Cosmetic Surgery Blog

If only it were so easy—a pill to grow your breasts and a pill to decrease the size of your butt. Heavenly. You’d think it were possible after reading the barrage of spam emails and web advertisements claiming such. But, let’s get realistic.

Breast Enlargement Pills can work to some degree, but how and are they worth the risk? First, let’s look into the most common “natural herbs”  and ingredients found in breast enlargement pills and their effects on the body:

• Blessed Thistle ( Cnicus benedictus L.) – According to MedlinePlus, “Blessed thistle has been used traditionally to stimulate menstruation and abortion [miscarriage], and therefore should be avoided during pregnancy. Although blessed thistle has been used historically to stimulate breast.” Obviously Blessed Thistle affects your natural hormones, especially those related to breasts and reproductive systems.
• Damiana ( Turnera diffusa) - According to MedcicineNet, “ Damiana has been used for improving sexual function.” The possible harmful hormonal effects aren’t always going to be positive.
• Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis) – Dandelion affects your natural estrogen levels
• Dong Quai (Angelica sinensis) – According to the Mayo Clinic website, historically Dong Quai has been used for gynecological uses such as “Amenorrhea (lack of menstrual period), Dysmenorrhea (painful menstruation) , Menstrual migraine headache, Menopausal symptoms.”
• Motherwort ( Leonurus cardiaca ) – Motherwort has been known to affect estrogen levels.
• Saw Palmetto ( Serenoa repens) - Saw Palmetto also affects estrogen levels.
• Wild Yam ( Dioscorea Villosa) – Wild Yam, not related to the yams you would buy in the store, is known to affect estrogen levels.

Alarmingly, “Motherwort leaf, saw palmetto berry, Rhodiola rosea root, and red clover blossom interacted strongly with the rats’ estrogen receptors, indicating that they have a strong estrogen-like effect in the body. Dang gui root, black and blue cohosh, vitex berry, hops flower, wild yam, and licorice root also showed some estrogen-like effects. Maca root, cramp bark, and turmeric root showed the weakest estrogen effect. (WebMD)”

I personally believe that no increase in breast size, whether it be considerable or nominal, is worth the possible negative side effects. One could argue that no surgical breast size increase, such as with breast implants, would be worth the possible side effects—and this is a good point. However, breast enlargement pills are not regulated, nor are their long-term effects fully known. While breast implants can effect the body in a way that causes one to suffer localized issues (i.e. infection, inflammation, extrusion, etc.), they do not cause hormonal imbalances which can possibly cause long term health effects in other organs and tissues in the body.

Please consider your long-term health when taking any supplement, whether it be for breast augmentation, cholesterol lowering properties, or weightloss. I suggest carrying out extensive research before you even consider purchasing breast enhancement pills. A very interesting collection of information on bioactivity of progestin and estrogen affecting foods and supplements can be found here: http://www.cancersupportivecare.com/estrogenherbdata.html

Remember, just because they are found in a ‘healthfood store’, doesn’t mean that they are healthy. When in doubt (which you should be), get several opinions by a physician.