Using human breast milk to cure Lyme symptoms?

Your instincts are correct. ;)
I have read breast milk as one of the viable ways of recolonizing gut flora along with fecal transplant. I'll try to find that article…

Fecal transplants are evolving and becoming not only easier but they've proved permanent recolonization within the intestines.

But it is also proved that only one abx dose wipes it all out again (and that most natural antibacterial herbs do damage as well—just not as much.)

That is why I caved when my LLMD encouraged abx for me. I am relying on science to catch up and help me find a way—down the line—to rebuild once I'm past treatment. But as we all know, what we do right now during tx to minimize damage is also as important as the tx itself.

-p

But when the milk can carry the Lyme bacteria, just how safe is it?

I suppose that the bacteria would need to populate the mammary milk glands in the breast for it to get into the milk.

Do you think it might be possible for the bacteria to survive living in milk? which I suppose it would be a very hostile environment to the bacteria. I say hostile environment because the milk is high in antibacterials, antivirals, full of probiotics, etc.

Interesting stuff.

A good alternative to consider is colostrum. You can use this to help boost the immune systems production of antibodies. That is what I am taking now. This is also one of the key things in mothers milk that helps boost the immune system.

Post Edited (LymePickle) : 1/9/2015 10:58:52 PM (GMT-7)

WalkingbyFaith said...
So, anyone here ever tried human breast milk or know anyone who has (for Lyme or anything else)?

What if the "or, anything else" involved someone dressing like a French maid?

On second thought, never mind.

Actually, it's an interesting idea. There's a series on Netflix called (Un)Well that dedicates one of its episodes to people using breast milk in bodybuilding. There's an episode on bee venom therapy, too. https://www.netflix.com/title/81044208

The Dude Abides said...
So, I just spent more time searching Google on the topic, and, boy...did I find a lot of weird stuff. Some interesting stuff, too...but, mostly weird. Apparently, my personal life has been rather mundane.

lol! my first thoughts when i read " spent some time searching Google on the topic...." were Whoa! - Brace yourself for that page refresh!....

i once had a similar experience when i googled a phrase that included the words "ball" and "crusher" when looking for a device that was used to grind herbs very finely!!

on a slightly more serious note

i think there are several probiotic sugars in breast milk that are mainly responsible for the gut populating effects - oligosaccharides i think - together with some immune modulating and anti-microbial stuff that help the baby deal with the rapid growth of the bacterial colonies / ecosystem
must be a dramatic change for the little system to deal with - and no surprise they basically have the screaming runs for the first few months of life.

the babies digestive tracts have recently been found to be pretty much bacteria free until birth. and are populated/ inoculated by the mothers microbiome during and shortly after birth

there have been some interesting studies cataloguing the longitudinal growth of the various organisms over the time from birth to infancy and beyond. what babies have in the first few months is not what they have later in life nor is it something that adults would necessarily want - more its a stage that they go through that lays the foundations for future balance of microbial populations.

it turns out that humans have a microbiome all over our bodies, our skin, eyes, nose, ears, genitals etc all have their own subtly distinct microbiome communities - and the slightly disturbing fact is that all of these communities are predominantly just modified versions of our gut microbiomes - with the obvious conclusions being - bacteria from our stools get pretty much everywhere, and this is therefore in fact the natural state - despite our best efforts - and cleanliness obsessive culture.

as typically happens as science produces a new toy - we tend to fall into the trap of thinking that the thing this toy or tool is useful for is the be all and end all - when in fact it might just be part of teh picture. a kind of " when all you have is a hammer - everything starts to look like a nail" view of the world. as humans we are continually underestimating the complexity of the world around us.

it has been demonstrated for instance that for every bacteria inside our guts there are something like 10x that number of virus particles ( don't quote me on that exact number - but many more than the bacteria). most of these are Phages ( viruses that infect and parasitize bacteria).

what role are these large number of organisms playing in the overall ecosystem inside our guts - and thereby on our health? an important question - but one where the surface has hardly been scratched.

my own belief is that the environment has been radically changed in Lyme and the ecosystem living within is has therefore simply adapted to that change - and some of which help to perpetuate that change and prevent the body from rebalancing it as its designed to do, and that is driving some of our symptoms - both gut based and systemic.

it may be that that change was initially simply inflammation due to infection - and that has set up a cascade of reactions some of which are self perpetuating. or it may be that there is an auto-immune element as recently discovered in IBS by the famous IBS/SIBO researcher DR Mark Pimental. i think this is why we are finding so much trouble in rebalancing the gut once we have Lyme.

on the plus side - there are now good studies showing the regrowth of normal microbiome ( equivalent to pre-antibiotic treatment) after around 12months from antibiotics use - this was done done by the gold standard method - of intestinal aspirate ( as apposed to stool - which tells you little of what is in the small intestine - the longest part of the digestive tract and the bit most in contact with the immune system) - even after the heaviest hitting broad spectrum antibiotics - eg Cipro (a friend of mine had that prescribed and even the doctor described it as "heavy duty drain cleaner"!)
i think they found all but one pre-treatment genus represented 12montsh down the line

Sara,
I would try it too, if I knew where to get it. My cousin is having a baby soon, but I would not feel comfortable asking “hey can you pump me some breast milk?” My family already thinks I’m weird, LOL!!

Garzie,
What you said about babies having the runs. I never did. I was not breast fed. I was on formula. I was on some kind of rice stuff, and I had to be switched to something else because it constipated me. My mom said I never had runny diapers like most babies do. I have had lifelong constipation.

I wonder if any Lyme moms have ever tried drinking their own breast milk or what might result if they did.

I lost it at "breast milk black market".