Pediatricians spend much time frightening parents with something like a 1 in 100,000 combined risk from vaccine-preventable diseases when parents question the utility and safety of vaccines…. Yet these very same professionals offer formula samples
with the other hand – when the magnitude of health risks associated with the use of formula is 500 times greater.” – Dr. Linda Folden Palmer, ‘The Deadly Influence of Formula’.
One of the most important things you can do for your baby is breast feed him. Breast milk is important because:
1. It is species appropriate milk. Human milk is meant for human babies.
2. It contains exactly the right levels of nutrients that he needs, unlike formula which is cow’s milk and tailored to a calf.
3. It contains long chain fatty acids essential for human brain growth, not included in most formulas.
4. It contains antibodies to disease and white blood cells for the immune system, not present in formula.
5. It fulfils a baby’s biological need to breast feed from it’s mother and helps to safeguard the baby’s emotional health throughout life.
6. Breast feeding mums don’t get as much breast cancer as mums who have never breast fed.
Breast Milk Kills Cancer!
One of the reasons we now have 1 in 3 people affected by cancer is that we are seeing a whole generation of people who were brought up on formula milk.
A few years ago immunology student, Anders Hakansson1, of Lund University, Sweden, was experimenting by mixing human milk, cancer cells and bacteria. To his surprise the cancer cells were “acting up”. Their volume was decreasing and their nuclei shrinking. Hakansson’s supervisor, Catharina Svanborg, quickly recognized that the cancer cells were committing suicide. The phenomenon of apoptosis, whereby the body rids itself of old and unnecessary cells was well known, however for this to occur with cancer cells was unknown as their usual pattern is to reproduce in an uncontrolled fashion. Something in the breastmilk caused the cancer cells to self-destruct. Svanborg and her team had already done extensive investigation in the ability of breastmilk to protect the gut lining from invasive bacteria such as pneumococcus that causes the increased rates of upper respiratory tract infections and otitis media in children not breastfed. And so they began to track down the cancer-killing component in breastmilk. Then in 1995 they reported2 that the protein alpha-lactalbumin, or alpha-lac for short, was capable of targeting not only cancer cells but also other immature and rapidly growing cells, leaving stable, mature cells for growth and development. Alpha-lac’s amazing capabilities may explain in part why formula fed infants suffer from increased rates of infectious diseases as well as childhood cancers.
References:
1. Discover Magazine, June 30, 1999
2. Hakahsson, A. et al. Apoptosis induced by a human milk protein. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 92:8064-8068, 1995
Breast Milk Kills Polio Says Inventor Of Polio Vaccine!
Did you know that Albert Sabin, inventor of the oral polio vaccine, did the first study on the anti-polio properties of breast milk? He infected mice with polio and then took breast milk from 71 American women and fed it to the mice. The breast milk had an 84% success rate at neutralising polio. (Albert Sabin and Howard Fieldsteel, ‘Anti-poliomyelitic Activity of Human and Bovine Colostrum and Milk’, Journal of Pediatrics, 29 (1962).
Here is another article talking about how breast milk kills polio:
Poliomyelitis antibodies in human colostrum and milk
Clarified human milk and serum from nursing mothers were tested against each of the three types of purified concentrated poliomyelitis antigens with the use of the microimmunodiffusion technique. Precipitin lines were obtained with both milk and serum. The continuity of the reaction lines of milk with those of the corresponding sera indicates that the antibody in milk is identical with that of serum.
Source:
Volume 64, Issue 1, January 1964, Pages 79-82
Here is a journal article commenting on the above study – although the author is mistaken that it was a landmark study. Two years before in 1962, Albert Sabin himself had already discovered breast milks power to kill polio.
50 Years Ago in The Journal of Pediatrics-Poliomyelitis antibodies in human colostrum and milk
Human milk was always thought to have specific factors to protect infants from poliovirus, but it wasn’t until this landmark study that definitive antibodies to the virus were described both in the mother’s milk and serum.1 These investigators sampled the milk and sera of four women in the colostrum phase and four women on the thirteenth day postpartum, and identified anti-poliovirus antibody using neutralization assays and micro-immunodiffusion methods. Similar methods of radial immunodiffusion and enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) assays are still used today to identify antigen-specific antibodies in the milk after viral exposure. More specifically since the article 50 years ago, a functional relevance can be observed. Anti-influenza IgA in human milk can be identified by ELISA at a higher concentration with resultant fewer febrile illnesses in infants of women vaccinated with influenza vaccine during pregnancy compared to controls2; however, further study is needed to determine the exact mechanisms of human milk immunologic protection against these infectious diseases. New methods in the laboratory have recently been described by Lemay et al3 can determine pathways involved in the mammary gland by identifying the transcriptome in the milk fat globule. These remarkable findings will not just describe the milk properties but provide the opportunity to design interventional trials on the mother to influence milk production in beneficial ways for the infant.
Source: J Pediatr. 2014 Jan; 164(1): 82.
Breast Milk Protects Against HIB and Meningitis
According to the journal of epidemiology, breast milk protects against HIB for up to 10 years after you have stopped breast feeding.
‘For each week of breast feeding, the protection improved.’ (Journal of Epidemiology, 1997, 26: 443-450).
Breast Milk Protects Against Whooping Cough, Strep B, HIB and Meningitis!
Tropical Pediatrics also found significant amounts of antibodies in breast milk to whooping cough, HIB, strep B infection and meningitis.
A study in Pediatrics found that breast milk prevented sepsis and meningitis in premature infants in the NICU.
‘Samples may indicate a protective role for breast milk against the four infections of early childhood.’ Tropical Pediatrics, 1989, 4: 226-232.
Human milk feedings and infection among very low birth weight infants. Pediatrics. 1998 Sep;102(3):E38
Breast Milk Can Protect Against Complications From Measles
Fatality from measles in third world children was REDUCED BY ONE THIRD in breast fed children, according to:
17. Lepage P. Munyakazi C, Hennart P. Breast feeding and hospital mortality in children from Rwanda. Lancet 1981;i:40911.
Breast Milk Protects Against Rotavirus/Diarrheoa
In a study in Brazil, dehydrating diarrhoea (defined by the presence of a persistent skinfold plus at least two other signs of dehydration) was 6.0 times more frequent among non-breastfed infants than among exclusively breastfed infants. If a child already had diarrhoea, the risk of developing dehydration was 3.3 times greater for the nonbreastfed infant.
A study in 2014 found rotavirus neutralising antibodies in almost half of breast milk and even mothers with low antibodies to it could neutralise vaccine rotavirus antibodies. This caused researchers to complain about breast milk ‘interfering’ with their vaccine!
Fuchs SC. Risk factors for dehydrating diarrhea: a case-control study. Ph.D. thesis, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1993.
Victora CG, Fuchs SC, Kirkwood BR, Lombardi C, Barros FC. Breastfeeding, nutritional status and other prognostic factors for dehydration among young children with diarrhoea: a casecontrol study. Bull WHO 1992;70:467-75.
Prevalence of rotavirus antibodies in breast milk and inhibitory effects to rotavirus vaccines, Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2014;10(12):3681-7. doi: 10.4161/21645515.2014.980204.
Breast Milk Protects Against Cholera
Epidemiologic studies show that breastfeeding protects against shigellosis and cholera. Breastmilk also contains antibodies against a large number of other gastrointestinal pathogens. It also protects against neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis.
Hanson LA, Ashraf R. Carlsson B. Mattsby-Baltzer I, Motas C, Hahn-Zoric M, Mata L, Herias V, Cruz JR, Lindblad BS, Karlberg J, Jalil F. The Second John Soothill Lecture: breastfeeding, infections and immunology. In: Chandra RK, ed. Nutrition and immunology. St. John’s, Canada: ARTS Biomedical Publishers and Distributors, 1992:45-60.
Lucal A, Cole TJ. Breast milk and neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis. Lancet 1990;336:1519-23
Breast Milk Can Protect Against Pneumonia
In Rwanda non-breastfed children were twice as likely as breastfed children to die of pneumonia.
Lepage P. Munyakazi C, Hennart P. Breast feeding and hospital mortality in children from Rwanda. Lancet 1981;i:40911.
Breast Milk Reduces Cot Death By 50%!
The German Study of Sudden Infant Death is a case-control study of 333 infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome and 998 age-matched controls.
RESULTS. A total of 49.6% of cases and 82.9% of controls were breastfed at 2 weeks of age. Exclusive breastfeeding at 1 month of age halved the risk, partial breastfeeding at the age of 1 month also reduced the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, but after adjustment this risk was not significant. Being exclusively breastfed in the last month of life/before the interview reduced the risk, as did being partially breastfed. Breastfeeding survival curves showed that both partial breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding were associated with a reduced risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
CONCLUSIONS. This study shows that breastfeeding reduced the risk of sudden infant death syndrome by ~50% at all ages throughout infancy.
Source: PEDIATRICS Vol. 123 No. 3 March 2009, pp. e406-e410.
Another study says:
Breastfeeding and the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
The New Zealand Cot Death Study, a multicentre case-control study, was set up to identify risk factors associated with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In the 3 years of the study there were 485 infant deaths classified as SIDS in the study areas and 1800 infants who were randomly selected as controls. Data were collected by parent interviews and from obstetric notes. A full set of data for this analysis was available from 356 cases and 1529 control infants. The relationship between length of any breastfeeding and SIDS was examined: 92% of the controls were initially breastfed compared to 86% of the cases. As time went by, cases stopped breastfeeding sooner than controls: by 13 weeks, 67% controls were breastfed versus 49% cases. A reduced risk for SIDS in breastfed infants persisted during the first 6 months after controlling for confounding demographic, maternal and infant factors. Infants exclusively breastfed ‘at discharge from the obstetric hospital’ (odds ratio [OR] = 0.52, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.35-0.71) and during the last 2 days (OR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.46-0.91) had a significantly lower risk of SIDS than infants not breastfed after controlling for potential confounders. We have shown a substantial association of breastfeeding with a lowered risk for SIDS. This supports the need for more positive promotion and active community support to further enhance the level and length of exclusive breastfeeding.
Source:
Int J Epidemiol. 1993 Oct;22(5):885-90.
Me breastfeeding Yanny – one day after his home delivery
Breast Milk Kills HIV!
HIV can be transmitted from mother to her child through nursing. But a surprising ingredient in an HIV-positive mother’s milk may protect her baby against infection.
Researchers at Duke University have discovered an antibody in the breast milk of HIV-infected mothers that neutralizes the virus and prevents it from passing to their children.
The antibody may explain why surprisingly few breastfed infants get HIV from their mothers.
Source: Daily RX, 26th May 2012.
VAN UK’S COMMENT: Then instead of going ‘Yes, let’s get all women breastfeeding, how wonderful is nature?’, they just go wow, we can make billions of bucks on yet more vaccines, why not, everyone formula feeds anyway. How infuriating!
Protection of Infants by Maternal Antibodies
A paper about maternal antibodies (through placenta and breast milk) states:
‘Pertussis notification data from the prevaccine era provide indirect evidence that maternal antibodies provide short lived protection against fatal pertussis by demonstrating that the rate of pertussis deaths in the first month of life was approximately one-third of that in the second and third months of life.24 In contrast, pertussis surveillance data in the vaccine era no longer demonstrate a substantial difference in pertussis-related mortality between the first and second months of life (Table 1). 25 This could be the consequence of reduced levels of circulation of Bordetella pertussis in young women of childbearing age after the introduction of mass immunization.’
So women who had had pertussis as children used to be able to confer transplacental immunity to their babies which would protect them in the vulnerable neonatal period, leading to a lower death rate from pertussis in the first month of life which was lower than it is now. After vaccination of mothers, the number of babies dying in the first month increased as a result of their vaccinated mothers having a reduced ability to confer immunity to them. This means that vaccination is destroying natural immunity and actually putting newborns at INCREASED RISK of dying of pertussis.
Although this review stated that transplacental immunity only lasted a month, other studies say it lasts longer (and this review in particular was advocating vaccination of mothers so that should be taken into consideration when reading it).
http://journals.lww.com/pidj/Fulltext/2005/05001/Role_of_Maternal_Pertussis_Antibodies_in_Infants.12.aspx#P19
Breast Milk Stopped Mice Being Infected With Pertussis!
Colostrum samples from Indonesian mothers were assayed for antibodies which agglutinate Bordetella pertussis and for antibodies to the filamentous hemagglutinin and the lymphocytosis-promoting factor of B. pertussis. Agglutinins were assayed by a microtiter method, and 36 of 58 samples tested (62%) had titers above 1:10 (range, less than 1:10 to 1:160). An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay detected anti-filamentous hemagglutinin in 39 of 60 samples (65%) and anti-lymphocytosis-promoting factor in 26 of 60 samples assayed (43%). A total of 52 samples (87%) were positive for at least one of these antibodies. Pooled colostrum samples were separated by affinity chromatography into fractions enriched secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) or IgG and examined for their ability to passively protect suckling mice from aerosol challenge with B. pertussis. Samples (160 micrograms of protein) were given intraperitoneally 90 min before challenge. Death, rate of gain in body weight, and leukocytosis were used as indicators of illness. Colostrum containing anti-lymphocytosis-promoting factor or agglutinins was protective, whereas colostrum lacking these but containing anti-filamentous hemagglutinin gave little protection. The sIgA-enriched and IgG-enriched fractions appeared to be equal in their ability to protect against respiratory challenge with B. pertussis.
Source: Infect Immun. 1985 February; 47(2): 441–445. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC263189/
Anti-rotavirus Antibodies in Human Milk: Quantification and Neutralizing Activity
Objective: To analyze anti-rotavirus antibodies in human milk in order to determine their isotypes and neutralizing activity on rotavirus strains representing different viral serotypes.
Methods: One hundred seventy-three milk samples (65 colostrum, 55 transitional milk and 53 mature milk) obtained from 65 mothers were analyzed along with 49 serum samples collected just before delivery. Total immunoglobulin A (IgA) and rotavirus-specific IgA and immunoglobulins G (IgG) antibodies were determined in milk and serum by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Neutralizing activity was evaluated by an immunoperoxidase focus reduction assay. Milk IgA was purified by binding to the lectin jacalin, elution and ultrafiltration.
Results: Total IgA antibodies were detected in all serum and milk samples analyzed. IgA levels decreased sharply during the replacement of colostrum by transitional milk, and more gradually from transitional to mature milk. These differences in IgA concentration during the 3 periods were statistically significant. Anti-rotavirus antibodies detected in human milk were exclusively of the IgA type, whereas both IgA and IgG anti-rotavirus antibodies were present in serum samples. Both milk and serum samples showed in vitro neutralization of the infectivity of rotavirus strains SA11, Wa and VA70, this activity being stronger toward the human rotavirus strain Wa. No correlation was however found between the inhibitory effect on rotavirus and the concentrations of IgA in human milk and serum samples.
Conclusion: Anti-rotavirus antibodies are only partly responsible for the neutralizing activity detected in milk and serum. This result suggests that other components possessing suppressive activity against rotavirus must also be present.
Source:
VAN UK’S COMMENT: Notice the last paragraph, there is more than just antibodies that are responsible for immunity and scientists don’t know what. Their understanding of natural immunity is very limited.
Breast Milk and Transplacental Immunity to Pertussis
Although acquisition of anti-pertussis antibodies by the newborn via placental transfer has been demonstrated, a subsequent recrudescence of pertussis infection is often observed, particularly in infants. The present study investigated the passive transfer of anti-pertussis IgG and IgA antibodies to term newborns and their ability to neutralize bacterial pathogenicity in an in vivo experimental model using mice intracerebrally challenged with viable Bordetella pertussis. Forty paired samples of maternal/umbilical cord sera and colostrum were obtained. Anti-pertussis antibodies were analysed by immunoenzymatic assay and by Immunoblotting. Antibody neutralizing ability was assessed through intracerebral B. pertussis challenges in mice. Anti-pertussis IgG titres were equivalent in both maternal and newborn sera (medians = 1:225 and 1:265), with a transfer rate of 118%. The colostrum samples had variable specific IgA titres (median = 1:74). The immunoblotting assays demonstrated identical recognition profiles of paired maternal and newborn serum pools but different bacterial recognition intensities by colostrum pools. In the animal model, significant differences were always observed when the serum and colostrum samples and pools were compared with the positive control (P < 0.05). Unlike samples with lower anti-pertussis titres, samples with high titres showed protective capacities above 50%. Pertussis–absorbed serum and colostrum pools protected 30% of mice and purified IgG antibodies protected 65%. Both pooled and single-sample protective abilities were correlated with antibody titres (P < 0.01). Our data demonstrated the effectiveness of anti-pertussis antibodies in bacterial pathogenesis neutralization, emphasizing the importance of placental transfer and breast-feeding in protecting infants against respiratory infections caused by Bordetella pertussis.
Source: Scandinavian Journal of Immunology
Volume 72, Issue 1, pages 66–73, July 2010, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3083.2010.02410.x/fullhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3083.2010.02410.x/full
Breast Milk Protects Your Baby From gastroenteritis, septicemia, otitis media, urinary tract infection, encephalitis, pneumonia, and necrotizing enterocolitis
Antibodies in milk
The immaturity of the infant’s immune system and the rapid evolution of pathogens has created a demand for the mother to provide ready made specific defence factors to her offspring. This is achieved during the fetal period by transplacental transport of IgG antibodies, and after birth via IgA antibodies in the breast milk. The breast milk also contains a variety of nonspecific defence factors contributing to its antimicrobial effect. Breast feeding has been shown to decrease morbidity in gastroenteritis, septicemia, otitis media, urinary tract infection, encephalitis, pneumonia, and necrotizing enterocolitis. The antibody content in the mother’s milk probably contributes not only to the immediate but also to the long term protection of the infant including both resistance to infection and development of immunological tolerance to harmless environmental antigens.
Source: J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia. 1996 Jul;1(3):243-9.
If 80% of U.S Women Breastfed, it Would Save 741 Lives and if 90% Breastfed, it Would Save 911 Lives per Annum
The burden of suboptimal breastfeeding in the United States: a pediatric cost analysis.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:
A 2001 study revealed that $3.6 billion could be saved if breastfeeding rates were increased to levels of the Healthy People objectives. It studied 3 diseases and totaled direct and indirect costs and cost of premature death. The 2001 study can be updated by using current breastfeeding rates and adding additional diseases analyzed in the 2007 breastfeeding report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
STUDY DESIGN:
Using methods similar to those in the 2001 study, we computed current costs and compared them to the projected costs if 80% and 90% of US families could comply with the recommendation to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months. Excluding type 2 diabetes (because of insufficient data), we conducted a cost analysis for all pediatric diseases for which the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reported risk ratios that favored breastfeeding: necrotizing enterocolitis, otitis media, gastroenteritis, hospitalization for lower respiratory tract infections, atopic dermatitis, sudden infant death syndrome, childhood asthma, childhood leukemia, type 1 diabetes mellitus, and childhood obesity. We used 2005 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention breastfeeding rates and 2007 dollars.
RESULTS:
If 90% of US families could comply with medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, the United States would save $13 billion per year and prevent an excess 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants ($10.5 billion and 741 deaths at 80% compliance).
CONCLUSIONS:
Current US breastfeeding rates are suboptimal and result in significant excess costs and preventable infant deaths. Investment in strategies to promote longer breastfeeding duration and exclusivity may be cost-effective.
Source: Pediatrics. 2010 May;125(5):e1048-56. doi: 10.1542/peds.2009-1616. Epub 2010 Apr 5.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20368314
Breast Milk Protects Newborns From Diseases Much Like Vaccines
Probably we all are aware of the superpowers of breast milk. Mother’s milk contains proteins, vitamins, minerals, lipids and carbohydrates, making it the optimal source of nutrition for babies.
Packed with nutrients and antibodies, breast milk helps infants fight off viruses and bacteria. Now findings from a new study suggest that mother’s milk has the potential to protect newborns from disease much like vaccines.
According to the study, feeding newborns with breast milk may boost their immunity in such a way that it may combat certain infectious diseases like tuberculosis (TB) just as vaccination does.
Whether a newborn is vaccinated or not is an extremely controversial topic these days. It is widely believed that giving vaccinating infants can be harmful as it might not protect the infants against the diseases as thought, while, on the other hand, breast milk can safely protect them against life-threatening diseases without posing any health threat.
Scientists already know breastfeeding improves the immunity of child against some infectious disease by transferring antibodies through “passive immunity.” But this is for the first time the latest study found that instead of passive the immunity, mother’s milk also helps in promoting her baby’s own immune system by a process known as “maternal educational immunity.”
According to the researchers, some specific immune cells from mother’s milk cross the intestinal wall of baby to enter the immune organ called thymus. Once these cells reach thymus gland, they educate new cells how to attack the infectious organisms.
Source: Health News Line 10th October 2016.
