25 Years of Biestmilch: How Susann Kraeftner Turned a Personal Quest into a Global Health Mission

When Susann Kraeftner walked away from her medical career in 1988, she carried nothing but emotional exhaustion, unanswered questions, and a hunger for something more meaningful. Today, 25 years after founding Biestmilch, the company that redefined colostrum as a cornerstone of immune health, she stands at a remarkable milestone as a pioneer who trusted intuition over convention and built a brand that quietly disrupted the wellness space long before it became trendy.

Although soon turning 70, Kraeftner isn’t slowing down. Instead, she’s doubling down on a mission that began not with a business plan but a deep, personal unraveling of the body, inflammation, and the invisible forces shaping well-being. “I had to understand myself first,” she says. “Only then could I begin to understand what others might need.”

The origins of Biestmilch trace back to a very different life. As a young medical student in Vienna, Kraeftner felt more confusion than clarity. “Nothing meaningful stayed with me,” she recalls. “All I took from those years was emotional unrest, and a profound dissatisfaction.”

Her career in medicine took her to various settings, such as hospitals in the UAE. Yet, despite the harrowing and humbling experiences, the practice of Western medicine left her feeling powerless in the face of chronic illnesses and systemic imbalance. She abruptly resigned from hospital work, marking the beginning of a life-changing pivot.

In Frankfurt, a job with a pharmaceutical company specializing in blood plasma forced Kraeftner to confront her ignorance of the immune system. Reading immunology textbooks, she was met not with understanding but deep insecurity. Decades later, she would realize it wasn’t her intelligence that was the problem, but the system and its reductionist narratives.

In the 1990s, a new clarity emerged. Kraeftner’s curious mind wanted to understand inflammation, not just as a symptom, but as the root of both illness and healing. This was a time when the medical community largely overlooked systemic inflammation as a unifying force in disease.

This led her to bovine colostrum, Biestmilch in German, a complex, nutrient-dense first milk that mammals produce after giving birth. “Colostrum is not milk,” she emphasizes. “It’s food with enormous potential. It’s harmless, yet immensely powerful.”

This understanding and revelation led Kraeftner to found Biestmilch in 2000 with her brother and a close friend. She recalls, “People didn’t understand it. Not even oncologists. We had to build awareness from scratch.”

From its earliest days, Biestmilch focused on the immune system, gut permeability, and the holistic nature of health. The product line expanded over the years, including capsules, chewables, and boosters, all aimed at restoring the body’s regulatory balance. “There is no healing without inflammation,” says Kraeftner, a mantra that guides every formulation.

In a time when there was limited public awareness of colostrum-based wellness products, Kraeftner took a leap of faith. She ditched conventional marketing and began experimenting with digital storytelling. By 2006, Biestmilch had a YouTube channel and was building a community through triathlon sponsorships. “Sports became our testing ground,” she explains. “This is because athletes understand their bodies deeply. They became early adopters of Biestmilch and were quite impressed with the way it worked.”

Susann Kraeftner, founder of Biestmilch

The Biestmilch products don’t promise miracles. Instead, they aim to restore balance. Biestmilch is used to support everything from endurance sports and high-stress lifestyles to autoimmune conditions and chronic fatigue. And until now, Biestmilch has remained a small, focused operation. Now, after 25 years, Kraeftner is ready for the next chapter. “We’ve done this with limited resources, driven by belief and with trial-and-error,” she says. “Now, I want to go global.”

As she calls for global collaborators, distributors, researchers, and wellness leaders to help scale the brand, Susann Kraeftner concludes, “There is so much noise and confusion in the health and wellness world today. But we humans finally have understood that we can’t follow the same rules and expect balance. But this, Biestmilch, is simple: supports the body, reduces inflammation, and lets the body heal itself.”

To learn more from Susann Kraeftner, contact her at susann.kraeftner@biestmilch.com.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider.