Latoferrin Essay

Lactoferrin also could be used potentially to help treat some auto-immune diseases. Sufferers of arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and even septic shock could benefit from Lactoferrin’s ability to keep the immune system in check and from over-reacting. In studies, it was found that Lactoferrin reduced the mortality of pigs introduced to septic shock by twenty five percent. It was also show to reduce the blood-toxin levels in rats in another study. Lactoferrin’s many properties, lowering inflammatory over reactions of the immune system, boosting the immune system’s activity, fighting bacteria and viruses, and even still working as it’s broken down in the gut as it moves through the urinary tract, reducing urinary tract infections. The wide range of
benefits Lactoferrin has makes it a great candidate for research on how it can benefit other people besides just breast fed babies. (“Milk Therapy”). Researches know that breastmilk can kill bacteria, and stop cancer in its tracks, and are working on getting those benefits available to people. Breastmilk may not just be a killer of bad things though. New studies have found that breaskmilk contains certain stem cells. Early research has found a stem cell marker, nestin, in breastmilk. If these stem cells can be isolated, the effects on stem cell research could be huge. Research now needs to be done to see if these cell that have the properties of stem cells, do the same thing that stem cells do, and that is heal. (“Cancer”). If breastmilk stem cells are able to be used in traditional stem cell research, that research could grow substantially. Stem cells from breastmilk would be valuable to researches because of it is plentiful and can easily and ethically be collected. That could lead to new discoveries for regenerative medicine and cell replacement therapies (“Dawn of a New Discovery”). Diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal injuries could also benefit from the stem cells found in breastmilk with continued research. (“Cancer”). Other people besides babies ingesting whole breastmilk to cure, treat, or relieve symptoms of a variety of ailments hasn’t had many clinical studies done. While history has shown many uses of consuming breastmilk, from Egyptians to Albert Sabin showing it helped mice recover from polio, there’s a lack of research to show the real benefits, if any, of adults consuming breastmilk. It hasn’t stopped people from using it though, claiming it helps slow the progression of cancer, or hoping that consuming it will give them some of the same benefits breast fed babies have to their immune system, helping them get better, faster. (“Cancer”). Doctors highly recommend breastfeeding babies for a reason.
Breast milk if full of many things that provide more than just nutrition. The research on all the different components of breastmilk and how they can be used to help so many people in a huge variety of way, shows just how amazing breastmilk really is.
“The greatest beneficiaries currently are breastfed infants, ingesting thousands to millions of these cells every day from mother’s milk, even late in lactation. As we learn more about their multipotent nature, origin, and regulation, we will be able to use them to answer questions that have long preoccupied lactation biologists and health professionals, such as why some women do not produce sufficient volumes of milk, whereas others have an oversupply. Importantly, their discovery now reveals a component of breast milk that will never exist in artificial formulas, generating numerous implications for public policy on early infant nutrition.” (“Dawn of a New Discovery”) Breastmilk isn’t just for babies anymore. While that is, and always will be, the main purpose and priority even, of breastmilk, the doors are wide open for continued research into the many things that the components of breastmilk could
treat.