[imagesource:pickpik]

It may seem like the sort of advice you’d get from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, but people have been using breast milk for reasons other than feeding babies for a very long time.

Even as far back as the first century, Pliny the Elder suggested it for fever, and gout, as well as treating toxic bug bites. Breast milk was recommended for a variety of diseases in 17th and 18th century England and America, including consumption and blindness.

But lately, breastmilk has been touted as a ‘wellness elixir’, and even a cure for hangovers by numerous so-called wellness gurus. Most of it is snake oil advice, despite science showing that there might be some benefits, and researchers are taking another look.

Historically, the mammary gland has been “highly understudied and underappreciated”, says Lars Bode, a professor and founding director of the Human Milk Institute at the University of California San Diego.

Despite the stigma that surrounds breastfeeding kids over a certain age (remember the furore over Sonja Heroldt breastfeeding her son into pre-teens?), Bode believes that although human milk is not made for adults, it doesn’t mean there can’t be potential benefits.

Breast milk has three unique stages: colostrum, transitional milk, and mature milk. It includes lipids, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. It also contains complex carbohydrates known as human milk oligosaccharides, which are vital for health and development.

In addition, breast milk contains the hormones, stem cells, and immunological components, including antibodies and antioxidants, that protect a newborn from sickness.

Despite all this, Katie Hinde, an associate professor at Arizona State University who studies lactation, believes that the possible health benefits to adults are relatively small.

Adults have higher stomach acidity, which is “going to break down more of the protective factors in milk”. For most, the ability to effectively digest milk worsens with age, meaning adults may not be able to absorb beneficial nutrients as well as kids can.

“For your typical healthy adult, I think the effects are likely to be very, very small. But it’s possible that people who are vulnerable could potentially benefit from it.”

Milk composition also varies wildly depending on the environment, the needs of the mother and infant, and the dynamic between them. “It also changes throughout feeding. This is true across mammal species”, says Hinde.

“In that sense, milk is more unique than a fingerprint.”

But some adults with immune issues,  like cancer patients, have reported feeling relief after consuming breast milk. Early research also suggests specific sugar compounds in breast milk can possibly relieve chemotherapy side effects. Most of these cases still need further research, which is why experts are now looking into it.

One thing all the experts agree on, however, is that it’s not safe to drink breast milk bought online from strangers.

“Human milk can be a vector for diseases, and purchasing it from unregulated platforms is setting yourself up to get sick.”

Yet, people will believe anything and there are numerous adverts online selling breastmilk to help with athletic gains and erectile dysfunction. Costs of online breast milk can vary, with some reports putting it at $1.50 for 28 grams and others at $10 for the same amount. One woman even went viral after revealing that she’s made more than $13,000 by selling her breast milk to bodybuilders.

Before you start pumping body-building juice, it’s worth repeating: There are no research-proven health benefits of breast milk for adults.

Diane Spatz, a nurse scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, does however believe there is merit to claims that people use breast milk to treat infants’ minor ear or eye infections.

Human milk contains macrophages, a type of white blood cell that kills microorganisms and initiates immune responses, so when the milk is fresh, it can “eat up any bacteria that could be on the site.”

Researchers at a lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are however interested in how breast milk can benefit mothers. Studying breast milk, they say, “helps us understand individual breast cancer risk and, most importantly, it could give women an opportunity to do something to potentially change that risk”.

Breast milk can act as a “liquid biopsy” and is a non-invasive method of obtaining breast tissue: just a few millilitres contain millions of cells, including those that show changes linked to breast cancer risk.

One day, the hope is that when new mothers come to the hospital for a check-up for their baby, doctors could also take and evaluate a sample of their milk.

People will likely continue to use breast milk as an at-home remedy despite the effects never being validated by science, and it remains common to find online discussions of alternative uses for breast milk, including in soaps and hair masks.

Unfortunately, breast milk as a hangover cure has been thoroughly debunked, but according to my grandmother, smearing your face with a cut potato before passing out works just as well.

[source:guardian]