Probiotics in Mum’s milk are for her too…

By 4. juni 2014Blog, Health, Nutrition

…and now available as a supplement. Yes, this is the news that a probiotic originally isolated from human breast milk will shortly be available as a supplement in 8 European countries to help combat mastitis.

Mastitis is an often painful inflammation of breast tissue. More severe cases are treated with antibiotics which have the disadvantage that they are passed on to the baby through the milk. The probiotic would not be of concern if passed on to the baby as it was isolated from human milk in the first place and papers have been published that claim it is beneficial for the baby.

Back in 2010 a paper was published that found that breast feeding mothers given a supplement containing the probiotic Hereditum Lactobacillus Fermentum Lc40 recovered from and had less future incidence of mastitis compared to those given the standard treatment of antibiotics. A link to the paper is at the bottom of this blog.

The Spanish Company Bioscience Life has signed an exclusive agreement with the Austrian company CSC Pharmaceuticals to produce supplements containing the patented probiotic.

Mastitis is not only a problem for humans, it is a serious problem and has been estimated to cost the UK dairy industry £41.8m per year. Is it time to start giving them the supplement too? After all, if it does find its way into the milk it will only come back to us anyway.

Click here to read the press release on the Biosciences Life website.

Click here to read the abstract from the paper published in 2010

Click here to see the calculation for the cost of cattle mastitis in the UK.