Calcium Cuts Breastfeeding Women's Lead Levels
Fri March 7, 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." [Is this really good news? Or will women take from this article the messag that breastfeeding increases their baby's lead levels? And/or that they need supplements in order to breastfeed - a message they're already getting about dha/ara. - JC]