“I just shot a glass of breast milk because I feel sick 🤧 good night!” Kourtney Kardashian Barker wrote on one Instagram story 224 million followers in April 2024.
Her comments drew shock, horror and disgust from many social media users, but this isn't the primary time Kardashian-Barker has used her milk as medicine. In 2013, she applied breast milk to her sister Kim Kardashian's leg. Heal a patch of psoriasis.
The Kardashians are often trendsetters. But by drinking her mother's milk, the eldest Kardashian sister helped promote a health trend that predates centuries of medical history.
After giving birth to Rocky, her child with Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker, Kourtney clearly desired to put her extra breast milk to good use again. But is there any evidence that human milk is an efficient treatment for the disease?
Production of Milk describes mammals.. Every mammal produces milk that’s tailored to their offspring over hundreds of years of evolution. Human milk packs a punch, in addition to providing all of the energy and nutrients a newborn must grow. Additional ingredients Which helps in the event of the immune system.
gave World Health Organization Recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the primary six months of life. Once solid food is introduced, This is recommended that breastfeeding continues for 2 years and beyond. One thing that isn’t beneficial by any health organization is the adult consumption of human milk.
A history of human milk as medicine
Historically, there have been reports of human milk as a cure for a variety of ailments. Physician and naturalist Thomas Muffet Claimed in 1584 that human milk is “good not only for small and tender infants, but also for ripening men and women, who are reduced to compounds by age or disease”.
In the 18th century it was also used Feeding adults with consumption disease (now referred to as pulmonary tuberculosis). Many healers of the day also beneficial treating eye infections with human milk, referred to as “white blood”.
We know that human milk incorporates Many ingredients which could also be effective as antimicrobials Lactoferrin And antimicrobial peptides, for instance. However, there is no such thing as a strong evidence to suggest that human milk might be used to treat illness and infection in adults.
Bodybuilders think breasts are best.
Some people also use human milk. Body builders To lose fat and bulk up. it’s Created an online marketplace Allows quick access to breast milk.
The 2020 Netflix series (Un)Well features an episode that focuses on safety and ethics. Breast milk for bodybuilding. The process was found to be expensive and dangerously unorganized.
As with any private and unregulated market, there are risks, a very powerful on this case being microbiological contamination. This can come through the expression process and will likely be related to the handling and cleansing of pumps and tubing.
This might be easily reduced by following health authority guidelines (such as from the UK's NHS). Contamination of expressed milk might be made worse by improper storage, resembling greater than a couple of hours at room temperature or a couple of days within the refrigerator, before freezing at about -20°C.
Unless they’ve a well-equipped microbiological testing laboratory at home, individuals who buy human milk haven’t any technique to test the security of their purchase. But researchers Children's hospitals across the country In the US, human milk purchased through informal networks has been shown to exhibit high levels of microbiological contamination. One in ten samples was found to contain formula milk or cow's milk.
Lack of research into potential advantages
There isn’t any evidence that using human milk is useful for the treatment of diseases in adults. However, that doesn't mean it won't come. Considering that human milk feeds many of the world's population for the primary six months of life, this can be a surprisingly understudied area.
Researchers have shown. Preliminary evidence that specific components of human milk have antimicrobial activity against pathogens infecting adults. This could provide latest ways to treat infections in the long run, however the work will take time and resources to get to that time.
Although there is no such thing as a profit to drinking human milk for adults, there’s considerable evidence of advantages for infants. For those that are unable to acquire their very own breast milk, WHO recommends A supply of donor human milk that’s processed by regulated milk banks to make sure its safety. This will often include screening of the donor and donated milk, in addition to blood donations, and pasteurization to inactivate viruses and other microorganisms.
Kourtney Kardashian Barker may find she has an additional amount of expressed milk in her future. If she does, there are various. Human milk banks In her native California that will welcome her donation. It will profit vulnerable infants in a way that’s strongly supported by evidence.