be totally depleted of its iodine stores. Add on a nursing mother’s enlarged breasts demanding more iodine and bingo – overt signs develop.

You can now see the complex interaction of female physiology on something as simple as iodine. If you start out with minimal stores of iodine to begin with, fail to add sufficient iodine over the years and then navigate the female requirements for iodine to thyroid, breast and ovarian tissues, then it should not come as a surprise that most women are moderately to severely deficient in iodine.

Keep in mind that most men are also deficient in iodine, just not as severely as women.

Iodine for improved health

The good news is that many health-related issues can be helped with iodine. Do remember that iodine is just one of many deficiencies that the modern woman (and man) is experiencing. Please see my articles on Other Hormones on this website describing the myriad of other deficiencies that you may have as well.

Andrew Jones, M.D