Vanguard Online Edition : EDUCATION: Let the milk of human kindness flow that our children may live(3)
EDUCATION: Let the milk of human kindness flow that our children may live(3)
"By ADENIKE O. GRANGE
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Being the text of an inaugural lecture delivered by Prof. Adenike Grange of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Wenesday, Dec. 1, 2004. Grange is also president of the International Paediatrics Association. The second instalment taken last week specifically addressed protein-energy malnutrition in children, and ended with a treatment of nutrients in human milk, with an explanation of degradation in quantity as the infant grows. READ ON.
Non-nutritional Factors in Breast Milk
Human milk contains many non-nutritional substances such as hormones and growth factors. Hormones in human milk include cortisol, somatostatin thyroid hormones, oxytocin, and prolactin. Growth factors include epidermal growth factor, insulin, and lactoferrin. Other substances such as long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids may relate to growth. In addition, human milk contains others factors that are inducers of certain biological processes, MS. The Significance of these hormones and factors for growth patterns, however, is not understood. Breast-fed infants have lower plasma concentrations of insulin than formula-fed infants, which might result in less fat deposition and fewer adipocytes developing. The other bioactive factors that are present in breast milk might modulate growth factors that are known to inhabit adipocyte differentiation...."