Sixth module: The newborn blood-brain barrier and nature's natural protection: breastmilk

Learn about the final gatekeeper that determines the outcomes in physiological jaundice and how to support and protect it

It’s not a complete story to say that when bilirubin gets too high the brain can’t keep it out. 

Breastfeeding offers significant neuroprotection.

There are specific things that make the blood-brain barrier either stronger, or weaker. 

Protecting and strengthening the blood-brain barrier is another thing the conventional treatment model hardly accounts for.

And there is a very good reason: research is lacking! For obvious ethical reasons, we can’t do much research on the blood-brain barrier in newborns.

Breastmilk: Nature’s source of antioxidant melatonin for newborns

Melatonin has significant ability to protect against neuroinflammation and blood-brain barrier permeability. Newborns don’t make their own melatonin, but have a powerful source at hand in the form of colostrum and breastmilk! (Formula is not supplemented with circadian hormones at present, but research is underway for this possibility, as well as the possibility of supplementing sick babies with melatonin). Therefore, since …