Vitamin supplementation may reduce breast pain and swelling, but studies are inconclusive. Vitamins that have been suggested include vitamin-B6, 100 to 200mg a day throughout the cycle (taken in combination with all the other B vitamins) evening of primrose oil capsules two to six a day, and vitamin-E 400 to 800 IU daily.

One double blind controlled study showed vitamin-E had no effect on breast pain. However, a group of Welsh doctors found evening of primrose oil, taken on a regular basis relieved cyclical breast pain in 20 percent of women.

Avoidance of caffeine has helped some women, although not proven in studies. A low fat diet has been studied and shown to have some effect on breast pain.

American gynecologist Dr. Christiane Northrup advises women to follow a diet high in whole grains and fibre and low in fat. She also recommends a three month trial off all dairy products. After the three months period, she recommends adding back low fat dairy food to see if they can be tolerated.

Dr. Northrup also recommends hot castor oil packs applied to the breasts three times a week for one hour for two or three months. (with maintenance afterwards of once a week).

Dr. John Lee, a clinical instructor at the University of California Department of Family Medicine, has had success using a two ounce jar of three percent natural progesterone cream for the last two weeks of the cycle for a total of three to six months. Maintenance is half a jar per month. This cream can be made up by any pharmacist.

Danazol has been used to treat women with severe FCBD, unresponsive to any of the above treatments. The effects of prolonged use of danazol are unclear.

All of the above treatments are symptomatic, that is, they deal only with the symptoms of FCBD, but do not reverse the cysts and scars. Elemental iodine is the only treatment so far that is able to get rid of symptoms and heal cysts and scars.

Making The Iodine Connection

Dr. John Myers, a Baltimore gynecologist with a special interest in metabolic disease, was the among the first to recognize the importance of iodine to the breast and ovary. He found that he could completely reverse fibrocystic breast disease using iodine orally and vaginally along with trace mineral elements (still available from 1-800-232-3183) given under the tongue, and magnesium, given intravenously. Cystic breasts would soften quickly under this regimen, sometimes immediately.

Dr. Jonathan Wright, author and medical doctor specializing in nutritional medicine, has had excellent results using an adaptation of the Myer's program. Besides using a program of vitamins and iodine by mouth, Wright paints Lugol's solution onto the vaginal wall of women with FCBD, and three to five minutes later injects 300mg of magnesium into a vein. (Beforehand, he advises checking for iodine sensitivity by painting a small amount of iodine onto the vagina and waiting 2-3 minutes). Treatments are continued until the breasts have returned to normal (on the average of 3 to 5 treatments), and followed by a maintenance program of oral supplements and iodine.

Dr. Bernard Eskin, Professor of Reproductive Endocrinology and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Pennyslvania in Philadelphia produced an animal model for FCBD in the rat. In 1970, Dr. Eskin's exhaustive study of the female rat breast and the changes produced by an iodine deficient diet was published in the annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. The microscopic changes in the rat breast closely resembled those seen in human breasts.

Eskin and his colleagues had earlier demonstrated the presence of elemental iodine in lobules of rat breast tissue. Strum demonstrated the same distribution in the female human breast.

Research papers between 1910 and 1960 showed an association between both benign and cancerous breast changes with hypothyroidism.

In 1960, two Russian researchers reported a 70 percent improvement in women with FCBD after treatment with sodium iodide. This was the first clinical suggestion in the literature that iodine played a significant role in human breast disease. In the 1970's, Dr. Eskin and Dr. Ghent decided to collaborate on clinical research on the relationship between FCBD and iodine deficiency.