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Despite Worries Over Toxins, Breast-Feeding Still Best for Infants

December 29th, 2008

From nytimes.com

Many mothers who breast-feed have been alarmed and perplexed by reports regarding toxins discovered in breast milk. But a review of data from several studies has found that the benefits of breast-feeding far outweigh these potential risks.

Researchers reviewed data from three studies, among them a Dutch study of 418 infants and mothers, half of whom breast-fed and half of whom used formula; a smaller Dutch study of 38 mothers that assessed the impact of different levels of dioxin exposure; and a German study of 232 mothers and babies who had been exposed to dioxin before birth.

The studies noted minor differences among the exposed babies, such as higher levels of thyroid hormones and lower blood platelet counts, compared to infants who were not exposed to dioxins. But the researchers said these differences did not appear to have any impact on the children’s health and development, and they emphasized that the measures were not abnormal.

At the same time, breast-fed babies scored significantly higher than formula-fed babies on tests of mental development when they were seven months old and again at 18 months, according to the Dutch study.

The review was published in the current issue of Breastfeeding Medicine.

“We are not in a situation where we have to tell people that breast-feeding is going to be a problem. There is no evidence for that — just the contrary,” said Dr. Cheston M. Berlin, an author of the study and a professor of pediatrics and pharmacology at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital in Hershey, Penn.

“Breast milk is the best nutritional source for newborn babies up to one year because of its unique composition,” he added.

The journal’s editor, Dr. Ruth Lawrence, said the review was important because many women may have been taken aback by news reports saying that breast milk can be contaminated with chemical pollutants.

“When agencies like the E.P.A. decided to monitor the presence of toxins in the environment through breast milk, people like me said, ’Please don’t do that — it will be misinterpreted’,” Dr. Lawrence said. She noted that there is also a risk of contamination when using baby formula mixed with tap water.

“Babies have to eat,” said Judy LaKind, a risk-assessment specialist and another of the paper’s authors. “What’s consistently been found is that breast-fed babies seem to do better on any number of health-related measures, and that’s been shown over and over again.”

Doubling of Vitamin D for Children Is Urged

October 20th, 2008

nytimes.com

The country’s leading group of pediatricians is recommending that children receive double the usually suggested amount of vitamin D because of evidence that it might help prevent serious diseases.

To meet the new recommendation of 400 units daily, millions of children will need to take vitamin D supplements each day, the American Academy of Pediatrics said. That includes breast-fed infants — even those who get some formula — and many teenagers who drink little or no milk.

Baby formula contains vitamin D, so infants fed only formula generally do not need supplements. However, the academy recommends breast-feeding for at least the first year of life, and breast milk is sometimes deficient.

Most commercially available milk is fortified with vitamin D, but most children do not drink enough of it — four cups daily would be needed — to meet the new requirement, said Dr. Frank Greer, who helped write the report.

The new advice is based on mounting research about potential benefits from vitamin D besides keeping bones strong, including suggestions that it might reduce the risk for cancer, diabetes and heart disease. But the evidence is not conclusive, and there is no consensus on how much of the vitamin would be needed for disease prevention.

The advice replaces a 2003 academy recommendation for 200 units daily. That is the amount the government recommends for people up to age 50; 400 units is recommended for adults ages 51 to 70, and 600 units for those 71 and older. Vitamin D is sold in capsules and tablets, as well as in drops for young children.

The Institute of Medicine, a government advisory group that sets dietary standards, is discussing with federal agencies whether the recommendations should be changed based on the new research, said a spokeswoman, Christine Stencel.

Breastfeeding protects against triple-negative breast cancer

August 30th, 2008

From medwire-news.md

Women who breastfeed for at least 6 months have a diminshed risk for developing triple-negative breast cancer, US study results show.

The research team, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, also found that certain other reproductive factors appeared to be differentially associated with certain breast cancer subtypes.

Gene expression studies have identified and validated the existence of four “intrinsic” breast cancer subtypes: luminal A, luminal B, human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)-2-overexpressing, and basal-like.

Luminal tumors express hormone receptors while nonluminal subtypes lack these markers. The triple negative phenotype – which expresses neither estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, nor HER-2 – is often used a surrogate marker for the basal subtype.

The five-year survival rate for triple negative breast cancer is 15% lower than for other types of the disease, in part because the disease responds poorly to most breast cancer treatments. Notably, nearly 50% of Black women younger than 55 years who are diagnosed with breast cancer have the triple negative type, compared with 22% of White women with the disease.

In the current study, lead researcher Amanda Phipps and colleagues sought to determine what puts women at risk for the triple negative type of breast cancer.

The authors pooled two population-based, case-control studies of breast cancer in women aged 55 to 79 years for analysis. These included 1476 controls and 1023 cases of luminal breast cancer, 39 cases of HER-2-overexpressing breast cancer, and 78 cases of triple-negative breast cancer.

Clinical and lifestyle factors were obtained and analyzed using the polytomous logistic regression method.

As reported in the journal Cancer, breastfeeding for at least 6 months was found to reduce the risk for triple-negative disease (odds ratio [OR]=0.5) and to a lesser extent luminal breast cancer (OR=0.80) compared with breastfeeding for less than 6 months.

The researchers say it is unclear why breastfeeding influenced hormonal cancer risks. One possible explanation is that while women are breastfeeding, they are not menstruating and thus their hormones are not cycling. Alternatively, breastfeeding may alter the structure of breast cells in a way that makes them less prone to develop into cancer cells, Phipps and team said.

Another finding of the study was that early age at menarche was associated with risk for HER-2-overexpressing disease only (OR=2.7, relative to population average menarche) whereas both late age at menopause and the use of estrogen plus progestin hormone therapy were found to be associated with risk of luminal disease only (OR=1.6, 1.7)

Phipps and collegues comment: “Certain reproductive factors may have a greater impact on the risk of certain molecular subtypes of disease compared with others.

“Future studies that further define the etiology of breast cancer subtypes will add to the biologic understanding of this disease.”

Breast feeding moms have less arthritis

May 15th, 2008

From UPI.com

Swedish researchers found women who breast feed more than 13 months were half as likely to get rheumatoid arthritis.Those who had breast fed for one to 12 months were 25 percent less likely to get the disease.The study, published online ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, also found taking oral contraceptives — suspected to protect against the disease because they contain hormones that are raised in pregnancy — did not have the same effect. Similarly, being pregnant — but not breast feeding — did not seem to have a protective effect either.

The authors said that it was difficult to say whether there was a connection between higher rates of breast feeding and a corresponding fall in the number of women affected by rheumatoid arthritis, but that the results of the study provided yet another reason why women should breast feed.

Study leader Dr. M. Pikwer of The Malmo University Hospital, in Sweden compared 136 women with rheumatoid arthritis with 544 women of a similar age without the disease.

New Clue to Milk and Diabetes Link?

May 11th, 2008

FromWebMD

The reaction of an infant’s immature immune system to a protein found in cow’s milk infant formula may explain the suspected link between early consumption of cow’s milk and an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes later, according to a new study.

But experts who reviewed the study for WebMD say the research is mixed on the suspected link and the new report does not offer conclusive proof of cause and effect. While these experts strongly support breastfeeding, they say those mothers who can’t or choose not to breastfeed shouldn’t be alarmed by the report.

The Formula-Diabetes Theory

The protein under study, called beta-lactoglobulin, is found in cow’s milk but not human breast milk. It is similar in structure to the human protein glycodelin, writes Marcia F. Goldfarb, author of the new report.

The report is published in the letters section of the Journal of Proteome Research. Goldfarb directs Anatek-EP, a contract protein research laboratory in Portland, Maine.

An infant’s immature immune system may destroy the glycodelin in an effort to destroy the look-alike “foreign” protein beta-lactoglobulin, Goldfarb says.

Glycodelin controls the production of the body’s T-cells, which help protect against infection. If glycodelin is destroyed, there could be an overproduction of T cells, she says.