What you don't say can hurt you!

The vital importance of speaking up and saying how you feel to your health and wellbeing is demonstrated in a post by this young woman, Fiona Hollis.

You can visit Fiona’s website and read more about her journey here: http://www.iloveraw.co.uk/

The post was part of an email newsletter I found in my in-box this morning from The Raw Divas, one of my favourite health and wellness sites.

The Raw Divas are entertaining and informative and I always enjoy their take on life and food. Their articles are often enlightening and I have fun with their recipes. Their approach suits my interests and understanding because my move to a vegetarian way of life, as a result of being employed as a nurse in an abattoir in the early 70's, has lead to an increasing interest in the power of food, especially raw food, to function as medicine for all sorts of ailments.


Fiona writes:

"My name is Fiona, and I wanted to share with you how raw greens have helped transform my health. January was my one year anniversary of healthy thyroid function. Woohooo!

In December 2008, I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. To my horror, I was told by my GP that surgery would probably be needed to remove 3/4 of my thyroid gland, leaving me dependent on medication for the rest of my life. This didn’t feel like a road I wanted to go down at all".

Having a baby had been life transforming for Fiona. Her birthing experience caused her to think differently about life and health. Fiona now believes that:

"... all illness or dis-ease is caused by energy blockages within our bodies where emotions get trapped and repressed. I have not always thought this way - but since having my son my eyes have opened to the magical possibilities that are open to us if we dare to believe and see for ourselves"

She explained her belief that our bodies are able to heal themselves when they are working properly and how she:

"... knew deep down the goiter in my neck was blocked expression - clearly affecting my throat chakra. There was a key issue that had been bubbling to the surface of my mind for the last few months and the fear of expressing it to those around me was too great. I denied the need to confront it. The ‘thing’ I least wanted to say - had now backed me into a corner and was testing how much I was willing to stay in denial.

I now had no choice - and I could feel it in every painful cell. The emotions surrounding this admission were HUGE. The waves of shame, self-hatred, and despair I experienced as I spoke my truth was clearly what I had been avoiding. The day after I spoke my truth my goiter went down & I started my healing - and believe me it was the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me".

According to Fiona, her remarkable healing and overnight reduction in her goitre occurred when she 'spoke her truth' and dealt with difficulties that she had been suppressing.

Fiona's experience resonates with what happens for childbearing women having one to one midwifery care. Anyone who observes the results of one to one midwifery care for childbearing women will find that among that cohort of women, more births are normal, more women and babies are well and breastfeeding successfully, there are less occasions of preterm labour and birth, pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes compared to what happens for women who access the standard, run of the mill maternity 'care'.   

Midwives who work in a genuine continuity, one to one, relationship based model of care provide a safe place and develop a relationship of trust with the woman within which the pregnant woman can feel heard and respected and able to discuss concerns, fears and troubles. Putting words to troublesome feelings enables emotional release. The role of unrelieved and unexpressed stress on inflammatory processes and the involvement of inflammatory processes in the aetiology of disease is becoming more widely recognised.

As stress is expressed and released, health and wellbeing go up.

Awareness is so crucial to living a full, healthy and happy life. The importance of paying attention and acknowledging how you feel cannot be overemphasised. Midwives have a real role in supporting women to become aware of and express their feelings. Asking 'how are you today' in a meaningful way and waiting for a genuine answer, being present and acknowledging any discomfort for the woman, enables her to feel heard and cared about - the ultimate stress reduction exercise.

Not saying how you feel, as Fiona's experience demonstrates, can be toxic to the bodymind.

Another important point to note in Fiona's remarkable story is that she also embraced a nutritional approach to improving her health and used raw food to suppress thyroxine release.

Breastfeeding helps build healthy bones

Nutrition is a key ingredient in health and wellness for every individual. Even before conception, the mother's nutritional state influences her baby's genetic and physical makeup, plus long term health and wellbeing.

Osteoporosis is a crippling and painful disease that afflicts some people as they age.

A wide variety of high impact exercise during the teenage years plus good nutrition including calcium and Vitamin D is known to set in place stable bone mass and provide a healthy bone structure for life. Weight bearing and resistance exercise, including netball, basketball, tennis, swimming and sprinting in the teenage years, means reduced risk of osteoporosis in the later years. Peak bone mass for girls is laid down by 16 years of age for girls and 20 years of age for young men.

Telegraph.co.uk

A new study by Stahl and colleagues have found that calcium intake in the neonatal period may be critical for life long bone health.

Stahl et al took two groups of newborn piglets and fed one group calcium enriched diet and the other group were fed calcium deficient diet during their first 18 days of life. The piglets were subjected to frequent blood sampling and daily weighing. At the end of the study, samples were collected from the bone marrows, livers, kidneys and small intestines of the animals. The strength and bone density of their hind legs was also tested.

Calcium deficient piglets were compromised in their bone density and strength. Many of the mesenchymal stem cells that eventually become bone forming cells were found to have been programmed to become fat cells. Reduced numbers of bone forming osteoblasts in early life means a reduced ability to repair and grow bones throughout life. The researchers conclude that lack of calcium in the neonatal period leads to programmed mesenchymal stem cells, predisposing the individual to having bones that are less mineralised and contain more fat. In this way, Stahl suggests, osteoporosis can be seen as a paediatric disease with later onset, rather than a disease of old age.

Irrespective of what I think about this study on piglets, who are very intelligent and sensitively aware animals, I was intrigued that Stahl and his colleagues didn't also add a control group of breastfed piglets to the study. Breastmilk, also known as 'white blood' because of its alive, blood like nature and inability to be manufactured, is known to contain bio-available calcium amongst the nutrient mix. I would have thought to include breastfeeding and breastmilk to have been a foundational, sensible thing for a scientific endeavor aiming to find a reason and a cure for disease.

However, I found the following written in the article:

Stahl and his colleagues have a long-standing interest in understanding how much calcium babies need in order to optimize bone density and strength when they get older. Not only is this a worthy academic question, but it has special relevance to the infant food industry which currently fortifies most baby formulas with calcium at levels substantially above those found in breastmilk - considered the "gold standard" for infant nutrition. This differential level of fortification has been based largely on older studies suggesting that breastmilk's calcium is substantially more usable than that in baby formulas. However, more recent research has challenged this dogma, and Dr. Stahl and his group are committed to helping determine what is best in this regard.

I italicized and bolded the words in the quoted text above.

You will notice several things about this quoted piece.

1. The infant food industry would seem to be behind this study from what is written above. No wonder that a breastfeeding control group was not included!
2. the words 'gold standard' are in inverted commas leading the reader to subliminally appraise the term negatively
3. The word 'dogma' is used to degrade the idea that breastmilk is the gold standard for infant nutrition.
4. Dr Stahl and his group are committed to helping determine what is best in this regard! Yet Dr Stahl does not include breastmilk in his study!!!

I know this study was about pigs, but I smell a rat!

Who pays Dr Stahl and who funded this research???

No matter what Stahl's objective or who funded the research, the study is actually useful for promoting breastfeeding as it shows how important good calcium intake is in early life and breastmilk provides that along with all the baby needs for optimal nutrition. Now we know breastfeeding protects the individual from osteoporosis and builds bones that can last a lifetime with the right input of exercise and good nutrition in adolescence.  Thank you Dr Stahl and colleagues.



Study suggests a much earlier onset for bone problems

Medical News: Depression During Pregnancy Linked to Kids' Behavior Problems - in Psychiatry, Depression from MedPage Today

A study of the children of 120 disadvantaged mothers from South London, reported in the January/February issues of Child Development, provided more evidence of the compelling need to take care of childbearing women and in particular, to provide support for disadvantaged and marginalised women, who were more likely to be depressed and have experienced conduct problems themselves as children. Researchers found that children whose mothers were depressed were twice as likely to display antisocial behaviour than those whose mothers weren't depressed.

Medical News: Depression During Pregnancy Linked to Kids' Behavior Problems - in Psychiatry, Depression from MedPage Today

The researchers "explored several potential mechanisms for the link between maternal depression and a child's behavior problems:

• Direct effects on the fetus from biological correlates of the mothers' depressive symptoms
• Depression in pregnancy as a sign of environmental adversity
• Re-exposure to maternal depression after birth
• Indirect effects of depression on the developing fetus driven by mothers' smoking, drinking, and drug taking during pregnancy
• A genetic explanation whereby women who experience depression in pregnancy may also have a greater genetic risk for antisocial behavior, which they pass on to their offspring

Hay and her colleagues noted that these explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive".

As the effect of the social environment upon the individual becomes more widely recognised and the way the building of a healthy sense of self in a baby/child is inextricably linked to the presence of a moment by moment, congruent, consistent, warm, responsive interactive relationship with the mother, it is no longer possible to ignore the responsibility of society to help childbearing women in every way possible. Apart from addressing basic economic necessities, a fundamental and important capacity building initiative is to provide one to one midwifery care. The provision of a trusting relationship with a known midwife in a continuity of care model, supports pregnant women's growth and development, providing the opportunity for early identification of potential problems and instituting remedial action and targetted solutions before the problems begin.  Authentic midwifery care, education, good nutrition, exercise and as already  noted, acupuncture all work together to alleviate and minimise depression and the associated problems with depression for childbearing women and their children.  Providing adequate resources for intervention in the beginning of life is an excellent public health strategy as it avoids the huge financial and societal cost of antisocial behaviour later on.

Sweet! -- sugar plays key role in cell division

Scientists seeking to understand the complex interactions involving hundreds of proteins that enables a human cell to split into two, have found a layer of regulation, that up until now has been invisible, although they were aware in 2005 that sugar helped to control cell division.

http://www.physorg.com/news6643.html

A sugar-based signaling pathway has been found that works independently and seems to be the trigger for the phosphorylation signaling system, which has always been thought to be 'the' pathway that underpinned human cell division processes

Sweet! -- sugar plays key role in cell division

Ant feeding on sugar crystal Wikipedia

The discovery of the sweet switch is considered to be "paradigm-shifting in terms of signaling. Signaling is how a cell perceives its environment, and how it regulates its machinery in response to stimuli. The new sugar switches reveal that the cellular circuitry is much more complex than previously thought".

Ah yes, our biology, physiology and entire being is fascinating! Layers upon layers of interaction are being discovered - we are not a 'done deal' by any means.

To the scientists:

"Because these previously unrecognized sugar switches are so abundant and potential targets of manipulation by drugs, the discovery of their role has implications for new treatments for a number of diseases, including cancer".

However, what about the role of something incredibly simple, like good low GI (glucose index) nutrition to prevent the signaling switch being corrupted in the first place?

Low GI foods

 

Recipes

http://www.lowcarbiseasy.com/aboutlowcarb.htm#why

 This information is vitally important for couples wanting to have a baby. Nutrition in one of the key environmental contributors to a healthy pregnancy that couples can take control of before they get pregnant. We know how vitally important optimal sugar control is to a healthy baby's anatomy and development.

What to do about the top 15 chemical additives in your food and other hazards

I found the article  Top 15 chemical additives in your food informative and concerning. We are the product of what we eat and we are affected by all the chemicals in our environment.  For pregnant women, what they eat today, walks and talks tomorrow - to borrow and adapt the advertising tagline of a bread manufacturer.

Some additives are said to enhance the nutritive value of the food. More information about what is safe and what is unsafe is available here http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm

Over 86,000 man made chemicals are now found in our environment, the number of synthetic chemicals has grown exponentially in 100 years. There were a little over 100 at the beginning of the 1900's. Our bodies are truly amazing that we maintain our health as well as we do, given the number of synthetic substances that our bodies process. Here's a report by the CDC on the measurements of 212 of these chemicals in human blood or urine

http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/

Many of the synthetic chemicals are hazardous to human health. One of the ways our bodies cope with toxic chemicals is to sequester them within fat cells. Chemical toxicity is said to be one of the components of the obesity epidemic. Obesity itself is associated with a burgeoning disease rate in the population. More worrying still is that up to 232 toxic chemicals have been detected in newborn cord blood (please see link below for report on umbilical cord blood report)

EWG Minority Cord Blood Report Executive Summary | Environmental Working Group

Even 'healthy' processed foods are suspect. Bonsoy, a popular soy milk drink was recalled in late December 2009 because of unsafe levels of iodine which caused illness in a cluster of people in NSW. Although iodine is necessary for optimal health, too much or too little is dangerous. Ironically , the Australian government was concerned with the drop in the use of iodised salt and has recently legislated for bread makers to add iodine to bread! Only organic bread is exempt.

http://www.recalls.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/971373

What can we do to minimise the effects of these synthetic and natural chemicals?

For a start, eliminate and avoid the synthetic ones and ensure the right intake of naturally occurring vitamins and minerals. To do so makes sense from a biological and ecological perspective.

Some suggestions include:

1. If you smoke, stop!

2. Drink lots of purified water - get a good purifier one that also removes 'bugs' - if you want to know a good one, contact me for a recommendation

3. Avoid processed food

4. take high quality, natural, organic supplements, including Omega 3's and antioxidants. Contact me if you want the best brand

5. Eat whole foods - buy locally grown

  Recipes

6. Avoid out of season whole foods - transportation involves time and chemical preservatives

7. Eat fresh foods - lots of salads

  Recipes

8. When you cook, cook slowly - avoid microwaves - keep veges crisp - do not use bicarb to keep greens 'green' - cook for a short time only

9. Reduce calories

10. Reduce salt intake

11. Reduce sugar intake

12. Drink green tea - antioxidant

13. Avoid transfats

14. Reduce your dependence on plastics of all kinds - bisphenol A is proving to be a real menace

15. Reduce pesticide use - go for the natural ways as much as possible

16. Grow your own veges and companion plant them

Sustainable Gardening Australia

Companion planting guide

 
17. When you grow your own veges, use natural fertilisers, not chemicals.


18. Don't use talcum powder - irritates mucous membranes and is associated with lung and ovarian cancer

19. Don't burn incense - the smoke is an irritant, as menacing as tobacco smoke

20. Get regular, brisk exercise every day for at least 30 minutes - helps the lymph system move toxins along and out - along with all the other benefits of walking

peaceful parenting: Breastfeeding Baby Jesus

This video shows religious art - images of Mary breastfeeding baby Jesus. What the images reveal is the societal attitude towards breastfeeding at the time the art work was created.

Note the hand positions of Mary and the age of the various representations of baby Jesus. 

A wonderful compilation from Danelle Frisbie at Peaceful Parenting. Danelle has a wonderful blog. http://www.drmomma.org/




peaceful parenting: Breastfeeding Baby Jesus

Norweigan Scientist says breastmilk is no better for babies than formula - mirror.co.uk

Interesting report on research from Norway, where breastfeeding support is high and most women breastfeed? What's going on?

Scientist says breastmilk is no better for babies than formula - mirror.co.uk

Statue in front of hospital on Margarita Island Venezuela

UNICEF has refuted the study

http://www.babyfriendly.org.uk/items/item_detail.asp?item=620

Ben Goldacre from Bad Science fame posts the press release that lead to the BIG STORY which has been subsequently plastered all over the media

http://bengoldacre.posterous.com/

These articles and responses to them are well worth reading to get the full story behind the 'story'.

Essentially, what the researchers are saying is that women who have high testosterone levels in pregnancy, have trouble breastfeeding.

There is a very thoughtful informed response by Australia's Karleen Gribble PhD School of Nursing and Midwifery, UWS, reproduced below.
Karleen's post was in response to a query about the study on en-net, " a free and open resource to help field practitioners have access to prompt technical advice for operational challenges for which answers are not readily accessible" The Emergency Nutrition Network is a UK registered international charity, set up by humanitarian agencies to improve effectiveness of emergency food and nutrition interventions through rapid identification and dissemination of lessons learnt in the course of operational practice, and through research and evaluation.

The en-net forum is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) and the support of the Irish People through Irish Aid.

http://www.en-net.org.uk/

Karleen wrote on the above list:

"There's a few things that you need to understand about this study (which I have read) and the context in which it was carried out. This research is from Norway, the country with the best breastfeeding rates in the Western world- 99% initiation of breastfeeding and 80% of women still breastfeeding at 6 months. Societial support for breastfeeding women in Norway is very good. The very small number of women who cease breastfeeding in the early weeks of their infant's life would include those whose have a genuine physiological problem with making sufficient milk for their babies. It was found that these women were more likely to have higher levels of androgens during pregnancy. This is not a huge surprise, it's been something that others have been suggesting for some time (see the book for mothers "Making more Milk" by West and Maracso). The researchers seem to think that androgen levels can account for pretty much every factor associated with early weaning....they are endocrinologists....it's a case of if your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. It's a bit simplistic but there's no doubt that they have found a useful priece of the puzzle.
As to the idea that formula is as good as breastmilk. Well, the references cited in the study as providing evidence for this idea are 4 from the PROBIT study (the huge RCT of the implementation of BFHI in Belarus). The 4 studies cited looked at the impact of BFHI implementation (and lower of higher artificial feeding rates) on child behaviour, growth, dental caries, allergies/asthma- that's it. You'll get few people getting all het up saying you must breastfeed otherwise you're child will have behaviour problems or holes in their teeth. And to be perfectly frank any results from the PROBIT study on allergy and asthma is going to be questionable because the issue with allergic disease is exposure to allergens- and the only way to do this properly is a longitudinal study which records the time of the infant's first exposure to anything other than breastmilk- the only study I am aware of that has done this is one by Wendy Oddy in W Australia (and indeed, the critical factor was the timing of the first exposure to cows milk protein). There was nothing in the study that addressed the most common morbidities and mortalities due to artifical feeding, that is: diarrhoeal disease and respiratory infection.
Shall I be cynical and say that the researchers wanted to get media interest in their study?? (This was just a single small paragraph in the paper) Perhaps. Or maybe they just don't see the adverse effects of formula feeding since they are in Norway, where as I mentioned, just about every woman breastfeeds for a substantial period of time and where they have one of the best public health systems in the world.
And just a note about language when we talk about infant feeding. Breastfeeding is the normal way of feeding babies. It is extremely important and in fact it is vital, essential, indispensible to the wellbeing of infants and young children. It has NO BENEFITS. It is NOT best. Rather, artificial feeding is risky and dangerous. It actively and passively harms the immune system and the health of infants. Breastfeeding does not decrease disease, artificial feeding increases it. Breastfeeding is not best, infant formula is deficient.
This may seem pedantic but we actually have a growing body of evidence that if we talk about breastfeeding as best and the benefits of breastfeeding that we fail to effectively communicate the importance of breastfeeding and the risks of formula feeding- we actually assist in the promotion of formula feeding.
I can provide more evidence on this if there is interest".

YouTube - Ignorance Meets Knowledge (extended breastfeeding)

A delightful video normalising extended breastfeeding. Nutrition and health are hot topics at the moment. This video is a great message for our times.




YouTube - Ignorance Meets Knowledge (extended breastfeeding)

Breastfeeding is Normal

The women who made this video said:

"The purpose of our video is to encourage mothers to feed their child, no matter where they are! And to give encouragement to new and expecting mothers that breast is best, and nursing IS normal".

YouTube - NIN CHARLOTTE

Want to live well? Harvard experts offer pragmatic pointers on getting healthy and staying there

"The long-running Nurses’ Health Study shows that as much as 80 percent of heart disease, 70 percent of strokes, and 90 percent of diabetes — three of the nation’s top 10 killers — are related to just four lifestyle factors: avoiding smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, and embracing a heart-healthy diet.

“They are absolutely astonishing numbers,” said Manson, who is beginning a large trial of vitamin D’s role in preventing illness. “Studies demonstrate the powerful role of lifestyle factors in preventing chronic disease. One of the most important prescriptions doctors can write is to prescribe regular physical activity.”
One area where knowledge has advanced rapidly in recent years involves the importance of maintaining a healthy body weight, which Willett said is understood much better today than even a decade ago and is linked to heart disease, diabetes, and many cancers".

Other aspects to what constitutes a healthy and rewarding life are explored in this article.
Getting enough quality sleep, saving money, being kind, taking time to reflect and be still to name a few.

The article continues:

"Though people make individual decisions that affect their well-being every day, people are at their core social animals. Recent research has detected those social underpinnings in their personal behavior.
Nicholas Christakis, professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, explores the effects of social networks on health. His research indicates that everything from obesity to smoking to happiness to loneliness can spread through social networks.
Still, Christakis cautioned that someone looking to live healthier should not just avoid friends who have unhealthy habits. Social networks are important, providing companionship and support even from those who smoke or eat junk food. There’s far more to gain, he said, in lending a hand to struggling friends than there is from cutting them off."
Want to live well? Harvard experts offer pragmatic pointers on getting healthy and staying there

Study shows how gene action may lead to diabetes prevention, cure

Exciting developments in the field!

"A gene commonly studied by cancer researchers has been linked to the metabolic inflammation that leads to diabetes.

Understanding how the gene works means scientists may be closer to finding ways to prevent or cure diabetes, according to a study by Texas AgriLife Research appearing in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
"Because we understand the mechanism, or how the gene works, we believe a focus on nutrition will find the way to both prevent and reverse diabetes," said Dr. Chaodong Wu, AgriLife Research nutrition and food scientist who authored the paper with the University of Minnesota's Dr. Yuqing Hou.
Wu said the research team will collaborate with nutritionists to identify what changes or supplements in a diet will activate the gene to prevent or stop the progression of diabetes".
Nutrition folks! Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition.

And.

Manage your stressors! Turn on the parasympathetic nervous system pathways, keep your nervous system happily calibrating back to a calm, relaxed state and ensure the disease carrying genes are kept switched off; while switching on and keeping on the genes that keep us well.

The role of inflammatory processes in much of what ails us, including premature labour, pre-eclampsia and diabetes - scourges for childbearing women and their babies, is becoming more and more widely recognised.

Inflammatory processes are switched on by numerous environmental factors such as chronic stress (aka cortisols etc), poor nutrition, toxins, lack of exercise and stasis of lymph fluid; feelings generated by social isolation and not feeling/being valued or loved and/or being in a hostile environment to name a few 'biggies'.

Exercise, relaxation, good nutrition, being surrounded by loving people and the ability to talk about what is important to you and bothers you, while being listened to and respected are all environmentally controllable elements which contribute to optimal psychophysiological functioning.

No wonder one to one midwifey care is associated with better heath outcomes for women and babies.


Study shows how gene action may lead to diabetes prevention, cure

Folic acid in pregnancy linked to asthma

Evidence that more is not necessarily better.

Folic acid in pregnancy linked to asthma

How Diet Affects Fertility | Newsweek Health for Life | Newsweek.com

This is a great article. A must read for anyone who wants to get pregnant and anyone else who wants to stay healthy and live well.

Health, wellness and fertility all comes down to 'what you eat today, walks and talks tomorrow'. The overall message is
1. Eat whole foods
2. Avoid processed and modified products (which masquerade as food)
3. Eat quality protein
4. Include natural fats
5. Eat fresh foods

and of course, drink lots of fresh, filtered water, stop smoking, limit alcohol, move and enjoy your life!

The authors wrote:

"In a nutshell, results from the Nurses' Health Study indicate that the amount of carbohydrates in the diet doesn't affect fertility, but the quality of those carbohydrates does. Eating a lot of rapidly digested carbohydrates that continually boost your blood-sugar and insulin levels higher can lower your chances of getting pregnant. This is especially true if you are eating carbohydrates in place of healthful unsaturated fats. On the other hand, eating whole grains, beans, vegetables and whole fruits" all of which are good sources of slowly digested carbohydrates”can improve ovulation and your chances of getting pregnant."

The authors also talk about transfats. This article is excellent.

How Diet Affects Fertility | Newsweek Health for Life | Newsweek.com

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APHA: Breastfeeding Associated with Decreased Childhood Behavioral Problems

APHA: Breastfeeding Associated with Decreased Childhood Behavioral Problems

San Diego, October 29, 2008 – Children who are breastfed are less likely to suffer from behavioral or mental health issues than those who are not breastfed, according to new research.

The study, which was presented at the American Public Health Association’s 136^th Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego, looked at whether breastfeeding is associated with decreased behavioral problems and psychiatric illness during childhood.

Using 2003 National Survey of Children's Health data from 102,353 interviews of parents and guardians on the health of their children, researchers found that parents of breastfed children were less likely to report concern for the child's behavior, and breastfed children were less likely to have been diagnosed by a health professional with behavioral or conduct problems and were less likely to have received mental health care. Additionally, parents of breastfed children were less likely to report concern about the child's ability to learn.

“These findings support current evidence that breastfeeding enhances childhood intellectual ability while providing new evidence that breastfeeding may contribute to childhood emotional development and protect against psychiatric illness and behavioral problems,” said Katherine Hobbs Knutson, MD, lead researcher on the study.

Session 5061.0 - Breastfeeding enhances childhood emotional and psychiatric development

Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 – 8:30 AM

Researchers: Katherine Hobbs Knutson, MD and Alexy Arauz Boudreau, MD, MPH

Fish oil in pregnancy linked with reduced allergy risk fo children

A new study from Sweden published in the journal Acta Paediatrica [Acta Paediatr. 2009 Jun 1 ePub ahead of print] found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19489765 has found that Omega 3–rich fish oil supplementation during pregnancy and lactation may reduce the risk of food allergy and eczema in children.

The randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study, followed 145 pregnant women who had allergies or had partners or other children with allergies [which makes this group at high risk for having children with allergies.

From the 25th week of pregnancy until between 3 and 4 months breastfeeding, the women were randomly assigned to receive either:

1. daily fish oil supplements providing 1.6 g of eicosapentaenoic acid
(EPA)and 1.1 g of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
2. or placebo.

Children born to the group of mothers who were given Omega 3's had a 2% incidence of allergy, compared to a 15% rate for the babies in the control/placebo group.

Another finding was that the incidence of allergic eczema was reduced by 2/3rds (8% in the omega-3 infant group, compared to 24% in the placebo group).

How this works is because Omega-3 fatty acids compete with the Omega-6s therefore lessening the release of arachidonic acid (AA) and inflammatory prostaglandins, which create havoc in our cells.

Another example of how important nutrition is and how nutrition must be the first line of primary health care!

Health related behaviours found to be lacking in pregnant women

A study of the health related behaviours of 262 pregnant women for factors such as fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity and smoking levels was recently undertaken by the University of Queensland researchers.

The researchers found that:

"Few women met the guidelines for sufficient fruit (9.2%) or sufficient vegetable (2.7%) intake. On average, women consumed half the recommended serves of fruit (mean 2.2, SD 1.1; median 2.0, IQR1.0-2.0) and little more than one third of the recommended serves of vegetables (mean 2.0, SD 0.6; median 2.0, IQR 1.0-3.0) per day. Approximately one third (32.8%) of the population was undertaking sufficient physical activity (see Figure 1). Women undertook a median of 112.5 minutes of physical activity per week (IQR 43.8-240.0). A large proportion of women smoked prior to pregnancy (37.8%) and more than one quarter continued to smoke during pregnancy. Approximately 10% of women quit smoking when they became pregnant. On average, women smoked 15.9 cigarettes a day (SD 1.2, n=103) before becoming pregnant and smoked 13.4 cigarettes a day (SD 2.6, n=26) once becoming pregnant. Twenty-one per cent of women were overweight and 20.0% were obese before becoming pregnant"

This is where one to one midwifery care is so beneficial. When women and midwives work together in a primary health care way, issues such as the health related behaviours noted above can be explored and discussed in a safe and effective way. My guess is that the busy antenatal clinics where women wait for hours and see whoever is free, isn't the place where sensitive subjects such as eating habits, exercise activities and smoking are explored in effective ways, if at all.

The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (2009) 33(3): 228-33
The full text of the study can be read online at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122423650/HTMLSTART