Guest guest Posted March 9, 2003 Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 Calcium Cuts Breastfeeding Women's Lead Levels Fri March 07, 2003 05:36 PM ET By Linda Carroll NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Calcium supplements can lower blood lead levels in nursing mothers, a new study shows. This in turn may lower the amount of lead passed on to babies in breast milk, according to the authors of the study, which is published in the March issue of Epidemiology. Among women who took calcium supplements, blood lead levels were reduced by up to 16%, according to the study's lead author Mauricio Hernandez-Avila, a researcher from the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The new study is " good news, in that it provides yet another rationale for making sure that women who are lactating--or for that matter those who are pregnant--pay attention to calcium, " Joseph Graziano, associate dean for research at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City, said in an interview with Reuters Health. That's because lead behaves similarly to calcium in the body, Graziano explained. Like calcium, lead is deposited in the bones. And like calcium, it can be drawn from the bones into the mother's bloodstream. " Whenever the demands for calcium go up, as they do in lactation or pregnancy, bone is called upon to supply calcium, " Graziano explains. " Bone is living tissue. Cells in the bone can actually mobilize calcium and send it into the blood stream where it can be used for other purposes, like making milk. " The problem is, lead is mobilized along with the calcium, according to Graziano. And lead from the blood will pass through the placenta to the developing fetus and into the milk produced by the nursing mother. " All of us who live in the post-industrialization era have some lead in our bones, " Graziano said. " Like it or not, we've been exposed to lead from gasoline, paint and other sources. " And lead is toxic, particularly to developing brains. In the new study, researchers followed 617 Mexican women who had recently given birth. The women's average age was 24. " We chose women in Mexico City because dietary calcium intake is low and the use of calcium supplements during lactation is not common, " Hernandez-Avila and colleagues explain. And, they note, the city recently eliminated leaded gasoline, making bone lead stores a more important source of lead exposure. Half the women were given calcium supplements and half were given placebos. The researchers checked the women's blood for lead at three and six months after the study began. Blood lead was reduced among women who took the calcium supplements. Those with initially high bone lead levels who took their supplements at least half of the time saw the greatest reduction, with blood lead lowed by just over 16%. While giving pregnant and lactating women calcium is no substitute for efforts to reduce environmental lead levels, Hernandez-Avila and his colleagues note, it may be " an important secondary prevention effort. " " Dietary lead exposure is difficult to eradicate, " they note, " and lead exposure from long-lived bone stores is likely to persist for decades. " SOURCE: Epidemiology 2003;14:206-212. ------ © Copyright Reuters 2002. All rights reserved. Any copying, re-publication or re-distribution of Reuters content or of any content used on this site, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without prior written consent of Reuters. Quotes and other data are provided for your personal information only, and are not intended for trading purposes. Reuters, the members of its Group and its data providers shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the quotes or other data, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. © Reuters 2002. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. Close This Window Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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