Breastfeeding and Cancer - Essay Example

Exploratory Essay Table of Contents Works Cited 9 Hearing and reading the news recently, I am prompted to action. Some of these have to do with the rising cancer rates especially among children, the obesity epidemic sweeping the country, the debate about GMO labeling, and my own interest in maintaining my health and taking charge of my bodys destiny. I got to thinking whether there was some aspect of the recent discussions on breastfeeding that I can explore. What piqued my interest in breastfeeding in particular is this article that I bumped into discussing breast feeding and cancer in babies and children. The article reports that babies who are breastfed are less likely to develop cancer due to the cancer-busting protein that has been found to be abundant in the milk. How wonderful, I said to myself, if true. Nature seems to have a way of telling us that there are things in the design of the human body that are more complex and wonderful than current science can comprehend and make sense of. I got to thinking about what else about breastfeeding and breast milk we dont know of. What if the article and the cancer-protective properties of breast milk for babies and young children form just the tip of the iceberg? What if breast milk isnt what we think it is? What are its implications for disease and nutrition, and where does this leave the pharmaceutical industry (AME Info)? I have always been fascinated by the fact that human mothers are able to produce milk and nourish their children. The mother as nourishment provider is a fascinating idea for me. The more I think about it the more fantastic the idea is. Here is this wonderful female, who when she transforms into the role of mother becomes this person capable of giving so much of herself, from her own biology. What a fantastic idea! How wonderful it is that this is so (AME Info). The details of the study that I bumped into fed my amazement and awe at the the amazing biology of babies and their mothers, and pushed me to explore further. How does it work? What else is there beneath the surface? It turns out, as I surmised, there is a lot beneath, in the same way that the tip of an iceberg indicates a much large chunk of goodies hidden underneath the water. To be specific, the initial study indicates that so-called Trail proteins found in breast milk protect against a host of cancer types in babies, and that the protein is present in amounts that are 400 times greater than in the blood. Moreover, the study confirms that breast milk alone, and not formula, have these cancer-busting proteins. Score one for breastfeeding! (AME Info). In another piece tied to the global celebration of Breastfeeding Week, it has been noted that the health of both the infant and the mother are interlinked, and that skipping breastfeeding presents a host of health problems, not only for the babies, but also for the mothers! The article quotes the World Health Organization as stating that skipping breastfeeding leads to a wide array of chronic adverse and critical health conditions and ailments: diarrhea, sudden infant death or SIDS, ailments tied to breathing, and infections of all kinds, among others. Notably, mothers who dont breastfeed are also more prone to a large number of diseases and chronic ailments, among them cancer of the breast and of the ovaries! Looking at this initial set of data, it seems clear to me that nature must have intended for mothers to nurse their own with their own milk, for obvious reasons. Not doing so seems to lead to catastrophic health consequences (BlackPress). I take a step back and ask this question: if I were an outsider looking in, like an impartial scientist studying an animal species, what would I conclude from the data? Two sets of mothers and their young, one breastfed and another fed on formula, have drastically different health outcomes. The mother who skips breast milk develops cancer, alongside her young. The mother who breastfeeds her young remains healthy, and so does her baby. This is a no-brainer study. If I were an impartial observer the easy conclusion to make is that breastfeeding is essential to the survival of both the mother and her baby. Moreover, except in those cases where breastfeeding is not possible, formula is not an option, nor is it a viable strategy for the survival of the human race (BlackPress). The deeper one gets into breastfeeding and breast milk, the more astounding ones findings and insights get with regard to how breast milk protects and cures. Breast milk, as discussed above, protects babies from cancer. It protects from a host of diseases. Just how does it do that? One explanation is that far from just being food, breast milk is also a means for the mother to transmit her immune system protections, developed over the years, to her child. This is something that no formula can give to babies. As one expert noted, antibodies as well as blood components that attack diseases get passed on from mother to child during the breastfeeding process, resulting in babies that have the same level of ability body-wise to resist diseases, viruses, bacteria, and other invaders. All so fascinating, but it gets even better beyond this. Breast milk actually protects babies from cancer well into their adulthood too! There may lie an answer to the cancer epidemic sweeping America and the rest of the world today. By encouraging breastfeeding among mothers, we may be on our way to dramatically lowering incidences of cancer and deaths due to cancer. I see this as having far-reaching implications into every aspect of our lives. Breastfeeding can reduce our spending for health care, and reduce government spending for that purpose too. We will have healthier citizens who will grow up less afraid and more confident about their health prospects. We will be giving power to the mothers in the world, to protect their babies with their milk, and to protect themselves for the long haul too. Healthy people means more productive, more contented, and happier people too, those who will have fewer occasions to grow old unruly and unfulfilled. Crimes will drop, and the well-being of the overall community will be preserved. There will be less suffering, and less fear. There will be more happiness in the world, all because of breastfeeding! Breastfeeding saves the world, and makes it a happier, healthier place, free from cancer. Is there more to it? It turns out, from the enormous literature on the subject matter, that yes, there is even more beneath the surface. We are barely scratching the surface of what breast milk and breastfeeding can bring. For instance, the literature reveals landmark studies that show that breast milk components have the ability, on their own, to fight cancer in adult humans! In one study in Sweden, for instance, a protein extract from breast milk, which the researchers named HAMLET, showed itself to be effective in treating 40 different types of cancer in the laboratory, with the potential to treat a few more in the pipeline, including cancer of the brain and of the skin. The study came not from a quack group in a quack institution, but from a respected mainstream university in Sweden, named Lund University. Moreover, the findings seem to be backed up by solid research and a scientific methodology validated by peers. In the not so distant future, it is easy to extrapolate that breast milk will be included among the key cures for cancer (Fox News). The next thing I did, having a hunch that human nature being what it is, that people would jump at the chance for a cure with breast milk. This is even without a go signal from science that is is safe and effective to do so. I try to put myself in the shoes of a cancer victim. Here are these findings on the cancer cure potential of breast milk, from many credible sources. Here I have people around me having babies all the time. No baby has ever died from drinking breast milk, which makes it safe. I mean, if it is safe for babies, surely it cannot do me any harm? If I were a cancer victim, with slim chances of surviving, and with thinning alternatives for a cure, I would go and say, why not? I would find some breast milk and drink it. I thought surely there would be reports of people doing exactly that? Yes indeed, looking at the literature, some people have started to resort to breast milk to cure their own cancers! There is this report, for example, of a woman from Australia who went ahead and started drinking about a glass of human breast milk everyday, after being diagnosed with cancer of the bone marrow. She is 62 years old and has had the cancer for about seven months at the time of the report. The amazing thing is that not only does she take it daily, but also that she claims that the breast milk has been helping her keep the cancer in check! Very fascinating and astounding, both for the boldness of the move to go ahead and drink breast milk, and for the very positive results. This is one anecdote that I think will touch off more trials by more people desperate for a cure for their cancers. This is inevitable I think in a world where the word cure is elusive, and where treatment options for cancer is currently very expensive and dicey at best (ANI). From this anecdotal, subjective story I then ask, what does the scholarly literature say? Venturing out, I find there are more fascinating things to be had about breast milk. Cancer cure? Check. Healthy babies and mothers? Check. Stem cells and stem cells therapy? Astounding and fantastic, but this is not wishful thinking, but groundbreaking science! Reports from the University of Australia confirm that not only is breast milk a good source of stem cells, but also that those stem cells can bypass current problems with sourcing stem cells from human embryos. Moreover, the scientists have characterized breast milk stem cells as having the ability to differentiate themselves into various other human organ cells, with the potential to be used to bio-engineer human organs! Moving forward, one can imagine the day when scientists perfect the technology to use breast milk to grow new body parts and completely do away with the problem of organ donors for transplants. Meantime too, it is not too hard to imagine people taking off from the science and drinking breast milk as a cheap source of stem cells too, in the immediate future (Hassiotou et al.; Medela). Works Cited AME Info. “Scientists confirm cancer-fighting protein in breast milk”. AMEinfo.com. 30 September 2012. 7 October 2012. ANI. “Women fight cancer with breast milk”. The Times of India. 30 June 2012. 7 October 2012. BlackPress. “Breast milk gives babies the best start”. Vernon Morning Star. 5 October 2012. 7 October 2012. Fox News. “Substance Found in Breast Milk Kills 40 Types of Cancer Cells”. FoxNews.com. 20 April 2010. 7 October 2012. Hassiotou, F. et al. “Breastmilk is a novel source of stem cells with multilineage differentiation potential”. Stem Cells 30(10). October 2012. 7 October 2012. Medela. “Stem Cells in Breastmilk”. PR Newswire. 10 November 2011. 7 October 2012. Sarnoff, Rachel Lincoln. “Fran Dreschers Breastfeeding Battle”. The Huffington Post. 1 October 2012. 7 October 2012. Read More