Breast milk is essential for babies as it helps in building immunity system and reduces the risk of many diseases in them. Now, even adults can get its benefits through a new prebiotic supplement.
A Silicon Valley biotech start-up is planning to isolate the sugars that make the breast milk unique and turn them into a product for grown-ups, Gizmodo reported.
Sugarlogix, based in Berkeley, California came up with the idea and believes that it could be an immune-boosting superfood supplement. It could be used to treat a number of health issues in adults that are linked to gut. Also, the supplement could be used by mothers who struggle to breastfeed.
Kulika Chomvong, CEO of Sugarlogix told Gizmodo: "We were interested in prebiotics and we realized that the best type of prebiotics exists in nature, and that's in human breast milk." He also revealed that Sugarlogix plans to turn it into a pill and it could be taken daily like a multi-vitamin.
Research has shown that poor gut health is linked to conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, childhood asthma, obesity, to colitis and colon cancer. And, this prebiotic pill could help in treating them.
"This is the very first-time adults can really harness the power of breast milk," Chomvong added.
Scientists have discovered that the secret lies in complex sugars called human milk oligosaccharides or HMOs. However, the HMOs help in kick-starting a healthy gut in babies as they are born with pristine gut microbiome, but will it work the same for adults who have thriving bacterial colonies?
Michael Miller, a microbiologist at the University of Illinois said that the benefit from synthesising sugars for infants is still not even clear, let alone for adults. He also added saying: "Different mom's milk will have different compositions. It's too complex to fully replicate."
It looks like the breastmilk pills may actually end up being another health fad.
