CUTE: Breast milk can be a sure fire way to a clearer skin
IT IS an undisputed fact that for newborn babies, breast milk is best. But breast milk can do more; with its unique composition of nutrients, enzymes, growth factors, hormones and immunological and anti-inflammatory properties, it can be used to cure many common ailments including some serious illnesses.
That includes conjunctivitis, sore throats, cold sores and tooth decay.
For girls battling with facial pimples, wiping one’s face with a cotton pad daubed in breast milk can be a surefire way to a clearer skin.
Adult cancer patients in America have been told to glug breast milk to boost their immune systems and reduce the side-effects of chemotherapy.
A record from an ongoing study at Lund University, Sweden reported last year in the New England Journal of Medicine that a compound found in breast milk had the power to destroy many skin warts, raising hopes that it might also prove effective against cervical cancer and other lethal diseases caused by the same virus.
A cream, containing an ingredient of human breast milk, has now been splashed onto the market and appears to be an effective treatment for warts.
The preparation, nicknamed Hamlet by its Swedish creators, has been shown to dramatically reduce, and often completely banish, stubborn warts.
It contains an ingredient that collects in the core of wart cells, and triggers them to self-destruct. Common warts, which usually appear on the hands and feet, are caused by infection of the epidermal layer of the skin with human papillomavirus (HPV).
They can be resistant to treatment with creams, but freezing is often an effective way to deal with them.
The researchers found that three weeks of daily treatment with the cream reduced the size of warts by at least 75% in all 20 volunteers.
Dr Catharina Svanborg, professor of clinical immunology at Lund, claimed that if Hamlet proved successful against serious diseases, it could probably be synthesised in the lab instead of being extracted from the milk.
