According to The Seattle Times- Adults with cancer, digestive disorders and immune disorders may drink several ounces of milk daily or weekly to ease the side effects of chemotherapy, bolster their immune systems or improve their digestion, she said.
No national figures exist for adult use of breast milk, but an informal survey of milk banks suggests that they serve dozens of adult patients.
Breast milk’s benefits for babies have been well-documented, with research showing that it helps fight infection, improves immune-system function, increases intelligence and combats later obesity.
But can it help sick grown-ups? No one knows because so little research has been done.
Swedish researchers in 1995 isolated a protein in mothers’ milk that seemed to kill cancer cells in a test tube. And they are working on developing a drug that takes advantage of that protein. The same research team in 2004 found another compound that destroys many kinds of skin warts, raising expectations that the compound could help treat cervical cancer and other diseases caused by the human papillomavirus.
most doctors are still skeptical about the value of breast milk for adults, and mainstream medicine seems to consider it to be on the fringe.
Although Dr. Michelle Melisko, an oncologist at the University of California, San Francisco, acknowledged that mothers’ milk probably won’t hurt her patients, she worries about quality control — some viral particles can be passed through breast milk — and said she would advise them against using it.
Seriously,
“You give this stuff to newborn babies,” Cohen said. “It can’t be toxic.”
It doesn’t end there.
Breast milk also protects from different ailments like conjunctivitis, burns, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, stroke, traumatic brain injury, diabetes and Parkinson’s, acne, diarrhea etc.
Scientists found that a probiotic found in breast milk reduces or eliminates painful cramping in the gut caused by digestive disorders and can be very helpful for adults.
"...increasing the intake of this bacterium may help alleviate symptoms of a wide range of gut disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, functional bowel disorders, and constipation," Times Of India wrote in an article.
This means you are free to give your milk to your husband of adult child!
caution.
"Breast milk cannot provide all we, as adults, need nutritionally and, in fact, [breast milk] has very high levels of cholesterol," says Binks.
So, yes, an adult can drink breast milk. But remember that HIV can be passed through breast milk, so drinking a stranger's milk can be risky.
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