Ros, you wrote:

"The treatment? Apart from the usual, this is where it gets interesting. His
researchers have found that heat treated oats (ingested) have something in
them (a peptide?) which can stop chronic diarrhoea in its tracks. They have
stopped diarrhoea of two years duration. He is interested in it because he
believes it may also have a role to play in treating/preventing(?)
mastitis - and hence might be useful (and cheap!) re reducing HIV
transmission during breastfeeding. This is still experimental, and the oats
they are using are specially heat treated, but he did say that he thought
that regular cooking (ie porridge) might be just as effective. Note - this
is for eating, not a poultice."

The oats are more than likely genetically engineered. (human milk components
are being genetically engineered into various plants--tobacco, rice, etc--so
they might be doing oats).  In fact I suspect that the peptide is from human
milk--genetically engineered of course--stops diarrhea and has
anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal properties.  The understanding of
mastitis and hiv among scientists is rather strange.  Reading any of the
studies makes one question their definitions of mastitis, subclinical
mastitis and weaning.  I am even under the impression that some scientists
have no understanding that weaning and mastitis often go hand-in-hand.  Or
that it is unusual to have mastitis in both breasts (Semba et al.
JHL--response to my letter-to-the editor, August 2000 edition). In my opinion
using the dairy industry as a reference to mastitis in women is next to
worthless.
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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