Hey folks! I’m back with more studies and questions. In my research into galactagogues, oats and barley come up as being highly beneficial for milk production. While there is more than one compound that makes this true, the main one seems to be beta glucan. Here’s a good article on the subject.

https://hilaryjacobson.com/lactogenic-diet/beta-glucans-and-the-dual-role-of-prolactin-a-detective-story/

There are a host of studies conducted on cows and other animals (no surprise there) about how directly supplementing with beta glucan increased milk in excess of 300% in some cases! However, we are not cows… Much fewer studies in humans but the limited science clearly shows a correlation, it just seems they just aren’t sure the exact mechanism…. Even less to know exactly how much would be needed in humans. I did find one ongoing one that is going to be published in the next couple of years.

So, eating barley and oats seems to be great! But personally I don’t love oatmeal daily and I don’t always want a beer. So I thought to just buy beta glucan and supplement it directly. I’m not producing milk just yet. Anyone else try this? Any anecdotes of the effects of oats or beer or production? Do you think it’s pointless?

Here are some links to studies on beta glucan (also it’s great in skincare, just saying):

Cow study:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33360572/#:~:text=Data showed that supplementation with,increased immunoglobulin levels in colostrum.

In vitro study:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2356188/