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]]>“Mothers are producing different biological recipes for sons and daughters,” said Katie Hinde, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University.
Studies in humans, monkeys and other mammals have found a variety of differences in both the content and the quantity of milk produced.
One common theme: baby boys often get milk that is richer in fat or protein — and thus energy — while baby girls often get more milk.
There are a lot of theories as to why this happens, Hinde said Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting.
Rhesus monkeys, for instance, tend to produce more calcium in the milk they feed to daughters who inherit social status from their mothers.
“It could be adaptive in that it allows mothers to give more milk to daughters which is going to accelerate their develop and allow them to begin reproducing at early ages,” Hinde said.
Males don’t need to reach sexual maturity as quickly as females because the only limit on how often they reproduce is how many females they can win over.
The females also nurse for longer than male monkeys, who spend more time playing off on their own and thus need more energetically dense milk.
It’s not yet clear why human mothers produce such different milk for their babies, Hinde said.
There is evidence, however, that the stage is set while the baby is still in utero.
Hinde published a study last week that showed that the sex of the fetus influences the milk production of cows long after they are separated from their calves (typically within hours of the birth.)
The study of 1.49 million cows found that, over the course of two 305 day lactation periods, they produced an average of 445 kilos (908 pounds) more milk when they had female calves than when they had bulls.
They also found no difference in the protein or fat content of the milk produced for heifers than for bulls.
Much remains to be understood about how breast milk impacts infant development in humans, Hinde said.
Knowing more could help improve the baby milk formulas sold to mothers who are unable or unwilling to nurse their infants, she said.
“While the food aspects of milk to some extent are replicated in formula, the immuno factors and medicine of milk are not and the hormonal signals are not,” she said.
Getting a better understanding of how milk is personalized for specific infants will also help hospitals find better matches for breast milk donated to help nourish sick and premature infants in neo natal units, she added.
(AFP Relaxnews)
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]]>The post Study: Breastfeeding may protect against heart disease appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>Researchers in the United States found a “significant” association in almost 7,000 people between birth weight or duration of breastfeeding and higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), an indicator of inflammation, in blood samples of young adults.
The protein is produced by the liver and levels increase when a person suffers from inflammation.
“Each pound of additional birth weight predicted a CRP concentration that was five percent lower,” said a statement from Northwestern University, whose experts took part in the study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
“Three to 12 months of breastfeeding predicted CRP levels that were 20 to 30 percent lower compared with individuals who were not breastfed.”
The study found that breastfeeding had “the same or greater effect” as medicines on reducing CRP levels in young adults.
Chronic inflammation had long been linked to cardiovascular disease, but the causes of the little-understood condition remain unclear.
The US study was done among 24- to 32-year-olds from different race groups and educational backgrounds, and included comparisons between siblings so as to rule out the confounding influence that growing up in vastly different socioeconomic environments could have on the results.
“The results suggest that breastfeeding may reduce a major risk factor for heart disease well into adulthood,” said Alan Guttmacher, director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The World Health Organisation describes breastfeeding as “one of the most effective ways” to ensure child health and survival.
It recommends exclusive breastfeeding up to the age of six months, but says this advice is put into practice for less than 40 percent of infants globally.
(AFP Relaxnews)
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]]>The milk of most breastfeeding mothers contains very little vitamin D, and additives in formulas are largely insufficient, says Dr. Robert Heaney, a clinical endocrinologist specializing in nutrition and a professor at Creighton University in Nebraska.
Although vitamin D is important throughout life, it is essential within the first year in reducing risk of current infections and later development of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Heaney cites a study published a year ago in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism that indicates vitamin D plays a crucial role in metabolism and hormonal functioning.
While the amount of vitamin D necessary for adults is debatable, according to Dr. Heaney, the requirements for infants are more obvious. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommend 400 IUs delivered daily in drops.
While this number is widely agreed upon as being necessary for infants, Dr. Heaney says that in the case of breastfeeding mothers, milk becomes sufficient in vitamin D when the mother maintains a daily intake between 5,000 and 6,000 IUs.
Mid-day summer sun can help the body produce 10,000 IUs in just one 15-minute, total-body exposure. For those who believe natural is best, this eliminates the need for vitamin D drops, according to Heaney.
Given that the benefits of breastfeeding have long been considered numerous and more beneficial than bottle feeding, surprise is a normal reaction to research that suggests human milk to be insufficient in anything.
A study of indigenous populations of East Africa, published in the European Journal of Nutrition, says that mothers living an ancestral lifestyle not far from the equator produce sufficient levels vitamin D in their milk due to high sun exposure.
Citing this study, Dr. Heaney states that while reverting to ancestral lifestyles and relocating not far from the equator is unnecessary, nursing mothers should receive supplementary doses of vitamin D, enough to match the levels of the East African subjects.
To answer the question of how northern societies survived in the era before vitamin supplements were available, Dr. Heaney says that fish high in vitamin D was their main staple, allowing for sufficient intake.
History highlights the outbreak of rickets a century ago in Europe, North America and East Asia as a sure sign of widespread vitamin D deficiency.
According to Heaney’s research, it was eradicated by cod-liver oil and the addition of vitamin D supplements to bottled milk in the 1930s.
Vitamin D is also found in oily fish like salmon and sardines as well as in eggs, milk and shiitake mushrooms.
(AFP Relaxnews)
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