Health and Medicine
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A new interpretation of a 3,500-year-old medical text from Egypt suggests that ancient physicians might have bathed patients’ eyeballs in human breast milk to treat certain ophthalmic conditions. And while that might not sound particularly appealing, researchers think that growth hormones and immune proteins found in a mother’s milk might actually help to heal the ocular surface when applied topically.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The study authors examined the Ebers Papyrus, which is thought to have been scribed in 1550 BCE and is considered one of the most comprehensive medical documents from ancient Egypt. Among the many remedies listed in the text, four appear to call for the application of human milk to the eyes.
For instance, the white stuff is recommended as a treatment for removing “blood in the eyes” and “opening the vision”, while eye inflammation and an unknown blindness condition are also mentioned as potential targets for breast milk. Specifically, these remedies call for milk from a woman who has borne a son, and Egyptologists have tended to interpret this as a reference to some magical rite evoking the goddess Isis, whose milk is said to have nourished her son, Horus, while also restoring life to her dead husband, Osiris.
Yet the authors of the new study wonder if the breast milk reference might be more literal. For instance, they point out that human milk contains growth factors including epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-α) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Notably these same compounds are found in eye drops called autologous serum tears, which are made from patients’ own blood and are the main form of treatment for severe dry eye disease (DED).
According to the researchers, DED affects up to 17 percent of people, yet a four-month supply of autologous serum tears currently costs around £1,100 in the UK ($1,475). They therefore wonder if human breast milk might offer a more affordable yet equally effective form of treatment for the condition.
At present, that’s a question that can’t be answered definitively, since no clinical trials for DED involving the use of human milk on human eyes have been conducted. However, a few preclinical studies do point towards a possible utility for breast milk as an ophthalmic remedy.
For example, research on mice has shown that human milk can speed up healing of the corneal surface after injury, largely thanks to the growth factors it contains. Applying a mother’s colostrum to the eyes of preterm infants has also been linked with a decrease in the incidence of conjunctivitis, probably due to the antimicrobial power of its immunoglobulins and lysozymes.
The study authors therefore conclude that human milk might provide a more cost-effective treatment for DED, but ultimately argue that bovine colostrum may offer a more readily available and less ethically complicated alternative.
“Despite these encouraging observations, however, there is currently no direct evidence supporting the use of topical [human milk] for the treatment of DED in human subjects,” they write. “Consequently, until human studies are conducted, the use of milk-derived preparations for DED should be confined to experimental settings, with careful attention to safety, standardization, and regulatory oversight.”
The study is published in the Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
