Breastmilk medicine
Breastmilk medicine refers to the non-nutritional usage of human breast milk (HBM) as a medicine or therapy to cure diseases. Breastmilk is perceived as an important food that provides essential nutrition to infants. It also provides protection in terms of immunity by direct transfer of antibodies from mothers to infants. The immunity developed via this mean protects infants from diseases such as respiratory diseases, middle ear infections, and gastrointestinal diseases. HBM can also produce lifelong positive therapeutic effects on a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes mellitus, obesity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmunity, and asthma. Therapeutic use of breastmilk has long been a part of natural pharmacopeia, and ethnomedicine. The effectiveness of HBM and fresh colostrum as a treatment for inflammatory disorders such as rhinitis, skin infection, soring nipples, and conjunctivitis has been reported by public health nurses. Currently, many breastmilk components have shown therapeutic benefits in preclinical studies and are being evaluated by clinical studies. Anti-inflammatory effect of breastfeeding HBM can be used to treat inflammations. Breastfeeding has an anti-inflammatory effect that is conveyed by its chemical components’ interaction with body cells. The major chemical component that produces the anti-inflammatory effect in both colostrum and transitional milk are glycoprotein