TL;DR Challenging the standard of practice, pill-for-every-ill approach to healthcare, Sayer Ji dives into the history of how the modern medical establishment came to be, as well as explores the alternative to the “sickcare” system by looking into ways of optimizing health through holistic practices and functional medicine tactics, rather than managing illness.
In the early part of the 20th century, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and their biggest of baller friends believed that society was overflowing with less than desirable people — “feeble minded”, physically defective, disease ridden, and everyone generally from a lower station that didn’t make for good workers. So, they decided to implement a program of systemic change called, “eugenics.”
The purpose of eugenics was to eliminate bad genes from the gene pool, in an effort to create a better society. In other words, reduce the population of undesirable people. The approach and philosophy of eugenics was to incorporate all means possible to elevate desirable traits in humans, while decreasing those with undesirable ones. Unfortunately, that meant killing off people that didn’t measure up to the standard, or at least keep them from procreating. That included diseases, chemical sterilization, pacification through lifestyle modifications, and anything else that provided them with the leverage necessary to carry out their ideological plan.
Led by the Rockefeller Foundation’s Science of Man Project, the Ford Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation, they made no secrets about their beliefs or intentions, as they openly talked about their contempt for the common man. They influenced government policy, set up medical research institutions among other things. Rockefeller and Carnegie poured money into Caltech, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, and the University of Chicago to study how best to reengineer man.
They pursued their agenda in full view of the public for decades, until the term fell out of favor. The term “eugenics” was tarnished after discovering the atrocities carried about by Germany in WWII. Never faded, Rockefeller & Friends decided to rebrand. Eugenics became known as “social engineering.” Sound familiar?
The influence of the policies laid out by Rockefeller & Friends during the early part of the 20th century set the bar for the system we currently find ourselves in. Although the message is never relayed truthfully, it’s hard to deny the institution of large scale massive control that sucks the health, life, and liberty out of everyone you know. Straining the financial stability of all and weakening the solidarity of the masses through things like the promise of vaccinations, social distancing, social tracking, weaponizing fear, the continual dumbing down of people with immediate gratification, destruction of immune systems through the promotion of inflammatory diets, and no mention of how to improve health other than wearing a mask, stay quite, and stay inside, all seems like it fits the narrative of “social engineering.” But maybe I’m crazy.
The same protocols implemented in the early 20th century can be seen today:
Diseases; metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease, and the RONA.
Chemical sterilization; pollution of our air, water, and food, evidenced by our catastrophic drop in fertility rates over the 50 years.
Pacification through lifestyle; panem et circenses.
Industry funding is a major impediment to unbiased results when it comes to testing new methodologies and pharmaceutical drug interventions, as analyses have shown that industry-sponsored trials report positive outcomes significantly more often than trials financially backed by the government, nonprofits, or nonfederal organizations.1 In a publication, bias known as the “file drawer” phenomenon, negative and null trials, or results that are unfavorable to drugs are more likely to be suppressed.2 There is also widespread rigging of data—deliberate manipulation of outcomes and use of statistical sleight-of-hand—wherein the outcomes of trials are being corrupted by commercial interests.3 And then there is the issue of industry bribery of journal editors. One retrospective observational study revealed that 50.6 percent of journal editors accept payments from industry sources, with an average payment of $28,136 and some payments approaching half a million dollars, meaning that the editors of the most influential journals in the world, who steer the scientific dialogue, are effectively on the take.4 In addition, a 2007 national survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 94 percent of physicians had ties to the pharmaceutical industry, with physicians receiving free meals, reimbursement for medical education or professional meetings, consulting, lecturing, and enrolling patients in clinical trials.5
Florence T. Bourgeois, Srinivas Murthy, and Kenneth D. Mandl, “Outcome Reporting among Drug Trials Registered in ClinicalTrials.gov,” Annals of Internal Medicine 153, no. 3 (2010): 158–66, https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-153-3-201008030-00006.
Erick H. Turner et al., “Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy,” New England Journal of Medicine 358, no. 3 (2008): 252–60, https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa065779.
John P. A. Ioannidis, “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” PLoS Medicine 2, no. 8 (2005): e124, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124; and Alex Hern and Pamela Duncan, “Predatory Publishers: The Journals That Churn Out Fake Science,” The Guardian, August 10, 2018, www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/10/predatory-publishers-the-journals-who-churn-out-fake-science.
Jessica J. Liu et al., “Payments by US Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturers to US Medical Journal Editors: Retrospective Observational Study,” BMJ 359 (October 26, 2017): j4619, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j4619.
Eric G. Campbell et al., “A National Survey of Physician-Industry Relationships,” New England Journal of Medicine 356, no. 17 (2007):1742–50, https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa064508.)
What you think about is important, not only in life, but training as well, because it literally has the power to manifest physical change. As I’ve said before, bodybuilders are the original “biohackers” as they are always looking for ways to push the boundaries of what is possible and consistently improve their performance. It is from their tireless effort that we get the mind/muscle connection, or thinking about the muscle helps it grow exponentially more than just placing it under tension alone.
Why?
It comes down to the fact that the mind is the sum total of the central nervous system functioning, whereby its endocrine secretion is called a thought. That secretion can directly affect cellular activity and protein formation, which, very simply, means a thought has a tangible action. It may sound woo but there is research to back it up.
A study reported in the New Scientist entitled Mental Gymnastics Increase Bicep Strength took ten volunteers and asked them to imagine flexing one of their biceps as hard as they could for five times a week. The researchers recorded electrical brain activity during the participants sessions and assessed their muscular strength every two weeks. Those who only imagined flexing, increased their biceps strength by 13.5% in just a few weeks, compared to the control group.1
The power of thought can go a long way. Take a look at another study published in the Journal of Neurophysiology that had subjects divided into three groups. The first was asked to exercise by contracting and relaxing one finger on their hand for five sixty-minute training sessions a week for four weeks. A second group, following the same training schedule, was instructed to only mentally rehearse the same exercises, without physically activating any muscle in their finger. The control group neither thought about, nor exercised their finger outside of their daily routines. At the end of the study, researchers found that the group who actually did the the physical exercises exhibited a 30% gain in strength over the control group. No shit, right?! Well, the crazy part is that the second group, who only mentally rehearsed the exercises, demonstrated a 22% increase in muscle strength over the control group!2 The mind produced a quantifiable affect on the body.
None of this is meant to say that simply thinking about an outcome is going to be a substitute for doing the work, but that if you combine both intent and physical effort you can create the best outcome.
—————————-
1. Cohen, Philip, “Mental gymnastics increase bicep strength.” New Scientist (21 November 2001)
2. Yue, G., and K. J. Cole, “Strength increases from the motor program: comparison of training with maximal voluntary and imagined muscle contractions.” Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 67(5): 1114–1123 (1992)
Step 1: Rehydrate, Duh Alcohol is dehydrating. Along with the loss of water is a loss of minerals. You need both. Drink a liter of natural spring water with the addition of a total of 5 grams of Himalayan salt within the first two hours of waking up. Keep drinking water heavily until you pee at least twice. Additional magnesium is also a really good idea before bed, as it further assists with step 2, the reduction of acetaldehyde.
Step 2: Reduce the Toxic Burden of Acetaldehyde Excessive alcohol puts a strain on the body, requiring the utilization of vitamins and minerals to assist with recovery. One of those crucial minerals is molybdenum. Never in the history of TV medical dramas has the mystery ailment been severe molybdenum deficiency, but molybdenum is essential for the body’s production of chemicals that neutralize acetaldehyde. What the hell is acetaldehyde? It’s one of the main toxins that the body produces as a result of alcohol ingestion. If we have been drinking, we are likely depleting our stores of molybdenum rapidly, increasing our acetaldehyde sensitivity. It’s one of the reasons we feel hungover in the morning, and why our bodies then begin to crave molybdenum-rich foods like legumes. In Texas, at least, classic hangover food is tacos, nachos, and burritos—all of them chock full of beans. In the Mediterranean? Hummus, made from garbanzo beans. Even after a night of crushing Jack Daniel’s or ouzo, our instincts can be incredibly accurate, cutting across cultures and cuisines. But rather than gorge on nachos, the best idea would be to supplement with some molybdenum (300 mcg) prior to bed, and again in the morning. Studies have shown it to reduce regular aches and pains, which if nothing else will make tomorrow’s walk of shame a little easier to endure!
Step 3: Balance Your Neurotransmitters Alcohol is a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonist, meaning that it produces more GABA in the brain. This is what results in the good, loopy feelings from drinking. Another neurotransmitter, glutamate, has the exact opposite effect on GABA. When you drink alcohol, after you are done with the flood of GABA, you experience a glutamate rebound where the body overcorrects for the problem with the release of excess glutamate. This is why you wake up so quickly and sleep so poorly, and it’s what leads to the anxious, light-headed, cracked-out feeling you can get from a hangover. To combat this, you should take things that support the GABA system. This is precisely why the “hair of the dog” seems to work. At least on a neurotransmitter level, you are getting more GABA in your system to balance out the glutamate. L-theanine, which occurs naturally in green tea, is great at mimicking the effects of GABA. Matcha, as we described in chapter 6, is the best source.
There are 4 metabolic ward studies — the gold standard of research — showing statistically significant reductions in resting metabolic rate when overweight subjects performed endurance exercise equivalent to a 300-600 caloric burn per day, for multiple weeks. In other words, when overweight humans do more than an hour of endurance exercise — otherwise known as steady-state cardio — daily, their resting metabolism declines an average of 5-15%.
This isn’t to say that exercise isn’t beneficial but their are better ways if you are trying to lose weight, such as sprinting or resistance training. Both of which will help to build muscle and INCREASE resting metabolic rates.
1. Turmeric.
In a groundbreaking study published in the American Diabetes Association’s journal, Diabetes Care,*= 240 prediabetic adult patients were given either 250 milligrams of curcumin or a placebo every day. After nine months, none of the participants taking curcumin had developed diabetes, but 16.4 percent of the placebo group had, suggesting that curcumin was 100 percent effective at preventing Type 2 diabetes.
* Somlak Chuengsamarn et al., “Curcumin Extract for Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes,” Diabetes Care 35, no. 11 (November 2012): 2121–27, https://doi.org/10.2337/dc12-0116.
2. Ginger.
In a 2014 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 88 volunteers with diabetes were divided into two groups. Every day one group received a placebo while the other received three one-gram capsules of ginger powder. After eight weeks, the ginger group reduced their fasting blood sugar by 10.5 percent, but the placebo group increased their fasting blood sugar by 21 percent. In addition, insulin sensitivity increased significantly more in the ginger group.* In another study, researchers demonstrated that 1,600 milligrams per day of ginger improves eight markers of diabetes, including insulin sensitivity.** Since 1,600 milligrams amounts to about a quarter teaspoon, the results show you don’t necessarily need a high dose to get impressive results.
* Hassan Mozaffari-Khosravi et al., “The Effect of Ginger Powder Supplementation on Insulin Resistance and Glycemic Indices in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial,” Complementary Therapies in Medicine 22, no. 1 (February 2014): 9–16, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2013.12.017.
** Tahereh Arablou et al., “The Effect of Ginger Consumption on Glycemic Status, Lipid Profile and Some Inflammatory Markers in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus,” International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 65, no. 4 (June 2014): 515–20, https://doi.org/10.3109/09637486.2014.880671.)
3. Cinnamon.
Cinnamon has been used for millennia as both a spice and a “warming” medicine to improve the blood. The Journal of Medicinal Food published a meta-analysis of eight studies that concluded that cinnamon (or cinnamon extract) lowers fasting blood sugar levels.* One way it works is by keeping your stomach from emptying too quickly after eating. Sprinkling just a half-teaspoon a day onto your meals or into your smoothies can reduce blood sugar levels, even if you have Type 2 diabetes.** Look for cinnamon labeled as Ceylon cinnamon, from the ancient name for Sri Lanka (Ceylon), where it was originally harvested. Anything else is likely not cinnamon at all but cassia, a mere cousin to real cinnamon.
* Paul A. Davis and Wallace Yokoyama, “Cinnamon Intake Lowers Fasting Blood Glucose: Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Medicinal Food 14, no. 9 (April 11, 2011): 884–89, https://doi.org/10.1089/jmf.2010.0180.
** Joanna Hlebowicz et al., “Effect of Cinnamon on Postprandial Blood Glucose, Gastric Emptying, and Satiety in Healthy Subjects,” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 85, no. 6 (June 2007): 1552–56, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/85.6.1552.)
4. Olive leaf extract.
University of Auckland researchers proved that olive leaf extract increases insulin sensitivity. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 46 overweight men were divided into two groups. One group received capsules containing olive leaf extract, and the other group received a placebo. After 12 weeks, olive leaf extract lowered insulin resistance by an average of 15 percent. It also increased the productivity of the insulin-generating cells in the pancreas by 28 percent. Supplementing with olive leaf extract yielded results “comparable to common diabetic therapeutics (particularly metformin).” *
* Martin de Bock et al., “Olive (Olea europaea L.) Leaf Polyphenols Improve Insulin Sensitivity in Middle-Aged Overweight Men: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Trial,” PLOS ONE 8, no. 3 (2013): e57622, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057622.)
5. Berries.
If your meal includes berries, your body will need less insulin after eating. In a study of healthy women in Finland, volunteers were given white and rye bread to eat, either with or without a selection of pureed berries. The glucose level of the women who ate the plain bread spiked quickly after eating, but the women who ate the bread with berries had a much lower spike in their after-meal blood sugar. *
* Riitta Törrönen et al., “Berries Reduce Postprandial Insulin Responses to Wheat and Rye Breads in Healthy Women,” The Journal of Nutrition 143, no. 4 (January 30, 2013): 430–36, https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.112.169771.)
6. Black seed (Nigella sativa).
Black seed is also known as Roman coriander, black sesame, black cumin, and black caraway. Just two grams of black seed each day can significantly reduce blood sugar and glycation end-product formation. The same dose can also improve insulin resistance. *
* Abdullah Bamosa et al., “Effect of Nigella sativa Seeds on the Glycemic Control of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus,” Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 54 (October 2010): 344–54; and Reza Daryabeygi-Khotbehsara et al., “Nigella sativa Improves Glucose Homeostasis and Serum Lipids in Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Complementary Therapies in Medicine 35 (December 2017): 6–13, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2017.08.016.)
7. Spirulina and soy.
Spirulina is a type of blue-green algae that’s an excellent source of protein, calcium, iron, and magnesium. It can be eaten as a food, though in the United States, it’s most often consumed in powder form and added to smoothies or shakes. In a study in Cameroon, spirulina and soy powder went head-to-head, as researchers tested which is better at controlling insulin sensitivity. In this randomized study consisting of volunteers suffering from insulin resistance related to treatment with antiretroviral drugs they were taking, one group received 19 grams of spirulina a day for eight weeks, while the other received 19 grams of soy. At the end of the trial, the soy group increased its insulin sensitivity by 60 percent, which is relatively good, but the spirulina group’s insulin sensitivity leaped by an average of 224.7 percent. And although 69 percent of the soy volunteers experienced increased sensitivity to insulin—which, again, is relatively good—all the volunteers in the spirulina group saw an improvement. * This is a strong endorsement of spirulina’s healing power, even when it’s under an extreme challenge such as living with adverse effects related to taking HIV drugs.
* Azabji-Kenfack Marcel et al., “The Effect of Spirulina platensis versus Soybean on Insulin Resistance in HIV-Infected Patients: A Randomized Pilot Study,” Nutrients 3, no. 7 (July 2011): 712–24, https://doi.org/10.3390/nu3070712.)
8. Berberine.
Perhaps the bitterness of berberine, a compound found in the roots of plants like goldenseal and barberry, is a clue to its effectiveness in stabilizing blood sugar. In a Chinese study of 36 patients, scientists found that three months of treatment with berberine was just as effective as metformin in bringing down blood sugar.* It should be noted that special caution should be taken with herbs like berberine, which, while generally far safer than pharmaceutical compounds, are not without side effects, and therefore should be used under the guidance of a medical herbalist or experienced integrative medical practitioner.
* Hui Dong et al., “Berberine in the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012 (October 15, 2012): 591654, https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/591654.)
9. Resistant starches.
Unlike other foods in their class, resistant starches are far lower on the glycemic index because they are broken down slowly in the large intestine. This “resistance” to digestion means that they are unlikely to cause spikes in blood sugar. And they have time to ferment, giving the beneficial gut bacteria of your microbiome an opportunity to flourish. As a source of fermentable fiber, resistant starches can help improve insulin sensitivity* and reduce body fat.**
* Gijs den Besten et al., “The Role of Short-Chain Fatty Acids in the Interplay between Diet, Gut Microbiota, and Host Energy Metabolism,” Journal of Lipid Research 54, no. 9 (September 2013): 2325–40, https://doi.org/10.1194/jlr.R036012.
** Jolene Zheng et al., “Resistant Starch, Fermented Resistant Starch, and Short-Chain Fatty Acids Reduce Intestinal Fat Deposition in Caenorhabditis elegans,” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 58, no. 8 (April 28, 2010): 4744–48, https://doi.org/10.1021/jf904583b.)
Resistant Starches to Include in Your Diet:
Amaranth
Cassava
Chickpeas
Millet
Muesli
Soaked beans (all varieties)
Unprocessed oats
Unripe bananas
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash
Tryptophan recommended dosage: infants four to six months old require 21g a day, while children aged four to twelve need only 4g
Histidine and taurine are also essential amino acids for early growth and development in premature infants and possibly for all neonates. Preterm babies are also known to require cysteine because the fetal liver cannot convert methionine to cysteine.
as long as the diet contains enough methionine or cysteine, Glutathione levels are likely to be adequate. the exception to this rule is in infants, whose bodies cannot yet manufacture cysteine from methionine, so their cysteine needs are supplied by breast milk. (Cows milk is not an adequate source of cysteine.)
Taurine is critical and preterm in newborn human infants where it is essential for normal growth and development
threonine is an essential amino acid and so it cannot be manufactured in the body… infants four to six months old require 6-8g a day
Pregnant and planning your birth experience? Speak with you doctor about using the so-called “gauze technique” if, for whatever reason, you undergo a C-section. Dr. Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello has presented research suggesting that using gauze to collect a mother’s birth-canal bacteria and then imparting them to babies born by C-section by rubbing the gauze over their mouths and noses does help make those babies’ bacterial populations more closely resemble vaginally born babies. It’s not a substitute for having a vaginal delivery, but it’s better than a sterile C-section.
Plan ahead, too, for giving you baby the best nutrition possible. How effective are infant formulas that contain beneficial bacteria? The benefits of human breast milk are so well established that formula companies strive to make their product resemble breast milk as much as possible — although the old adage still rights true: breast is best. What about supplementing traditional formulas with porticos designed for babies? The science in this area is still growing, but some studies have already shown that providing probiotics either through formula or as a supplement can have positive effects. They can reduce colic and irritability and lower the risk of infections that call for antibiotics. Certainly, they should not be considered a substitute for breast milk.
What can I give a baby?
colicky infants who took Lactobacillus reuteri saw results within one week. By the fourth week, these babies were crying for only 51 minutes a day on average, compared with 145 minutes a day for the infants who were given simethicone, the active ingredient in many over-the-counter antigas products.
the probiotic group Lactobacillus (specifically Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, or LGG) has been shown to be effective in treating infection diarrhea in children. And in an ongoing Finnish study published in the Lancet, infants whose family members had a history of eczema or allergies were given either LGG or a placebo prenatally (that is, their mothers took the dose while pregnant) and until they were 6 months old. Researchers found that the children who took LGG were half as likely to develop eczema as those who took the placebo.
Until children are able to consume solid foods that contain probiotics it is smart to keep probiotics on hand.
DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid that makes up more than 90% of the omega-3 fats in the brain. Fifty percent of the weight of a neuron’s membrane is composed of DHA, and it’s a key component in heart tissue. The richest source of DHA in nature is human breast milk, which explains why breastfeeding is continually touted as important for neurologic health. DHA is also now added to formula as well as hundreds of food products.
Center of Science and the Public Interest (CSPI), a nutrition advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., issued a warning that pregnant women should not eat more than two 6oz servings of canned tuna per month since tuna contains high levels of mercury. A better suggestion might be to avoid eating tuna more than once a month — especially fresh tuna steaks — in addition to other fish particularly high in mercury such as pike, swordfish, shark and walleye.
Maternal iodine deficiency and thyroid dysfunction, especially in the last trimester of pregnancy, is a serious threat to fetal brain development. A pregnant woman exposed to high levels of mercury, therefore, may be placing her unborn child at greater risk for congenital neurological defects
Developmental Programming: we now assume that a hostile intrauterine environment (undernutrition, over nutrition, or maternal stress) transmits some signal to the fetus, which converts information about future threat: It’s a tough world out there, kid; best be ready for it. This drives the infant to store extra energy and increase its fat after birth when there is no need to do so, to the ultimate detriment of health later on. Such a baby’s intrauterine and postnatal environment are mismatched. The child is “programmed” for survival at the expense of longevity.
David Barker first postulated that prenatal biological influences could affect postnatal outcomes for obesity. He observed that maternal nutrition affected the fetus. Small for Gestational Age (SGA) infants (very small at birth) were at an increased risk for future obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. This finding was corroborated by the Dutch Famine Study. At the end of WW2, for a four month period, the official daily rations in the Netherlands were between 400-800 calories per person. Those who were undernourished as fetuses developed obesity and metabolic syndrome in middle age.
Several studies of SGA newborns demonstrate that they exhibit rapid catch up growth in the early postnatal period and develop obesity, persistent insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome in childhood. An analysis of newborns born in Pune, India, versus those born in London demonstrated that despite the fact that those born in India weighed 700 grams less at birth, their insulin levels were markedly elevated. After adjustment for birth weight, the Inda-born babies demonstrated increased adiposity four times higher insulin, and two times higher leptin levels than their London-born counterparts. Because these babies were already insulin and leptin resistant at birth, they were predestined to develop obesity and metabolic syndrome.
premature babies also manifest insulin resistance…. its assumed that some aspect of prematurity leads to alteration in developmental programming. This is often compounded by well-meaning pediatricians, who prescribe high-calorie formula to rapidly increase the baby’s weight gain. The infant is then at enormously high risk for metabolic syndrome in childhood or adulthood.
but the converse is also true. Babies born large for gestational age (LGA) also end up with obesity and metabolic syndrome in later life. They’re also hyperinsulinemic and insulin resistant, but for a different reason. Most babies are LGA due to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), a type of diabetes that occurs in approximately 5% of pregnant women. The high blood glucose of the mother leads to high blood glucose of the fetus, and high insulin levels, which drive fat cells to grow. These GDM babies have 3 times the chance of obesity and diabetes later in life. In general, the “vertical” transmission of diabetes from mother to child has been documented in studies of the Pima, a Native American tribe in Arizona. Clearly, this is the “gift that keeps on giving"
However, GDM isn’t required to produce obesity. LGA babies without GDM also have double the chance of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. Animal studies show that both fetal undernutrition and over nutrition can change epigenetics, making it less likely that beta-cells (cells in the pancreas that make insulin) will keep dividing. LGA children have a limited insulin reserve. As they gain weight over their lives, diabetes will be the final outcome. But this can be prevented: obese women who underwent bariatric surgery between their first and second child reduce both the chance of LGA in the second child and the second child’s future risk for obesity. Fix the mother, fix the offspring.
Why does this happen? Generally, as the fetal brain develops, the hormone leptin (coming from the fetal fat cells) tells the hypothalamus to develop normally, defending against obesity. However, either lack of leptin (as in the undernourished SGA baby) or insulin antagonism of leptin action (seen in SGA, GDM, LGA, and premature babies) may prevent normal hypothalamic development and generate a baby whose brain never gets the right signal. His brain always sees starvation! The infant will eat more and exercise less right from birth, which will predispose him to obesity in later life, especially given our current overabundant food supply.
The infant gut is naturally permeable, which allows the large, intact proteins found in breast milk to make their way into the infant body, tuning the immune system and setting us up for schuss. Early exposure to foods other than brest milk dramatically increases the likelihood of allergies and reactivity to foods, as the highly permeable infant gut is ill prepared to deal with these novel foods. Wired to Eat, p72
Children are probably the most sensitive of all to the ravages of dysbiosis in their guts. A bacterial imbalance will be seen as a change in their behavior or personality. This is partly due to an incompletely evolved blood brain barrier, making them more susceptible to toxicity arising from the gut…. the child all of a sudden starts getting into trouble at school for his/her behavior, by underlying the problem behaviors is a drastic change in the gut microbial flora. Instead, the child is diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, or mental health problems. Inevitably both patron and child suffer as they are shuffled through a medical system that is not designed to look for the root causes.
Studies in children with developmental problems (like autism) have confirmed the presence of toxin-producing bacteria in their guts. As is the case with all diseases, certain children are more susceptible than other because of their genetics, environment and diets. IF they are also eating the Standard American Diets, high in sugar, wheat, and dairy, they are causing even more damage to their gut lining. This perpetuates the problem, continuing to fuel the “fire” in their guts that fuels the “fire” in their brains.
DHA is in great supply in human breast milk because it is essential for a baby’s growing brain. Even before a woman is pregnant, her body stores extra DHA in her hips and rear end. Some research suggests that men have evolved to prefer curvy body types because those curves signal a woman’s ability to have healthy children. By the time a woman gives birth to her second child, her supply of DHA has often dwindled. Some theorize that this is why, on average, firstborn children score higher on aptitude tests than their younger siblings.
A study published in 2015 notes, breast feeding is an important exposure pathway for PFASs. The greater the frequency of breast feeding, the higher the concentrations of PFASs in infants and babies studied at ages 11 months, 18 months and 5 years.
a recent study of a group of women found that children born to women who had the most phthalates in they robes have an IQ that is lower by 6.7 points
LEAD
the “safe” blood lead levels (BLLs) used to be 60ug/dL (micrograms per deciliter) of blood.
the CDC determined that lead in the rage of 5.0-10ug/dL is highly problematic for children…
Children who have whole blood lead concentrations of less than 5ug/dL (supposedly safe) have a measureably lower IQ. 24 million US children have BLLs between 5.0-9.9ug/dL
Fish are a common for source of PCBs. This is of real concern for women planning to have children. The more fish a woman eats (as measured by omega-3 fatty acids in her blood), the higher her levels of PCBs. Unfortunately, a woman’s PCB load doesn’t stop with her. The good news is that breast-feeding lowers the mother’s blood levels of PCB, OCPs, and other toxins. PCBs concentrate in breast milk, so nursing rids her body of these toxins. The bad news is that when her baby drinks that milk, the child takes in those toxins.
A recently published Seattle study measured the toxin levels in children. The study compared the toxic load of children who ate organic food from the Puget Consumers Co-op with that of those eating food from a regular grocery store. The neurotoxic pesticide levels of the children who ate conventionally grown foods were nine times higher.
C. L. Curl, R. A. Fenske, and K. Elgethun, “Organophosphorus pesticide exposure of urban and suburban preschool children with organic and conventional diets,” Environmental Health Perspectives 111 (2003): 377-82.
Several studies have shown that when infants with jaundice are massaged, the bilirubin that turns them yellow is eliminated 20% more quickly after just four days of twice-daily 20 minute massage. Clearly the massage is getting the bilirubin in the tissues back into circulation so it can be better eliminated.
M. Basiri-Moghadam, K. Basiri-Moghadam, M. Kianmehr, and S. Jani, “The effect of massage on neonatal jaundice in stable preterm newborn infants: A randomized controlled trial,” Journal of Pakistan Medical Association 65, no. 6 (2015): 602–6.
low salt intake during pregnancy and/or lactation leads to increased fat mass, insulin resistance, and raise levels of “bad” cholesterol and triglycerides in the offspring, which may carry over into adulthood.
Health agencies and government bodies seem to have forgotten that dietary iodine requirement increase by 50% or more during pregnancy and lactation, and that iodized salt has been an important way to prevent iodine deficiency for decades.
One myth that persists is that too much salt during pregnancy can lead to preeclampsia, a dangerous condition characterized by hypertension that can endanger both mother and child and lead to premature birth, among other complications. Over fifty years ago, a study published in the Lancet of more than two thousand pregnant women found that a low salt diet, as compared to a high salt diet, caused more miscarriages, premature babies (born prior to 34 weeks gestation), stillbirths, perinatal and neonatal deaths, edema, preeclampsia (previously known as toxemia, and bleeding. And since there was less preeclampsia in those on a high salt diet, it was decided later that cases of preeclampsia would be treated with extra dietary salt. Between the end of May and the end of September 1957, 28 women were diagnosed with what was then known as “toxemia of pregnancy.” Eight were not given extra salt, while the other 20 women treated with extra salt improved and all gave birth to healthy, full term babies. An account of the study said, “ the larger the dose of salt taken, the quicker and more complete was the recovery. The extra does of salt had to be taken up to the time of delivery; otherwise the symptoms of toxemia recurred.” In other words, giving more salt treated preeclampsia rather than causing or worsening it (a common misconception).
Certain side effects were also noted in the eight women who followed salt restriction, such as:
severe backache, some complained of irritation of the skin of arms, legs, or abdomen, and some of weariness and stiffness in the limbs. Others complained of falling because their legs suddenly gave way under them. Sometimes this was so severe that they were afraid of going out of their houses or of crossing the road, in case they fell. These symptoms did not develop in the group given salt, and if they were present at the first examination they disappeared as soon as the women took more salt
Reduced chance of becoming pregnant
Increased chance of a miscarriage
Increased risk of premature delivery
Increased risk of infant mortality
Increased risk of bleeding in the mother
Increased risk of preeclampsia
Increased risk of low-birth-weight babies who will become chronic salt cravers with higher risk of obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, and compromised kidney function
This extra fat allows fetal brain development to finish outside of the mother because the constraints of the human pelvis require birth before the baby’s head grows too large. Also, the human brain is an energy hog and the extra fat at birth allows for the brain’s energy requirements. A tremendous amount of subcutaneous fat helps the child form ketone bodies, an alternative fuel source for the brain. Ketones are important in infancy for another reason. The yet undeveloped infant brain lacks the protective myelin coating on the brain’s main nerve fiber tracts. This is why an infant cannot walk or be self-sufficient. In fact, infants are born with primitive reflexes to compensate for this lack of myelination. Also, ketone bodies from infant fat help form brain-specific cholesterol and fatty acids vital to continued neurological development. Because ketones can’t be stored they go straight to use for energy or construction, both of which are in high demand by the infant. A baby puts on most of its fat through the placenta in the last trimester of pregnancy.
The most interesting thing about the human infant brain is its specific nutrient requirements. Infant brains are very sensitive to deficiencies in iodine and iron, sensitivities that remain until early adulthood. Early postnatal deficiencies in these nutrients can result in cretinism or developmental delay. Today, 20 percent of the earth’s population has iodine or iron deficiencies and the further away from the oceans people live the more common these deficiencies are.
during the first six years of life. The most interesting thing about the human infant brain is its specific nutrient requirements. Infant brains are very sensitive to deficiencies in iodine and iron, sensitivities that remain until early adulthood. Early postnatal deficiencies in these nutrients can result in cretinism or developmental delay. Today, 20 percent of the earth’s population has iodine or iron deficiencies and the further away from the oceans people live the more common these deficiencies are.
The current focus in human epigenetics is on fetal development. It’s now clear that the first few days after conception—when a mother may not even know she’s pregnant—are even more critical than we’ve understood. That’s when many important genes are switched on or off. And the earlier that epigenetic signals are transmitted, the more significant the potential changes are in the fetus. (In some ways, the womb may be like a tiny evolutionary laboratory, examining new traits to see whether they’ll help the fetus survive and thrive; if they won’t, the mother miscarries. Researchers have certainly noted that many miscarried fetuses have genetic abnormalities.)"
Children whose parents are overly stressed are more prone to depression and have less self-control. Children whose parents are relaxed and available tend to be happier and healthier.
"Identical twins share the same exact DNA—but DNA isn’t fate. And one of the reasons is methylation.
an expectant mother’s mental state can trigger physiological or epigenetic events that can affect her pregnancy and the relative viability of male or female fetuses. Good times mean more boys. Tough times mean more girls. And epigenetics means we’ve got more—much more—to learn."
there’s startling evidence fetal ultrasounds physically stress out baby’s tight junctions, and injure them, after repeated exposure.
In the population of children with learning, behavioral and cognitive disabilities (i.e. GAPS conditions), almost 100% of their mothers have deeply disturbed gut flora. Virtually 100% of affected individuals have gut dysbiosis themselves. Their grandmothers do most of the time. And it’s exceedingly common for the fathers to have a gut dysbiosis too.
baby’s GI tract gets lightly populated by limited species of microbiota in-utero as a primer, before the real colonists arrive from the birthing process and from feeding (i.e. colostrum and milk). In birth, as baby travels through the birth canal, it swallows its first full-spectrum mouthfuls of bacteria and other microbiota. This inoculates baby with microbial starter cultures that colonize its entire intestinal tract, k kkgklkhkand body, over the course of its first month or two. So whatever microflora lives in the mother’s vagina will become the bulk of the baby’s microbiome. Other sources in baby’s environment make up the rest. Breast feeding is the next biggest contributor to the establishment of baby’s new microbiome. In the course of breastfeeding, baby touches and suckles mom. And microbes, whether good or bad, are taken in from the surrounding environment. What’s interesting is, some indigenous cultures have intentionally used the breastfeeding process to help baby establish a health microbiome: Mothers will spread a thin layer of yogurt (or other probiotic cultures) on the nipples to suppress yeast growth and inoculate baby with probiotic organisms it needs.
Breast milk is basically a mother’s whole blood with the red blood cells removed. So mother’s milk is made up mostly of (1) a large percentage of cholesterol and other fats that supply the building blocks for the rapidly developing brain and nervous system. It contains (2) white blood cells, (3) nutritional components, and (4) immune factors.
Breast milk
lactating mothers excrete toxins through their breast milk. Breast milk is basically mother’s whole blood with the red blood cells removed, and a variety of immune factors added. So virtually everything floating around in mother’s bloodstream gets passed to baby at feeding time in her milk. That includes toxins, undigested food (e.g. gluten, cow’s milk casein, and partially digested protein), pathogens, stress hormones, and more.
a baby is born with an immature immune system. Population of the baby’s digestive tract with healthy bacterial flora plays a crucial role in the appropriate maturation of its immune system. If establishment of balanced gut flora does not take place around the first 20 days of life, then the baby is left immunecompromised.
Breastfeeding is essential for appropriate population of the baby’s gut with balanced, healthy gut flora. Babies are born with a sterile gut. Breastfeeding is the one and only opportunity we have in our lives to populate the entire surface of our gut with a healthy mixture of bacteria to lay the very basis of our future health.
As far as science knows, an unborn baby is sterile. Its body has no bacteria, viruses or fungi living in it. When the time of birth comes, as the baby goes through the birth canal, it gets its first dose of microbes. Its skin, eyes and mucous membranes in the mouth and nose acquire their first micro-flora. Through swallowing liquids in the mother’s vagina the baby’s digestive system gets its first population of bacteria, viruses and fungi. SO, whatever lives in the vagina of the mother is what the baby would get.
A mother with abnormal gut flora will have a whole host of toxic substances, which are produced by pathogenic microbes in her gut and maldigested foods absorbed into her bloodstream. These toxins will be excreted in there breast milk and fed to her baby.
Following all the scandals around vaccinations it is no surprise that a lot of people around the world believe that we should abandon childhood vaccinations altogether. What these people forget is that before the vaccination era it was quite normal for every family to lose one, two, three and sometimes even more children to childhood infections, like measles, rubella, mumps and other. This is the natural selection law, which mother nature has imposed on all living creatures on earth. No animal would have all of its young survive. In fact, in many species most babies in the litter die, with only the strongest surviving. This law of natural selection ensures that the planet is populated by the bst and the fittest in each species. In our moderns world we humans are not prepared to obey this law. No mother would allow her child to perish, when there are ways to let the child lie, despite the fact that this child may not be the best and the fittest she can produce. Childhood infections are one of the tools of natural selection. Children who survive them come out healthier with stronger immune systems; weak children are not supposed to survive them. Vaccinations are one of those ways we humans have invented to allow our weaklings to survive. SO we cannot abandon vaccinations altogether unless we are prepared to obey the law of Nature. We have to come up with a more rational approach to vaccinations.
No vaccinations at all. An infant born to a mother with ME, fibromyalgia, digestive problems, asthma, eczema, severe allergies, autoimmune disorder or neurological problems should not be vaccinated. An infant presenting with eczema, asthma, digestive problems or any other disorders which would indicate compromised gut flora and immunity should be a red flag to NOT vaccinate.
90-98% of all bacteria living in the bowel of a healthy baby are Bifidobacteria. In an adult gut they are about seven times more numerous than Lactobacilli
Probiotic Dosages
An adult should have around 15-20 billion of bacterial cells per day.
An infant up to 12 months of age can have 1-2 billion
A toddler from 1-2 years of age can have 2-4 billion
A child form 2-4 years of age can have 4-8 billion
A child from 4-10 years of age can have 8-12 billion
From the age of 12-16 we can increase the dose to 12-15 billion per day
once he patient has reached the therapeutic dose feel it should be maintained fro around six month on average. It takes at least this length of time to remove the pathogenic flora and start reestablishing normal gut flora.
Female babies produce more estrogen, and have more verbal and emotional brain circuitry right from the start
Brain cells feminized by estrogen promote genes that encourage faster brain development. This continues through puberty, during which time girl brains develop about two years earlier than boy brains.
Male babies have higher levels of testosterone that potentially tamp down verbal and emotional circuitry.
Female babies immediately begin studying faces more intently than male babies, which further shapes their brain development and encourages more empathy, communication, gut feeling, emotional memory, and anger control.
The emotion-processing center of the brain, the amygdala, reachers its full development about one-and-a-half years earlier in the female than the male. The amygdala plays an important role in the response of fear and courage as well as certain types of memory.
Studies show that giving oxytocin during labor can negatively affect breastfeeding and possibly even create issues in the infant
C.H. Irvine and colleagues wrote, “Infants exclusively fed soy infant formula receive the estrogenic equivalent of at least 5 birth control pills a day” (Irvine et al. 1998)
In male infants, the estrogenic effects of soy interrupt the testosterone surge that occurs in the first few months, when testosterone levels can be as high as those of an adult male. Interruption may cause inhibition of male characteristics and sexual organs (Ross et al. 1983)
Children should never be put on a low-fat or low-cholesterol diet.
Studies have shown that the younger the child the more critical fat and cholesterol are to the brain and nervous system’s development.
Breast milk is especially rich in omega-3 fats, saturated fat, and medium-chain triglycerides, an important component of some saturated fats, such as coconut oil
Cerebral ketone use is prevalent, for instance, in newborn infants nursing on fat-rich mothers milk. The switch to dependence on glucose does not occur until carbohydrates are introduced into the child’s diet.
Newborn babies are showing a couple hundred toxic chemicals systemically when tested...
A study released in January 2011 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives revealed that essentially 100% of the 268 pregnant women tested were contaminated with highly toxic synthetic chemicals.
“The percent of pregnant women with detectable levels of an individual chemical ranged from 0 to 100%. Certain PCBs, organochlorine pesticides, PFCs, phenols, PDBEs, phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and perchlorate were detected in 99 to 100% of pregnant women” (Woodruff et al. 2011).
Parabens do, however, alter thyroid hormone levels during pregnancy.72
(72. Aker, A. M., Watkins, D. J., Johns, L. E., Ferguson, K. K., Soldin, O. P., Anzalota Del Toro, L. V., Alshawabkeh, A. N., Cordero, J. F., and Meeker, J. D. (2016) Phenols and parabens in relation to reproductive and thyroid hormones in pregnant women. Environ Res 151, 30-37)
US infants far exceeded the EPA’s maximum threshold phthalate levels in blood tests.77
(77. Serrano, S. E., Braun, J., Trasande, L., Dills, R., and Sathyanarayana, S. (2014) Phthalates and diet: a review of the food monitoring and epidemiology data. Environ Health 13, 43 )
phthalates are associated with “long-term attention deficit” in children.91 This attention deficit may be due to phthalate induction of neurotoxicity, discovered in 2016.92 Or perhaps it is due to phthalates derailing aspects of brain development (such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor [BDNF]).93
(91. Tasker, R. C., and Sharpe, R. M. (2016) Dealing with phthalates in medical devices: a case of primum non nocere (first do no harm)? Intensive Care Med 42, 602-604 Back to text.
92. Wojtowicz, A. K., Szychowski, K. A., Wnuk, A., and Kajta, M. (2016) Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP)-Induced Apoptosis and Neurotoxicity are Mediated via the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) but not by Estrogen Receptor Alpha (ERalpha), Estrogen Receptor Beta (ERbeta), or Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma (PPARgamma) in Mouse Cortical Neurons. Neurotox Res Back to text.
93. Ponsonby, A. L., Symeonides, C., Vuillermin, P., Mueller, J., Sly, P. D., and Saffery, R. (2016) Epigenetic regulation of neurodevelopmental genes in response to in utero exposure to phthalate plastic chemicals: How can we delineate causal effects? Neurotoxicology 55, 92-101)
Pregnant women using perfume have been found to have 167% higher urine concentration of phthalates than those women off “the juice”.96
(96. Chen, D., Kannan, K., Tan, H., Zheng, Z., Feng, Y. L., Wu, Y., and Widelka, M. (2016) Bisphenol Analogues Other Than BPA: Environmental Occurrence, Human Exposure, and Toxicity-A Review. Environ Sci Technol 50, 5438-5453)
Hyperactivity in children, once again, is connected to BPA exposure.105
105. Ejaredar, M., Lee, Y., Roberts, D. J., Sauve, R., and Dewey, D. (2016) Bisphenol A exposure and children’s behavior: A systematic review. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol)
Plastics are everywhere. In fact, there is even a recent, eye-opening scientific report on bad phthalate “emissions” from vinyl flooring and crib mattresses.19
19. Liang, Y., and Xu, Y. (2014) Emission of phthalates and phthalate alternatives from vinyl flooring and crib mattress covers: the influence of temperature. Environ Sci Technol 48, 14228-14237 )
think of all the plastics in the modern indoor child “care” facilities. Check out this study, for example, showing that phthalate exposure in child “care” facilities “exceeded cancer benchmarks” before the age of 2 years in California20. . . the same California, where warm weather abounds and children could simply play outdoors. But real grass? Dirt? Some people would prefer your children play on “chemgrass” or some other artificial cushioning material. . . which contains phthalates.20
20. Wan, Y., Xue, J., and Kannan, K. (2015) Occurrence of benzophenone-3 in indoor air from Albany, New York, USA, and its implications for inhalation exposure. Sci Total Environ 537, 304-30)
in one recent Canadian study, not only were phthalates found in the breastmilk of over 50% of women, but maternal-baby transfer was explicitly shown.56
56. Arbuckle, T. E., Fisher, M., MacPherson, S., Lang, C., Provencher, G., LeBlanc, A., Hauser, R., Feeley, M., Ayotte, P., Neisa, A., Ramsay, T., and Tawagi, G. (2016) Maternal and early life exposure to phthalates: The Plastics and Personal-care Products use in Pregnancy (P4) study. Sci Total Environ 551-552, 344-356 )
“Fetal exposure to five parabens was investigated due to their endocrine-disrupting potential and possible impact on fetal development,” explains authors of a research journal, rationalizing their study.5 “This study”, they went on to note, “is the first to report the occurrence of parabens in human umbilical cord blood. Maternal exposure to parabens is widespread.” Umbilical cords are basically the life blood from mother to fetus. How many u-cords contained parabens? Well, depending on the specific paraben of the five they looked at, 97.4% of the umbilical cords had one type, 94.75% had another type. . . and all five of the tested parabens were present in more than 40% of samples.
(5. Pycke, B. F., Geer, L. A., Dalloul, M., Abulafia, O., and Halden, R. U. (2015) Maternal and fetal exposure to parabens in a multiethnic urban U.S. population. Environ Int 84, 193-200 )
pregnancy is especially associated with lupus attacks because, according to researchers, “estrogenic hormones possess both immunostimulating and immunosuppressive properties.”
Soy, too, has been studied in regards to the human immune system. Soy has even been investigated regarding children’s immune systems. Researchers in a 2003 edition of the Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health comment about soy consumption in infancy and childhood, saying: “There is an increasing number of recent reports that suggest adverse effects with respect to [. . .] immune function and thyroid disease.”8 The title of that paper was “Soy, infant formula, and phytoestrogens”.
8. Tuohy, P. G. (2003) Soy infant formula and phytoestrogens. J Paediatr Child Health 39, 401-405)
What is scary with BPA, however, is that cancer risk continues long after the BPA exposures. For example, in studies of fetuses exposed in the womb to BPA, offspring had an increased propensity to develop breast cancer during adulthood.58
58. Paulose, T., Speroni, L., Sonnenschein, C, and Soto, A. M. (2015) Estrogens in the wrong place at the wrong time: Fetal BPA exposure and mammary cancer. Reprod Toxicol 54, 58-65)
In a 2004 study of over 2,500 children around the age of 6, urine samples were collected. From these samples, 93% were positive for BPA.59 In other words, as those children become adults, they are still more likely to develop breast cancer from that early BPA exposure.
59. Fillon, M. (2012) Getting it right: BPA and the difficulty proving environmental cancer risks. J Natl Cancer Inst 104, 652-655)
learn about “Natural Family Planning” (NFP) for postponing pregnancy. It is also called the “Fertility Awareness Method” (FAM) and is more than 99% effective.5 A class or a book like Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach (Kippley) might also help get you started. There is even an NFP app called “Natural Cycles” which is also side-effect-free.5
(5. Pearson, C. (2015) The app that could be a 99 percent effective form of birth control. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/contraceptive-app-natural-cycles_n_6472642.html. )
The best example is a baby who is breastfed as opposed to bottle-fed. A newborn that latches on to a mother’s breast is naturally induced to use its tongue muscles to push the nipple to the roof of its mouth. Because the roof of the mouth is soft like wax, this action will flatten and broaden the palate, making space for the upper teeth. Children who don’t breastfeed are more likely to have a high palate and crooked teeth.15
15. Peres, Karen Glazer, Andreia Morales Cascaes, Marco Aurelio Peres, Flavio Fernando Demarco, Iná Silva Santos, Alicia Matijasevich, and Aluisio J. D. Barros. “Exclusive breastfeeding and risk of dental malocclusion.” Pediatrics 136, no. 1 (2015): e60–e67.
When children are taught to breathe through their nose, their jaws develop as they should and, as a result, their teeth grow in straighter.
For that to happen, the child’s tongue must sit at the top of the mouth, against the palate, which puts pressure on the palate to expand and grow.17 The child must also breathe through the nose. The flow of air through the nasal passage stimulates the maxilla to keep growing outward and helps to lower and broaden the palate.18
17. Enlow, Donald H., and Mark G. Hans. Essentials of facial growth. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1996.
18. Gungor, Ahmet Yalcin, and Hakan Turkkahraman. “Effects of airway problems on maxillary growth: a review.”European journal of dentistry 3, no. 3 (2009): 250.
birth itself is designed to deliver a “starter” pack of microbes to a newborn child; the first microbes it encounters are those in the mother’s vagina.18
18. Neu, Josef, and Jona Rushing. “Cesarean versus vaginal delivery: long-term infant outcomes and the hygiene hypothesis.” Clinics in perinatology 38, no. 2 (2011): 321–331.
The beginning of the child’s life serves as a kind of crash course introduction to the world of microbes and how to deal with them. Breast-feeding plays a key role in this. Immune cells from a mother’s gut can migrate to her mammary glands, and as a result, her breast milk will contain antibodies for certain microorganisms.19
19. Jost, Ted, Christophe Lacroix, Christian P. Braegger, Florence Rochat, and Christophe Chassard. “Vertical mother–neonate transfer of maternal gut bacteria via breastfeeding.” Environmental microbiology 16, no. 9 (2014): 2891–2904.
Keep the jaw, face, and airways healthy and strong.
Breast-feeding gives babies facial exercise at the earliest stage of life. Breast-feeding is trigged by the rooting reflex, which engages five cranial nerves. Babies learn to use their tongue muscles, which helps support their airways. The tongue posture helps develop their autonomic nervous system, in particular the vagus nerve, which is crucial for digestive balance in the body.2
In order to extract milk from the breast, babies learn to use their tongue to push the mother’s nipple against their palate, which helps to develop their upper jaw and prevent crooked teeth.3 Breast-feeding also teaches babies to breathe through their nose. This is extra important since nasal breathing mixes the air we take in with nitrous oxide, which helps our body absorb more oxygen.
Give the mouth the nutrients it needs (with a focus on calcium and the fat-soluble vitamins).
Breast milk is exquisitely designed to give a baby’s growing body the nutrients it needs. The mother’s body makes careful calculations of how much of the nutrients she can spare. When there’s a sufficient amount of a certain nutrient, it gets passed to the baby through the breast milk. When there isn’t a sufficient amount, the baby may suffer from the deficiency as well.
For instance, if a woman with a vitamin D deficiency breast-feeds her baby, there’s a good chance the baby will have a vitamin D shortage as well.4 This is likely also the case for vitamins A and K2. Many traditional societies would make sure that a mother’s prenatal diet had plenty of fat-soluble, vitamin-rich foods. This would ensure that a mother had plenty of stores for both herself and her child.
Keep the microbiome balanced and diverse.
Breast milk does an excellent job of establishing the microbiome of the baby. Breast milk was long thought to be sterile, but recently we’ve learned that it transports bacteria from a mother’s gut to her child’s oral and then gut microbiome. It’s full of both prebiotic factors and live microbes that serve as the starter pack for the newborn’s developing digestive and immune systems.5
Eat food with healthy epigenetic messages.
The composition of breast milk varies during the lactation period, but it’s not the macronutrient composition of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins that changes. Instead, the bioactive components, including immunological factors and fatty acids that send epigenetic messages, evolve. This suggests that a mother’s body is sending different environmental—and epigenetic—growth signals to the child.6
References…
2. Porges, Stephen W., and Senta A. Furman. “The early development of the autonomic nervous system provides a neural platform for social behaviour: a polyvagal perspective.” Infant and child development 20, no. 1 (2011): 106–118.
3. Peres, Karen Glazer, Andreia Morales Cascaes, Marco Aurelio Peres, Flavio Fernando Demarco, Iná Silva Santos, Alicia Matijasevich, and Aluisio J. D. Barros. “Exclusive breastfeeding and risk of dental malocclusion.” Pediatrics 136, no. 1 (2015): e60–e67.
4. Mulligan, Megan L., Shaili K. Felton, Amy E. Riek, and Carlos BernalMizrachi. “Implications of vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy and lactation.” American journal of obstetrics and gynecology 202, no. 5 (2010): 429–e1.
5. Jost, Ted, Christophe Lacroix, Christian P. Braegger, Florence Rochat, and Christophe Chassard. “Vertical mother–neonate transfer of maternal gut bacteria via breastfeeding.” Environmental microbiology 16, no. 9 (2014): 2891–2904.
6. Verduci, Elvira, Giuseppe Banderali, Salvatore Barberi, Giovanni Radaelli, Alessandra Lops, Federica Betti, Enrica Riva, and Marcello Giovannini. “Epigenetic effects of human breast milk.” Nutrients 6, no. 4 (2014): 1711–1724
Did you know that children who grow up in households that use a sponge to clean dishes have fewer allergic diseases than those growing up in households that use a dishwasher?3
3 Bill Hesselmar et al., “Allergy in Children in Hand versus Machine Dishwashing,” Pediatrics 135, no. 3 (March 1, 2015): e590–7, doi:10.1542/peds.2014-2968.
the world of bacteria that will be with you the rest of your life (your gut microbiota) develops to a large extent by the second to third year of life.1 The colonization starts while a mother is pregnant and seems to be mostly complete by age two or three. It also appears that your immune system develops in tandem with this, because your early microbiota is crucial in developing a healthy immune system. The importance of early life on development of the immune system cannot be overemphasized. It has been well documented that early life exposure to dirt, germs, and bugs aids in the development of your immune system, and if you have robust exposure, you’ll be less inflamed and have a healthier immune system later in life. It has been theorized that problems with this early life development is one of the major reasons industrialized countries have higher levels of inflammatory and autoimmune/immune diseases.2
1 Akihito Endo et al., “Long-Term Monitoring of the Human Intestinal Microbiota from the 2nd Week to 13 Years of Age,” Anaerobe 28 (August 1, 2014): 149–56, doi:10.1016/J.ANAEROBE.2014.06.006.
2 Scott T. Weiss, “Eat Dirt—The Hygiene Hypothesis and Allergic Diseases,” New England Journal of Medicine 347, no. 12 (September 19, 2002): 930–31, doi:10.1056/NEJMe020092.
another asthma study found that antibiotics were still a problem when used after one year of age but were significantly less problematic (over 50% less).15 It was also shown that the more antibiotic the child used, the higher the child’s risk of asthma.
15 Kristen Wickens et al., “Antibiotic Use in Early Childhood and the Development of Asthma,” Clinical and Experimental Allergy 29,no. 6 (June 1, 1999): 766–71, doi:10.1046/j.1365-2222.1999.00536.x.
When children are born, they are exposed to a massive dose of bacteria as they pass through their mothers’ vaginal canals. In fact, some researchers now think that the stress of labor causes temporary leaky gut in the mother, which then allows the mom’s gut bacteria to colonize the child.23 It has been clearly documented that children who are born vaginally have different bacterial colonization than those born by C-section. Those birthed vaginally have bacteria that resemble their moms’ bacteria; those born by C-section have bacteria that reflect the delivery room.
I hope you’re asking, “Well, OK, but what does this really mean in terms of real-world effects?” Fortunately, we have some good data here. In 2008, researchers published a meta-analysis of observational studies. This is high-level scientific data because it analyzed the twenty available studies to see what the consensus of the data was. They also attempted to control for other variables that could confound the findings. For example, maybe older mothers were more prone to having C-sections, and, therefore, the study findings could have been due to increased maternal age and not because of the C-sections. After attempting to isolate for other variables like this, it was found the C-section babies have a more than 20% increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes.24
One additional paper found birth by C-section increases risk of chronic inflammatory conditions—celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, asthma, and obesity—compared to vaginal birth.25 In yet another study, ulcerative colitis, celiac disease, lower respiratory tract infection, juvenile arthritis, and asthma were more common in C-section babies compared to vaginal birth after following over 750,000 children for fourteen years.26
23 Raakel Luoto et al., “Reshaping the Gut Microbiota at an Early Age: Functional Impact on Obesity Risk?,” Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism 63 Suppl 2 (2013): 17–26, doi:10.1159/000354896.
24 C. R. Cardwell et al., “Caesarean Section Is Associated with an Increased Risk of Childhood-Onset Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: A Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies,” Diabetologia 51, no. 5 (May 22, 2008): 726–35, doi:10.1007/s00125-008-0941-z.
25 Ibid.
26 Kim Kristensen and Lonny Henriksen, “Cesarean Section and Disease Associated with Immune Function,” Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 137, no. 2 (February 1, 2016): 587–90, doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2015.07.040.
When breastfed infants were compared to bottle-fed infants, breastfed infants had27, reduced risk of infection;, improved cognitive development; decreased occurrence of celiac disease, asthma, and high cholesterol later in life; decreased occurrence of type 2 diabetes and obesity later in life.
27 C. R. Cardwell et al., “Caesarean Section Is Associated with an Increased Risk of Childhood-Onset Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: A Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies,” Diabetologia 51, no. 5 (May 22, 2008): 726–35, doi:10.1007/s00125-008-0941-z.
When a pregnant woman is under high amounts of stress, her child’s microbiota is negatively affected.34
34 Maartje A. C. Zijlmans et al., “Maternal Prenatal Stress Is Associated with the Infant Intestinal Microbiota,” Psychoneuroendocrinology 53 (March 1, 2015): 233–45, doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.01.006.
Some studies show day care attendance decreases allergic diseases, and other studies show it increases allergic diseases.47 One study found if a child attended day care before the age of two and was breastfed, the risk of type 1 diabetes decreased.48 However, if the child attended day care before the age of two and was not breastfed, there was an increased risk of type 1 diabetes. Perhaps a child needs the immune-developing breast milk to successfully handle the immune system training provided by the bombardment of bacteria from day care.
47 C. Svanes et al., “Early Exposure to Children in Family and Day Care as Related to Adult Asthma and Hay Fever: Results from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey,” Thorax 57, no. 11 (2002): 945–50, doi:10.1136/thorax.57.11.945.
Prebiotics might be especially important for young children because breast milk is high in oligosaccharides and other prebiotics.66 For infants especially, prebiotics likely play an important role in establishing a healthy microbiota. The studies of prebiotics used in infants show promising results. In one study, either a placebo or prebiotic was given to infants during their first six months of life. The infants were then tracked to see if there was a difference in allergic diseases diagnosed within the first two years of life. Less wheezing, hives, and upper respiratory tract infections were seen in the prebiotic group.67 A similar study used the same prebiotic in the first six months of life. The children receiving the prebiotic experienced less seasonal/environmental allergies, and the effect lasted up till five years of age.68
66 Sertac Arslanoglu et al., “Early Dietary Intervention with a Mixture of Prebiotic Oligosaccharides Reduces the Incidence of Allergic Manifestations and Infections during the First Two Years of Life,” Journal of Nutrition 138, no. 6 (June 1, 2008): 1091–95, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18492839.
67 Ibid.
68 Sertac Arslanoglu et al., “Early Neutral Prebiotic Oligosaccharide Supplementation Reduces the Incidence of Some Allergic Manifestations in the First 5 Years of Life,” Journal of Biological Regulators and Homeostatic Agents 26, no. 3 Suppl. (2012): 49–59, www.researchgate.net/profile/Paola_Tonetto/publication/258972795_JBRHA26-3S/links/00b49529879926cd7a000000.pdf#page=51.
Another RCT examined children with celiac disease who were given probiotics (Bifidobacterium longum CECT 7347). The children on the probiotics achieved better height than the children on a placebo, possibly from increased absorption of nutrients.48
48 Marta Olivares et al., “Double-Blind, Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Intervention Trial to Evaluate the Effects of Bifidobacterium Longum CECT 7347 in Children with Newly Diagnosed Coeliac Disease,” British Journal of Nutrition 112, no. 1 (2014): 30–40, doi:10.1017/S0007114514000609.
low iodine can lead to maternal goiter and infant malformation
When a farmer or a racehorse breeder or a rare orchid grower see obvious disruptions in healthy growth, they naturally consider the nutritional context in which the specimen was raised. If a prize-winning mare gives birth to a foal with abnormally bowed legs, the veterinarian recognizes that something went wrong and, often asks the logical question, What was the mother eating? But physicians rarely do that, even when life-threatening problems show up right at birth. And we continue to neglect the nutrition-development equation when our patients develop scoliosis, joint malformations, aneurysms, autism, schizophrenia, and so on later in life. If doctors and nutritionists were as willing as other professionals to use their basic senses, every child would have a better chance to grown up healthy.
Our desire for beauty is no simple matter of vanity. The way we look speaks volumes about our health because of the fact that form implies function. Less attractive facial forms are less functional. Children with suboptimal skull structure may beed glasses, braces, or oral surgery, whereas children with more ideal architecture won’t. This is because suboptimal architecture impairs development of normal geometry, leading to imperfectly formed facial features, be it the eyes or ears or nose or jaw or throat. For example, narrow nasal passages irritate the mucosa, increasing the chances of rhinitis and allergies. When the airway in the back of the throat is improperly formed, a child may suffer from sleep apnea, which stares the brain of the oxygen needed to develop normal intelligence.
Children with growth anomalies are the group most often found to have genetic diseases and internal organ malformations, and they frequently develop learning disorders, socialization disorders, and cancer.
unless the mother gives herself ample time (generally at least three years) and nutrients for her body to fully replenish itself, child number two may not be as healthy as his older sibling. And so, while big brother goes off to football practice, or big sister get a modeling job, the second sibling will be spending time in the offices of the local optometrists and orthodontists. It’s not that they got the “unlucky” genes. The problem is that, compared to their older sibling, they grew in a relatively undernourished environment in utero.
One study shows that overall, 74% of women “are falling short on nutrients from their diet."
Dr. John Durnin, of Glasgow University, describes the mechanism vividly: “The fetus is well protected against maternal malnutrition — that indeed it behaves like a parasite oblivious to the health of its host. If mom’s diet is deficient in calcium, it will be robbed from her bones. IF deficient in brain-building fats the fats that make up the mother’s own brain will be sought out and extracted. Pregnancy drains a woman’s body of a wide variety of vitamins, minerals and other raw materials, and breastfeeding demands more still. As you might expect, the demands of producing a baby draw down maternal stores of a spectrum of nutrients, including iron, folate, calcium, potassium, vitamin D, vitamin, A and carotenoids, magnesium, iodine, omega-3, phosphorus, zinc, DHA and other essential fatty acids, b12 and selenium. To the placenta, mom’s central nervous system, for instance, is simply a warehouse full of the kinds of fat needed to build baby’s central nervous system. Studies show that maternal brains can actually shrink, primarily in the hippocampal and temporal lobe areas, which control short-term memory and emotion. These brain regions are not responsible for basic functioning, like breathing or blood pressure regulation, and so are relatively expendable. This marvelous nutrient scavenging ability of a human placenta means that even in conditions of insufficient maternal nutrition the first child may come out relatively intact. Meanwhile, mom’s body many be depleted to the point that before and after pictures reveal her spine to have curved, her lips thinned and she may have trouble remembering and learning new things, or feel anxious and depressed — as in postpartum depression.
the consequences of not getting enough nutrients and the introduction of toxins are primarily brought to bear through changes in the infants epigenome. The epigenome consists of the set of molecules that attach themselves to DNA and other nuclear materials that control when a given gene is turned on or off. These genetic switches inform every aspect of our physiologic function. Diseases previously assumed to be due to permanent mutation — from cancer, to diabetes, to asthma, and even obesity — most often actually result from mistimed genetic expression. And since the proper timing of gene expression requires specific nutrients in specific concentration, if a second sibling gestates in a lessor nutritional environment than the first, their epigenetic expression will be suboptimal and growth and development will be impaired.
Previous studies have shown that births less than eighteen months apart increase child mortality and in some cases stunt growth
Proper nutritional refortification requires time
The vast majority of americans aren’t merely malnourished, but severely malnourished. Which should make you wonder: Doesn’t that mean we’re all suffering from some degree of symmetry shifts? Most of us are, which is why there seems to be so few genetic lottery winners walking around. And what explains them? How did they, raised by parents who, presumably followed the same advice my parents did, and ate the same steady diet of frozen canned, and vitamin poor fruits and vegetables, mystery meat from poisoned animals, grains, grown on mineral-depleted soils, margarine, and everything else that makes our modern diet unhealthy, curry Mother Nature’s favor? They didn’t. Their great-great-grandparents did, by eating such nutrient-rich diets that they imparted the family epigenome with genetic momentum, the ability of genes to perform well with suboptimal nutrient inputs for a finite amount of time. And their placentas did, by sending an especially urgent message to mothers bones, brain, skin, muscles, glands, and organs to release every available raw material for the benefit of the baby. In these on-in-a-million cases, the fetal genome operating in mom’s belly can do what it’s been doing for a hundred thousand years; create the miracle of a perfectly symmetrical homo sapient baby.
pre-eclampsia (an immune system disease causing mothers body to partially reject the baby and give birth prematurely)
a large study completed in the US showed that pregnant women using their prenatal pills still develop “combination deficits of niacin, thiamin, and vitamins A, B6 and B12 that persist throughout each of the three trimesters. Other studies show that prenatal vitamin pills don’t solve many nutritional problems.
Vitamin D Deficiency: in studies which over 90% of participants took prenatal vitamins, 56% of white babies and 46% of black babies were vitamin D insufficient. Insufficiency in early life increases the risk of schizophrenia, diabetes, and skeletal disease.
Long Chain Essential Fatty Acids: As of the date of this writing, there is no recommendation about how much of these to consume and most people who don’t supplement get almost none. But supplementing with cod liver oil during pregnancy has protective and lasting effects on the baby’s intelligence
Choline: gestational deficiency of choline is associated with life-long learning deficits. One survey showed 86% of college-age women were lacking adequate dietary choline. Choline is not part of any prenatal vitamin supplement commonly marketed in the united states.
We are told to accept the idea that facial deformities — even relatively minor changes — occur randomly, all products of the whimsical nature of the “genetic lottery"
Physiologic deficiencies occur for a reason and most can be easily prevented
Most women have no idea that the prenatal vitamin pill works best when taken before conception because it helps to boost a woman’s vitamin levels to prepare for the first ten weeks of pregnancy, the time when the most fundamental decisions about how to shape the baby’s body are made. After that window of opportunity has shut, though it can still improve birth weight, the vitamin pill can do little to prevent most major birth defects
Our society does not encourage strategizing to optimize a child’s health. The medical community is missing the opportunity to prepare mothers bodies with sold nutrition, giving their babies’ genes the materials they need to compose their physiologic masterpiece. Of course, that would involve more than taking a pill. It would require improving the nutrient content of mothers’ food.
There may be over 100 isomers of vitamin E, but only about 16 are put into tablets. The processing of synthetic vitamins necessarily involves the creation of incidental molecular byproducts, the effects of which are largely unknown. About half of the content of vitamin E tablets are isomers that don’t exist in nature, which might explain why some studies show that taking synthetic vitamin E pills increases mortality. Without the proper carrier nutrients in the right balance, many vitamins are not absorbed. Many vitamins work synergistically with other nutrients in way we don’t fully understand. Who knows what else is in that pill? The entire supplement industry is essentially unregulated, and supplements have been found to be contaminated with toxic compounds including lead or dangerously high levels of copper. But again, there is some benefit to taking certain supplements, especially in pregnancy, because the food supply is so bereft of nutrients when compared with foods from only 70 years ago.
The general idea is that, whatever our mom can’t provide to her baby through whatever she’s eating, the prenatal vitamin pill can, thus implicitly giving her permission to continue with the standard diet and expose her body to foods that could not be better engineered to deprive a growing child
Studies showing how poorly nourished we actually are have presumably been conducted so that perinatologists and other specialists can familiarize themselves with, and begin to address, childhood disease and physiologic deficiencies that result from malnutrition. However, taking action based on what a given study recommends would require personal initiative on the part of individual healthcare providers. But as corporate culture goes, so goes medical culture. We live in the age of consensus and groupthink, where otherwise curious and capable professionals avoid being singled out by huddling in the center of the herd. The herd, in turn, waits for an authority figure to lead the way. So if theres no authority figure acknowledging the importance of a given articles findings, nothing happens. Its as though it were never written.
When social workers examined how these traditions eroded, they uncovered an explanation not entirely irrelevant to us: Westerners, including mine owner, state officials, missionaries, and doctors working with these groups, judged the traditional practice of spacing childbirth to be at odds with their long-term goals of expansion and did not support its continuation. “Intimate Colonialism: The Imperial Production of Reproduction in Uganda, 1907-1925” suggests rather provocatively that when companies need workers, they care more about sheer numbers than the quality of workers’ lives or their longevity. Such concerns become irrelevant given a large enough pool of potential workers to draw from. And so the systematic spacing of children that was once an “important feature of the control of excellence of child life” is tossed aside as an anachronism, a fractured artifact of female empowerment. But it is not just a women’s issue, and it extends beyond the political. We all gain from children’s good health, which requires giving mom’s body at least three — preferably four — years to refortify her tissues with a generous supply of nutrients.
This latest generation of children has accumulated the epigenetic damage of at least the three previous generations due to lack of adequate nutrition along with the over-consumption of sugar and new artificial fats found in vegetable oils.
Can diminutive parents who want big strong baby’s? Absolutely. This potential is encoded in our genetic memory. We’ve all heard that we used to be a lot shorter, how few of us could fit into one of those little suits of armor worn by medieval knights. But around the world, accumulating evidence suggests that thousands of years prior, our Paleolithic predecessors were at least as tall, if not taller, than most of us are today. Even in the early Middle Ages, 1000 years go, European men were nearly as tall as they are now. What caused the temporary skeletal shrinkage? As the population grew, crowding reduced access to nutrients until stature reached all-time lows in the early 1700s. Improvements in agricultural technology, most notably the series of inventions attributed to lawyer-turned-farmer Jethro Tull, revolutionized the process of tilling soil, vastly increasing productivity. By the late 1700s, having recovered some of its former nutritional inputs, the European genome rebounded — and with it the average European’s height. But it would probably have dipped again, so that a tall man today might measure just over five feet, were it not for the early 20th century invention of refrigeration. The ability to freeze food meant that fisherman could travel as far as they needed and fill their hulls to the brim. Refrigeration also meant that even during winter, wealthy countries could reach down to the tropics for summer fruits and vegetables, making it profitable for millions of acres of rain forests around the globe to be converted over crop production. For the past 100 years, industrialized nations have had consistent access to enough nutrition to achieve our Paleolithically pre-programmed height. Of course, height doesn’t equal health. But generally speaking, when a genome has access to a surplus of complex nutrition it is far better positioned — and may be said to have a built-in preference — for the production of offspring with more robust, larger frames.
Getting kids to eat better
Lead by example
when introducing new foods, offer small pieces and ask kids to jut try a taste
don’t make them finish anything if they don’t want to
be gently consistent. it can take several dozen tries for a kid to start liking a new food
don’t use food or drink as a reward for good behavior, especially not sweets
Breastfeeding: I find that if I cut carbs too much, or lengthen time between meals, my milk supply decreases. Do you have advice to increase milk production?
Breastmilk contains sugar, roughly 7 grams per 100 milliliters (but it varies widely). So if you’re producing a liter of milk for your baby each day, that’s 70 grams of sugar your body needs for milk production alone. While your liver can make sugar you need out of protein if your diet is high enough in protein, that seems like a waste of good protein. You mightt as well get the carbs you need from your favorite carb-rich foods, whole grains, root vegetables, beans and peas or fruits. Just try your best to mix it up; variety is always important.
On a related note, FUT2 has also been shown to influence how the gut develops infants. When babies are breastfed by mother carrying FUT2 SNPs, it takes longer for the good bugs to grow and become established in the gut. In 2015, researchers found that women with FUT2 genes produced less oligosaccharides in their breast milk, and the infants they fed took longer to grow a healthy population of Bifidobacteria (Lewis, Z.T., S.M. Totten, J.T. Smilowitz, et al. Maternal fucosyltranserase 2 status affects the gut bifidobacterial communities of breastfed infants. Microbiome. (2015) 3:13.). Human milk oligosaccharides are used by Bifidobacteria as a fuel source, so when mother with FUT2 genes produce breast milk, there is less food for the healthy Bifidobacteria to eat.
A study published in 2015 showed that post part depression is caused by a surge in the expression of MAO-A. Immedieately after delivering a baby, a woman’s body goes through a profound decline in estrogen. This rapid loss of estrogen, no longer necessary since pregnancy has ended, causes a reflexive increase in the speed of MAO-A. As MAO-A speeds up, it detoxifies neurotransmitter much faster, leading to depression and other signs of postpartum depression such as apathy and excess crying.
Sacher, J. P.V. Rekkas, A.A. Wilson, et al. Relationship of monoamineoxidase-A distribution volume to postpartum depression and postpartum crying. Neuropsychopharmacology. (2015) 40(2): 429-35
Women sometimes lose a great deal of blood during childbirth, for instance, but one study found that pregnant women who had consumed about 2.7 grams of omega-3 daily did not have increased blood loss during delivery.42
42. Olsen SF, Sorensen JD, Secher NJ, et al. Randomised controlled trial of effect of fish-oil supplementation on pregnancy duration. Lancet. 1992 Apr 25;339(8800):1003-7.
A high adulterated omega-6 intake, which we’ve established is bad news for your heart and overall health, may be especially undesirable during pregnancy because it reduces the amount of long-chain omega-3s available to the developing baby.12 A high omega-6-to-3 ratio in pregnant mothers may lead to developmental problems in their babies, and supplementing premature infants with oils rich in DHA has been shown to reduce this risk.13 Proper formation of the brain, and the healthy cognitive function this enables, doesn’t only affect childhood. These nutritionally influenced processes at the very earliest stages of life have implications throughout adolescence and into adulthood,14
(12. Al MD, Badart-Smook A, von Houwelingen AC, et al. Fat intake of women during normal pregnancy: relationship with maternal and neonatal essential fatty acid status. J Am Coll Nutr. 1996;15(1):49-55.
13. Carlson SE, Werkman SH, Peeples JM, et al. Long-chain fatty acids and early visual and cognitive development of preterm infants. Eur J Clin Nutr. 1994 Aug;48 Suppl 2:S27-30.
14. Hornstra G. Essential fatty acids in mothers and their neonates. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 May;71(5 Suppl):1262s-9s.)
Women of childbearing age have the greatest capacity to convert ALA to EPA and DHA. This may be influenced by their higher estrogen levels, and it’s likely yet another feature of human evolution and biology that persists with us to the current day: developing fetuses and newborn babies require a great deal of long-chain omega-3s, so mom better be getting plenty in her diet, or be able to make them from ALA, both during pregnancy and immediately after, to make sure there’s enough in her breast milk after the baby is born. The average conversion rate of ALA to EPA and DHA in most people is about 0.2 to 8 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, but it’s as high as 21 percent and 9 percent, respectively, in young women.15
(15. Burdge GC, Wootton SA. Conversion of alpha-linolenic acid to eicosapentaenoic, docosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids in young women. Br J Nutr. 2002 Oct;88:411-20.)
The International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids recommends that women who are pregnant or breastfeeding consume 300 mg per day of DHA. But the average pregnant or nursing woman’s DHA intake is a paltry 60 to 80 mg a day—about 25 percent of the recommended amount.16
(16. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Monograph. Altern Med Rev. 2009;14(4):391-9.)
That women of childbearing age are so much better than men and older women at converting ALA to EPA and DHA suggests that these fats are particularly important to a growing fetus. DHA in particular is crucial for healthy development of the brain and the eyes, as it is the most prevalent polyunsaturated fatty acid in the central nervous system. The accumulation of DHA in babies occurs primarily during the third trimester17 and continues into the first 6 to 10 months after birth.18
(17. Hornstra G. Essential fatty acids in mothers and their neonates. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 May;71(5 Suppl):1262s-9s.
18. Barcelo-Coblijn G, Murphy EJ. Alpha-linolenic acid and its conversion to longer chain n-3 fatty acids: benefits for human health and a role in maintaining tissue n-3 fatty acid levels. Prog Lipid Res. 2009 Nov;48(6):355-74.)
While a woman’s overall diet can alter the fatty acid composition of her breast milk (the higher her omega-3 intake, the more omega-3 her milk will contain), on average the fats in breast milk are 0.5 to 1 percent ALA (omega-3), 0.4 to 0.7 percent arachidonic acid (an omega-6), 8 to 17 percent linoleic acid (LA), and just 0.3 to 0.6 percent DHA.19 However, research suggests that for DHA levels in infants to reach their peak, breast milk should contain a bit more DHA—around 0.8 percent.20
(19. Barcelo-Coblijn G, Murphy EJ. Alpha-linolenic acid and its conversion to longer chain n-3 fatty acids: benefits for human health and a role in maintaining tissue n-3 fatty acid levels. Prog Lipid Res. 2009 Nov;48(6):355-74.
20. Gibson RA, Neumann MA, Makrides M. Effect of increasing breast milk docosahexaenoic acid on plasma and erythrocyte phospholipid fatty acids and neural indices of exclusively breast fed infants. Eur J Clin Nutr. 1997 Sep;51(9):578-84.)
women carrying twins need even more omega-3.21
(21. Hornstra G. Essential fatty acids in mothers and their neonates. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 May;71(5 Suppl):1262s-9s.)
Getting the balance of fats right isn’t important only when a baby is in the womb. Babies’ brains and nervous systems continue developing after they’re born, and they need to have the right building blocks. The formation of neurons is complete before birth, but synthesis of several other types of cells is essential for proper brain function to continue after birth.22 The formation of synapses—the spaces between neurons and the actual sites of cellular communication in the brain—depends on an adequate supply of DHA, as does synthesis of myelin, a fatty substance that surrounds and protects neurons like the rubber or plastic that insulates electrical cords on the appliances in your home.23 It appears that babies will develop better cognitive performance when given DHA in their first few months.24
(22. Barcelo-Coblijn G, Murphy EJ. Alpha-linolenic acid and its conversion to longer chain n-3 fatty acids: benefits for human health and a role in maintaining tissue n-3 fatty acid levels. Prog Lipid Res. 2009 Nov;48(6):355-74.
23. Youdim KA, Martin A, Joseph JA. Essential fatty acids and the brain: possible health implications. Int J Dev Neurosci. 2000 Jul-Aug;18(4-5):383-99.
24. Willatts P, Forsyth JS, DiModugno MK, et al. Effect of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in infant formula on problem solving at 10 months of age. Lancet. 1998 Aug 29;352(9129):688-91.)
Neurons don’t just orchestrate cellular communication in your brain. They also connect your brain to your muscles, which is what allows you to walk, run, throw a ball, blink, and even breathe. So the proper formation of neurons and the synapses between them—which is dependent on sufficient DHA25—is important for more than just your central nervous system. At the most basic level, this process is essential just to enable you to think and move.
(25. Youdim KA, Martin A, Joseph JA. Essential fatty acids and the brain: possible health implications. Int J Dev Neurosci. 2000 Jul-Aug;18(4-5):383-99.)
According to one group of researchers, “All together, the evidence provided by studies in human infants indicate that despite the fact that the ALA-supplemented infant formula contributes efficiently to the maintenance of the omega-3 status in premature newborns, they have a modest impact on DHA levels and that these levels do not reach those observed in breastfed infants.”26
(26. Barcelo-Coblijn G, Murphy EJ. Alpha-linolenic acid and its conversion to longer chain n-3 fatty acids: benefits for human health and a role in maintaining tissue n-3 fatty acid levels. Prog Lipid Res. 2009 Nov;48(6):355-74.)
Because DHA mostly accumulates during the third trimester, babies born prematurely miss out on their most important exposure to DHA. Breast milk contains DHA, so breastfed babies may be able to catch up—especially if mom’s diet is high in DHA. Preemies who are breastfed have higher developmental scores at 18 months compared to those who are formula-fed, and preterm infants who are given breast milk for four weeks or longer have significantly higher IQ at seven to eight years of age compared to those who were fed exclusively with formula.27
(27. Lucas A, Morley R, Cole TJ, et al. Breast milk and subsequent intelligence quotient in children born preterm. Lancet. 1992 Feb 1;339(8788):261-4.)
Breastfeeding also leads to better outcomes in cognitive development, vocabulary, visual-motor coordination, and behavior.28,29,30 These are benefits that persist throughout childhood: breastfeeding, whether for preemies or full-term babies, is associated with better cognitive ability and educational achievement and fewer neurological abnormalities at nine years of age.31,32
(28. Rodgers B. Feeding in infancy and later ability and attainment: a longitudinal study. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1978 Aug;20(4):421-6.
29. Taylor B, Wadsworth J. Breast feeding and child development at five years. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1984 Feb;26(1):73-80.
30. Rogan WJ, Gladen BC. Breast-feeding and cognitive development. Early Hum Dev. 1993 Jan;31(3):181-93.
31. Horwood LJ, Fergusson DM. Breastfeeding and later cognitive and academic outcomes. Pediatrics. 1998 Jan;101(1):E9.
32. Lanting CI, Fidler V, Huisman M, et al. Neurological differences between 9-year-old children fed breast-milk or formula-milk as babies. Lancet. 1994 Nov 12;344(8933):1319-22.)
it’s not always possible for women to breastfeed. Be aware, though, that many commercial infant formulas provide only LA and ALA. This may be why babies fed formula lacking omega-3s have a higher incidence of learning disabilities later in life compared to breastfed babies.33,34,35
(33. Menkes JH. Early feeding history of children with learning disorders. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1977 Apr;19(2):169-71.
34. Rodgers B. Feeding in infancy and later ability and attainment: a longitudinal study. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1978 Aug;20(4):421-6.
35. Taylor B, Wadsworth J. Breast feeding and child development at five years. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1984 Feb;26(1):73-80.)
generous intake of omega-3s and cutting back on adulterated omega-6 helps keep blood pressure at a healthy level. Many pregnant women are at risk for pregnancy-induced hypertension and a related condition called preeclampsia. Higher amounts of long-chain omega-3s in their diet might reduce this risk. Inuit women living near the sea and consuming more omega-3s are almost three times less likely to develop hypertension in pregnancy compared to Inuit women living farther inland.36,37 A lower maternal omega-3 index (the amount of omega-3 in red blood cells) is associated with greater risk of preeclampsia.38 According to one study, a 15 percent increase in the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats in red blood cells was associated with a 46 percent reduction in risk of preeclampsia, so even a modest change in the diet can yield a big benefit.39
(36. Hornstra G. Essential fatty acids in mothers and their neonates. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 May;71(5 Suppl):1262s-9s.
37. Popeski D, Ebbeling LR, Brown PB, et al. Blood pressure during pregnancy in Canadian Inuit: community differences related to diet. CMAJ. 1991 Sep 1;145(5):445-54.
38. Williams MA, Zingheim RW, King IB, et al. Omega-3 fatty acids in maternal erythrocytes and risk of preeclampsia. Epidemiology. 1995 May;6(3):232-7.
39. Ibid.)
To be fair, another study showed that pregnant women at high risk for developing hypertension had no significant benefit from supplementing with EPA/DHA.40 The dose of omega-3 used in the study—2.7 grams—was pretty generous, but it’s possible that the women had a typical high intake of omega-6, so even this amount of omega-3 may not have been enough to correct the imbalance.
(40. Onwude JL, Lilford RJ, Hjartardottir H, et al. A randomised double blind placebo controlled trial of fish oil in high risk pregnancy. Br J Obstet Gynaecol. 1995 Feb;102(2):95-100.)
DHA and EPA Recommendations for Pregnant Women and Breastfeeding Mothers
Pregnant women should supplement with at least 300 mg of DHA per day. Greater amounts of marine omega-3s may be needed in women pregnant with twins or multiple babies and for women who have had multiple pregnancies, particularly if the pregnancies are close together (to ensure her omega-3 supply has been made replete since the previous pregnancy).
Consuming high-quality fish oil or other marine oils like krill oil may be a safer strategy than consuming fish, as high-quality marine oils are in general processed to remove mercury and other harmful compounds.
Breastfeeding mothers should supplement with DHA and EPA (especially DHA), particularly if their baby was born prematurely. We recommend at least 500 to 1,000 mg of EPA/DHA.
Pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers should limit intake of adulterated omega-6 fats and industrial trans fats by reducing consumption of margarines, soybean-oil-based salad condiments, sandwich spreads, and processed foods containing soy, corn, cottonseed, and safflower oils.
Formula-fed infants should get supplemental DHA or DHA and EPA if the formula does not contain adequate amounts of DHA (0.2% to 0.5% of total fat). You can add these fats to infant formula by poking a hole in a fish or krill oil capsule and squeezing the oil into the formula, or adding a very small amount from a bottle of liquid marine oil (fish oil or algal oil).
Hibbeln found an inverse correlation between postpartum depression and total seafood intake as well as DHA in mother’s milk in 22 countries: the higher the seafood intake, and the higher the DHA in women’s breast milk, the lower the incidence of postpartum depression.58
58. Hibbeln JR. Seafood consumption, the DHA content of mothers’ milk and prevalence rates of postpartum depression: a cross-national, ecological analysis. J Affect Disord. 2002 May;69(1-3):15-29.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects anywhere between 4 percent and 15 percent of school-aged children in the U.S.; and for many people, it continues into and throughout adulthood.75 Children and adults with ADHD have lower levels of DHA and EPA, and this correlates with behavioral and learning problems, including poor conduct, hyperactivity and impulsivity, anxiety, tantrums, temper, and sleep difficulties.76 A double-blind randomized controlled trial conducted in Japan showed that children with ADHD-like symptoms who were given omega-3 fortified foods (providing around 510 mg DHA and 100 mg EPA per day) were rated as having improved by their parents and teachers.77 Another double-blind trial showed that compared to placebo, an omega-3 plus evening primrose-oil supplement significantly improved attention, behavior, and oppositional defiant disorder in children with ADHD-like symptoms.78
75. Kidd PM. Omega-3 DHA and EPA for cognition, behavior, and mood: clinical findings and structural-functional synergies with cell membrane phospholipids. Altern Med Rev. 2007 Sep;12(3):207-27.
76. Ibid.
77. Hirayama S, Hamazaki T, Terasawa K. Effect of docosahexaenoic acid-containing food administration on symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder - a placebo-controlled double-blind study. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2004 Mar;58(3):467-73.
78. Stevens L, Zhang W, Peck L, et al. EFA supplementation in children with inattention, hyperactivity, and other disruptive behaviors. Lipids. 2003 Oct;38(1):1007-21.
Children with autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) have also been found to have low DHA and total omega-3 fatty acid levels.79 One report found DHA and EPA deficiencies in virtually 100 percent of ASD cases,80 and 90 percent of patients with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) have been found to have deficient DHA and EPA levels in their blood.81 One double-blind trial in children aged 5 to 17 diagnosed with ASD found improvements in hyperactivity and stereotypy (persistent repetitive actions) when given 1.54 g a day of supplemental DHA and EPA.82
79. Vancassel S, Durand G, Barthelemy C, et al. Plasma fatty acid levels in autistic children. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 2001 Jul;65(1):1-7.
80. Kidd PM. Omega-3 DHA and EPA for cognition, behavior, and mood: clinical findings and structural-functional synergies with cell membrane phospholipids. Altern Med Rev. 2007 Sep;12(3):207-27.
81. Ibid.
82. Amminger GP, Berger GE, Schafer MR, et al. Omega-3 fatty acids supplementation in children with autism: a double-blind randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study. Biol Psychiatry. 2007 Feb 15;61(4):551-3.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 15 studies determined that pregnant women may be able to reduce their children’s risk for allergic diseases by consuming adequate EPA and DHA.141
141. Best KP, Gold M, Kennedy D, et al. Omega-3 long-chain PUFA intake during pregnancy and allergic disease outcomes in the offspring: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies and randomized controlled trials. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 Jan;103(1):128-43.
Compared with consistent high fish intake during pregnancy, not eating fish at all is associated with a 30 percent increased risk of asthma in offspring by age five. It’s also correlated with a 46 percent increased risk of a child being hospitalized for asthma and a 37 percent increased risk for being prescribed medication for asthma by age five.143 A higher maternal dietary omega-6-to-3 ratio in pregnancy is associated with a 37 percent greater risk for allergic rhinitis in children by five years of age,144 and consuming about 7 ounces or more of fish per week during pregnancy is associated with a 43 percent reduction in the risk of eczema in offspring.145 Compared to never eating fish, eating fish even just once a week during pregnancy was shown to correlate with a 43 percent reduction in eczema and a 72 percent in hay fever in children at five years old.146 It’s true that “you are what you eat,” but it’s also true that you are what your mother ate, or if you’re a pregnant woman or a woman looking to conceive, your children will be what you eat.
143. Maslova E, Strom M, Oken E, et al. Fish intake during pregnancy and the risk of child asthma and allergic rhinitis - longitudinal evidence from the Danish National Birth Cohort. Br J Nutr. 2013 Oct;110(7):1313-25.
144. Nwaru BI, Erkkola M, Lumia M, et al. Maternal intake of fatty acids during pregnancy and allergies in the offspring. Br J Nutr. 2012 Aug;108(4):720-32.
145. Jedrychowski W, Perera F, Maugeri U, et al. Effects of prenatal and perinatal exposure to fine air pollutants and maternal fish consumption on the occurrence of infantile eczema. Int Arch Allergy Immunol. 2011;155(3):275-81.
146. Willers SM, Devereux G, Craig LC, et al. Maternal food consumption during pregnancy and asthma, respiratory and atopic symptoms in 5-year-old children. Thorax. 2007 Sep;62(9):773-9.
In humans, mothers with high blood levels of omega-6 had children with increased body fat at four and six years of age, whereas higher maternal omega-3 levels were correlated with greater lean mass.33
33. Moon RJ, Harvey NC, Robinson SM, et al. Maternal plasma polyunsaturated fatty acid status in late pregnancy is associated with offspring body composition in childhood. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Jan;98(1):299-307
A study called Project Viva showed that a higher omega-6-to-3 ratio in the maternal diet and in cord blood correlates with increased child obesity.34
34. Donahue SM, Rifas-Shiman SL, Gold DR, et al. Prenatal fatty acid status and child adiposity at age 3 y: results from a US pregnancy cohort. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Apr;93(4):780-8
Infants, particularly ones who are not breastfed, may benefit from GLA or DGLA supplementation. Breast milk contains these special fats, but commercial formulas don’t, and D6D activity is thought to be insufficient during this early stage of life, which would deprive formula-fed infants of these fats.55 Symptoms of GLA/DGLA deficiency include dry, thick skin, skin eruptions resembling eczema, and growth failure.56
55. Horrobin DF. Nutritional and medical importance of gamma-linolenic acid. Prog Lipid Res. 1992;31(2):163-94.
56. Hansen AE. Essential fatty acids and infant nutrition; Borden award address. Pediatrics 1958 Mar;21(3):494-501.
In their “Fourth National Report of Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals” (2009) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared that the average person living in the United States had at least 212 synthetic chemicals in their system. At birth, many new borns in the United States already have over 200 toxic chemicals in their bodies that entered via the mother’s placenta. The types of chemicals detected in humans include toxic metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, dioxins, organophosphate pesticides, herbicides and pest repellents.
Vaginally born babies care colonized by bacterial communities similar to their mothers vaginal microbiota, mainly Lactobacillus. Following first, colonization of the baby microbiota continues through contact with the environment and breastfeeding. Microbes are collected from what babies eat, touch, and put in their mouths – an evolutionary way that babies self-populate their individual immune-regulating microbiomes. Children who grow up around dogs have different microbiome than those who do not. From age six month to three years, the number of species continues to increase, numbering about a hundred species in the gut of young infants to about a thousand in adults, and their functions also change. Babies have folate-producing microbes (needed for methylation), while adults have more folate-harvesting microbes. By age three years, a child’s microbiome looks a lot like an adult’s and it becomes much more stable.
In 2013 the CDC reported that food allergies among children had increased approximately 50% between 1997 and 2011. Our missing microbes are largely to blame. A powerful example of this came in January 2015 when Australian researchers cured 80% of their study population of peanut allergies with courses of the Lactobacillus rhamnosus probiotic, while gradually increasing doses of peanuts themselves.
Cesarean Delivery:
it’s faster, more lucrative, and more easily scheduled. In 2013 payment for cesarean delivery is about 50% higher than average payments with vaginal births ($27,866 versus $18,329). It’s no wonder rates of cesarean births increased in the US by 50% between 1996 and 2001.
infants born by cesarean delivery have an increased risk of developing asthma, allergies, and autoimmune disease in later childhood. Compared with babies delivered vaginally, those delivered by cesarean were 26% more likely to be overweight and 22% more likely to be obese.
Diet: Breastfeeding, GMOs, and Low Fiber Diets
breastfeeding has been associated with a host of positive health outcomes ranging from fewer ear infections to lower risk of leukemia.
Researchers in Sweden discovered that a substance found in human breast milk called HAMLET (human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells) has elective ability to kill cancer cells
Breast milk is rich in living white blood cells, immunoglobulins, and oligosaccharides that feed a particular strain of beneficial bacteria from the genus Bifidobacterium.
The preferred foods to first feed a baby are liver, egg yolks, avocado, and pureed greens
In 2014 the average daily dietary fiber intake was 16 grams per day, despite the recommended 38 grams. In 2009 the USDA’s Economic Research Service found that in American adults a mere 3% of calories a day came from fruits and 5% of calories from vegetables (the majority of which were potatoes). This is a very far cry from the fiber-rich and plant-centered diets humans ate up until the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s.
Unfortunately, our modern diets are filled with microbiome-altering foods. Sugar and artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharin have been found to alter microbial communities in such as way that the body’s usual blood sugar controls are disrupted. Refined flours and cereal grains feed the harmful, abnormal bacteria and microbes in our gut. Consumption of gluten-containing grains like wheat and barley triggers the release of zonulin, a protein that leads to leaky gut, intestinal wall damage, and autoimmune reactions. Researchers have also discovered that overconsumption of alcohol directly damages cells along the digestive tract, driving inflammation in the gut. Last but not least, emulsifiers, detergent-like food additives, alter the composition of the gut’s microbiota leading to increases in inflammation and other various health conditions including metabolic syndrome and colitis. All of these factors and more can contribute to what is known as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), a condition that has increased rapidly in the past few decades.
Research has found that infants exposed to stress, lack of emotional nurturing, or overactive stress responses can transmit these epigenetic marks to future descendants — including the trait of maternal nurturing.
PCBs, for example, are an entire family of toxic chemicals that are also endocrine disruptors. Originally used industrially, PCBs have found their way into the food chain. They are known to bind with estrogen receptors. There is a high concentration of estrogen-loving cells in breast tissue, where endocrine-disrupting chemicals can accumulate. When a pregnant woman delivers a baby, the mammary cells in the breasts become activated to produce first colostrum and then breast milk. For most women today, especially in their first pregnancy, that colostrum and breast milk is loaded—not just laced, but loaded—with PCBs. A nursing baby will immediately become exposed to huge amounts of PCBs, which are toxic to the brain, affecting both brain development and brain function. Could this be one of the contributing factors to the ridiculously high increased level of autism we’re seeing today? The answer is yes, it could be. Although researchers have identified that these toxic chemicals have an effect on brain development and thyroid, estrogen, and immune function, the consensus among pediatricians is that the benefits of breastfeeding still far outweigh the risks of exposure.29 From that perspective, whenever a mom can lower her risk of exposures to these toxic chemicals, there will be less of a toxic load in her breast milk. I also strongly believe every woman of child-bearing age needs to detoxify her body before she becomes pregnant. By doing so, you are ensuring a higher likelihood that your future baby will have every opportunity to have a well-developed brain.
29. Longnecker MP, Rogan WJ. Persistent organic pollutants in children. Pediatric Research 2001 Sep;50(3):322–3.
if Mom had elevated BPA levels during pregnancy (nowadays that’s almost a given), a boy’s testes may not develop properly in utero, and years later that boy has problems making enough sperm, leading to infertility. Or if the baby was a girl, her breast cells do not develop properly, and years later she has a much higher risk of breast cancer. This is the horrible reality today of what we are doing to our newborns, our next generation.
practically every newborn child today has BPA in their urine. It came from Mom’s exposure during pregnancy. And then babies start accumulating their own exposures with plastic baby bottles and sucking on plastic pacifiers.
Plastic baby bottles pose another problem. Parents often heat baby bottles in a microwave, leaching plasticizer chemicals into the milk and, at the same time, killing most of the nutrients. This is why it’s always better to use glass bottles. Mothers who choose to breast-feed (a smart idea because it’s critically important for baby’s health) have to recognize that they likely have accumulative levels of BPA, PCBs, and dioxins that have been building up in their bloodstream for years, which can transfer to the baby while nursing. Look at the graph below of the amount of these toxic chemicals children get in the first 5 years of life. The shocking numbers in the first 6 months of life are due to breast milk secreting the toxins that have been accumulating in Mom’s breasts over her lifetime.
35. Tiwari SK, Agarwal S, Chauhan LK, Mishra VN, Chaturvedi RK. Bisphenol-A impairs myelination potential during development in the hippocampus of the rat brain. Molecular Neurobiology 2015;51(3):1395–416. doi: 10.1007/s12035-014-8817-3. Epub 2014 Aug 2.
When a woman has measurable levels of BPA in her blood during pregnancy, the developing area of the baby’s brain that controls hormones and the stress response throughout life does not mature properly. In 2015, researchers identified a deficiency of the myelin protective coating around the hypothalamus connected to BPA exposure:35 For the baby in utero, this means that a crucial area of the brain that controls hormones and emotions will not work as well as it’s genetically designed to. This can manifest as anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
all women of child-bearing age should make detoxing a priority before they get pregnant. Moms and dads, it’s time to model making less harmful choices in front of your children.
PURCHASING BABY BOTTLES
✓ Avoid clear plastic baby bottles and containers with the recycling number 7 and the letters “PC” imprinted on them. Many contain BPA.
✓ Choose bottles made of opaque plastic. These bottles (made of polyethylene or polypropylene) do not contain BPA. You can also look for the recycle symbols with the number 2 or 5 in them.
✓ Glass bottles can be an alternative, but be aware of the risk of injury to you or your baby if the bottle is dropped or broken.
✓ Because heat may cause the release of BPA from plastic:
» Do not boil polycarbonate bottles.
» Do not heat polycarbonate bottles in the microwave.
» Do not wash polycarbonate bottles in the dishwasher.38
38. Adapted from American Academy of Pediatrics, Shelov SP, ed. Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age Five (Bantam, 2009).
The most protected tissue in the human body is the fetus as it is developing inside the mother. Nothing gets to baby that hasn’t gone through every detoxification and filtering pathway a mom has. Thus it gives you a sense of the scope of the problem when I tell you a fetus will absorb mercury from Mom’s blood and have concentrations 40 percent higher than Mom, especially in the brain—a disaster for a developing neurological system. Most of that mercury comes from Mom’s fillings.
42. Vimy MJ, Lorscheider FL. Dental amalgam mercury daily dose estimated from intra-oral vapor measurements: a predictor of mercury accumulation in human tissues. Journal of Trace Elements in Experimental Medicine 1990 Jan;3:111–23.
Mold can cause infections anywhere in the body. For example, one study showed that 100 percent of children with high eosinophils (a type of white blood cell) or ear infections with effusions (runny ears) were found to have mold infections in their ears.50 For these children and others who have recurrent ear infections, antibiotics won’t work, because they will not destroy a mold infection. It can grow inside of your gut, in your nostrils, and on practically any body tissue, although it doesn’t show up on standard blood tests.51
50. Murakami A, Tutumi T, Watanabe K. Middle ear effusion and fungi. Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology 2012 Sep;121(9):609–14.
51. Brewer J, Thrasher JD, Hooper D. Reply to comment on detection of mycotoxins in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Toxins 2013;5:605–17 by John W. Osterman, MD. Toxins (Basel). 2016 Nov 7;8(11).
In children, the number of antibiotics taken before the age of 5 has a direct effect on their IQ.57
57. Slykerman RF, Thompson J, Waldie KE, Murphy R, Wall C, Mitchell EA. Antibiotics in the first year of life and subsequent neurocognitive outcomes. Acta Paediatrica 2017 Jan;106(1):87–94.
a 2017 study published in the International Journal of Cancer showed that a mother’s exposure to insecticides during pregnancy increases the possible development of childhood brain tumors by 40 percent.22
22. Vidart d’Egurbide Bagazgoïtia N, Bailey HD, Orsi L et al. Maternal residential pesticide use during pregnancy and risk of malignant childhood brain tumors: a pooled analysis of the ESCALE and ESTELLE studies (SFCE). International Journal of Cancer 2017 Sep 26. doi: 10.1002/ijc.31073. [Epub ahead of print.]
if a mom smoked during pregnancy, there is a 79 percent increased risk of the child developing asthma.23 When fathers smoke cigarettes before conception, their children have a 68 percent increased risk of developing asthma.24
23. Zacharasiewicz A. Maternal smoking in pregnancy and its influence on childhood asthma. ERJ Open Research 2016 Jul 29;2(3). pii: 00042-2016. eCollection 2016 Jul.
24. Svanes C, Koplin J, Skulstad SM et al. Father’s environment before conception and asthma risk in his children: a multi-generation analysis of the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe study. International Journal of Epidemiology 2017 Feb 1;46(1): 235–45. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyw151.
The majority of scientists, the EPA, and the FDA are in agreement that pregnant women, women who might become pregnant, breastfeeding women, infants, and young children need to be extremely cautious in their fish selection and volume consumed. For babies in utero, there is convincing evidence of serious problems for the developing brain from mercury exposure (methyl mercury, to be exact), which continue after birth. The same type of brain and nerve development problems occur in infants and young children exposed to fish high in mercury. Dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls present in contaminated and farm-raised fish may also increase the risk in both infants and young children for developing “poor expressive language skills”31 and language delay.32
31. Caspersen IH, Aase H, Biele G et al. The influence of maternal dietary exposure to dioxins and PCBs during pregnancy on ADHD symptoms and cognitive functions in Norwegian preschool children. Environment International 2016 Sep;94:649–60.
32. Caspersen IH, Haugen M, Schjølberg S, Vejrup K, Knutsen HK, Brantsæter AL, Meltzer HM, Alexander J, Magnus P, Kvalem HE. Maternal dietary exposure to dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is associated with language delay in 3 year old Norwegian children. Environment International 2016 May;91:180–7.
another study published in the Journal of Nutrition: “Young children, women of child-bearing age, pregnant women, and nursing mothers concerned with health impairments such as reduction in IQ and other cognitive and behavioral effects can minimize contaminant exposure by choosing the least contaminated wild salmon or by selecting other sources of (n-3) fatty acids.”35
35. Foran JA, Good DH, Carpenter DO, Hamilton MC, Knuth BA, Schwager SJ. Quantitative analysis of the benefits and risks of consuming farmed and wild salmon. Journal of Nutrition 2005 Nov;135(11): 2639–43.
DHA plays a major role in fetal brain development and the retina of the eye during the first 2 years of life... when you supplement with fish oils rich in omega-3s, you can raise a child’s IQ by more than three points (that’s substantial).
an analysis of early unpublished data shows just how much higher the electromagnetic radiation absorption rates are in a 5- and 10-year-old’s brain versus that of an adult. Electromagnetic radiation, the data shows, can penetrate almost straight through the entire brain of a 5-year-old child! A child’s skull is much thinner than an adult’s, so it provides less of a filter. Why is this so troublesome?
Because more energy from a phone penetrates a child’s skull, children will absorb more radiation.
Children’s cells are reproducing more quickly than adults’.
Children’s immune systems (their protection) are not as well developed as those of adults.
Children have a longer potential for lifetime exposure, thus a higher risk.
Further, there is more than an 80 percent increased risk of a child having behavioral issues if his or her mother used a cell phone during pregnancy. When moms used a handset just two or three times a day during pregnancy, it was enough to raise the risk of their babies developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotions, and relationships by the time they reached school age. Later on, when the children began using cell phones themselves, they were:
80 percent more likely to suffer from behavioral difficulties
25 percent more at risk to suffer from emotional problems
34 percent more likely to suffer from difficulties relating to their peers
35 percent more likely to be hyperactive
49 percent more prone to have problems with conduct20
20. The Independent September 21, 2008: EMF & Health: A Global Issue. September 8-9, 2008, The Royal Society of London.
Researchers have observed that children with lower intakes of omega-6 fats perform significantly better in regard to their executive abilities.21 And for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is often described as an executive function problem,* as well as for typically developing children, attention has been shown in some studies to improve with omega-3 supplementation.22
(21.Kelly Sheppard and Carol Cheatham, “Omega-6 to Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio and Higher-Order Cognitive Functions in 7- to 9-year-olds: A Cross-Sectional Study,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 98, no. 3 (2013): 659–67.
22.M. H. Bloch and A. Qawasmi, “Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation for the Treatment of Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptomatology: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry 50, no. 10 (2011): 991–1000; D. J. Bos et al., “Reduced Symptoms of Inattention after Dietary Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation in Boys with and without Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,” Neuropsychopharmacology 40, no. 10 (2015): 2298–306.)
Saturated fats are essential to life—they provide support to your cell membranes and serve as precursors to a variety of hormones and hormonelike substances. Saturated fat is the most abundant type of fat in human breast milk—arguably nature’s ideal food for a newborn.32
(32.W. M. Fernando et al., “The Role of Dietary Coconut for the Prevention and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease: Potential Mechanisms of Action,” British Journal of Nutrition 114, no. 1 (2015): 1–14; B. Jarmolowska et al., “Changes of Beta-Casomorphin Content in Human Milk During Lactation,” Peptides 28, no. 10 (2007): 1982–86.)
during this period of rapid brain growth, what some refer to as the “fourth trimester,” that our fat serves as an important ketone reservoir for the brain, which can account for nearly 90 percent of the newborn’s metabolism.10 Now you know: baby fat isn’t just there for pinching. It’s there for the brain.
(9.Hasselbalch, “Changes in Cerebral Blood Flow.”
10.Jean-Jacques Hublin and Michael P. Richards, eds., The Evolution of Hominin Diets: Integrating Approaches to the Study of Palaeolithic Subsistence (Springer Science & Business Media, 2009).)
the foundations of our individual sleep patterns are laid down very early in life, long before birth.
individuals differ considerably in their characteristic sleep patterns. Some people are quite happy with only 7 hours of sleep, while others need 9 to feel human
Amother's sleep problems can begin even before she becomes pregnant. The quality of a woman sleep very somewhat according to the menstrual cycle, with some women experiencing more noticeable fluctuations than others. Sleep tends to be at it's best early in the cycle, just after menstruation, and worse during the premenstrual phase. some women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome experience notice for sleep disturbances during the premenstrual phase of their cycle. These symptoms can include more frequent awakenings during the night, hide and mental activity on awaking, nightmares, failure to wake at the expected time in the morning, and daytime tiredness. Oral contraceptives also ultra sleep patterns. Women taking the pill have less slow-wave sleep and more of the shallow or stage 2 sleep than naturally cycling women...
Sleep patterns change during pregnancy... There is usually a marked reduction and sleep, slow-wave sleep during pregnancy. Pregnant women typically spend around 5% of their total sleep and slow wave sleep, compared to around 25% when they are not pregnant. This drop in slow-wave sleep is accompanied by an increase in REM sleep and therefore and dreaming. Dreams tend to be more vivid during pregnancy, in part because there are simply more of them. And the later stages of pregnancy, Brute mechanical effects such as the need to urinate during the night can often disrupt sleep.
the same research discovered that heavy snoring during pregnancy was associated with a higher risk of developing high blood pressure and giving birth to a growth retarded baby
the pregnant women who snored were also found to be at greater risk of developing preeclampsia, a potentially dangerous form of pregnancy induced high blood pressure. Preeclampsia is currently the main cause of death in illness and pregnant women and their fetuses and of admissions to neonatal intensive care units.
By about 4 to 6 weeks after birth, infants exhibit a distinctive circadian rhythm in their activity, heart rate and body temperature. A basic circadian rhythm is present before birth, but this becomes more pronounced between 1 and 3 months of age sleep occurs in fewer but longer episodes as the infant grows older. The total time spent asleep falls during the first year from around 14 to 16 hours a day to about 12 hours while the number of separate episodes of sleep drops by half. By 6 months of age infants are sleeping for 12 to 14 hours a day, mostly in 1 long block augmented by one or more substantial naps. The frequency of nighttime awakenings usually falls between 3 and 6 months of age. Even so, a national survey of English mother has found that 1/4 of 1 year olds were still waking during the night at least five nights a week.
by 3 months of age infants tend to be awake during the late afternoon and early evening. At this stage, REM sleep occurs mainly during the night, and the infant spends less of its daytime sleep in rem. By 6 months, REM sleep has dropped from 50% of sleep to the adult level of around 25%. The length of sleep cycle also increases, from about 60 minutes at birth to 90 minutes. strictly speaking, fetuses and very young babies do not display the full-fledged EEG patterns of NREM sleep stages 1-4 and REM sleep. instead, their sleep consists of 2 precursor forms known as Active Sleep, which develops into REM sleep, and Quite Sleep which develops into NREM sleep.
evidence shows that infants who are allowed to fall asleep on their own or more likely to go back to sleep by themselves if they subsequently awake during the night. Mini childcare experts recommend placing babies in their cots when they are sleeping but still awake, rather than waiting until they have falling asleep.
breast milk contains bifidobacteria
breast milk enhances the growth of biofilms — layers of friendly flora that adhere to and line our gastrointestinal tract, protecting against pathogens and infection.
microbial imbalances my last up to 7 years after delivery.
Salminen S, Gibson GR, McCartney AL, Isolauri E. Influence of mode of delivery on gut microbiota composition in seen year old children. Gut 2004;53:1388-89.
researchers found significant differences between the gut microbes of infants who were strictly formula fed and those who were breastfed. For example, formula-fed infants had higher levels of the pathogenic organism. Clostridium difficile, which can potentially cause an aggressive course of diarrhea.
Lower birth weights are a major concern because babies with lower birth weights are more likely to have cognitive and cardiovascular problems later in life.
The neurodevelopmental experts I brought together in 2014 looked at three carefully conducted long-term human studies, one of them by Ginny Rauh and her team at Columbia, another in New York City, and one from a farmworker community in California.101 They all gave the same interpretation: As exposure to these insecticides during pregnancy went up, the child’s IQ went down; the only question was by how much. The data suggested that for each tenfold increase in pesticide level, the effect ranged from 1.4 to 5.6 points.102
(101. This project would not have been possible without the support of two leading scientists who have played crucial roles in our understanding the effects of chemicals on thyroid hormone and brain development in animals. Tom Zoeller is a professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and was a leader in the group that wrote the World Health Organization and United Nations Environment Programme report in 2012 that put endocrine disruption on the global public health map. Barbara Demeneix is a British biologist and endocrinologist at the Museum de la Histoire Naturelle, the Parisian version of the American Museum of Natural History. We were joined in this project by French economist Martine Bellanger and Danish epidemiologist Phillipe Grandjean, who splits his time between the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the Southern Denmark University.
102. Bellanger M, Demeneix B, Grandjean P, et al.)
In 2007, a study of breast milk and placental tissue in mothers of Danish and Finnish boys with cryptorchidism, as well as a similar group without the condition, were used to assess exposure in the earliest phases of life. Consistent with Niels’s TDS hypothesis, PBDE levels in breast milk were much higher in the mothers of boys with cryptorchidism compared to the others. There were not differences in placental levels of the flame retardants. However, PBDE is very fat soluble, meaning it accumulates much less in the placenta, making differences in this study harder to detect than for breast milk.
Acetaminophen is well-known as the only pain medication obstetricians deem safe for pregnant women to take. But, like many drugs in pregnancy, while there have been studies of acetaminophen in animals, the safety of acetaminophen has not been fully assessed in pregnant women. When researchers started to recognize the effects of phthalates on the male reproductive tract, they also realized that acetaminophen and phthalates have a lot in common in their chemical structure. And, unfortunately, studies have begun to raise the alarm about acetaminophen and other analgesics commonly used in pregnancy.268
(268. Konkel L. Reproductive headache? Investigating acetaminophen as a potential endocrine disruptor. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2018;126(3):032001.)
In animals, acetaminophen exposure shortens the anogenital distance in males. Human studies have identified higher rates of undescended testis in boys whose mothers took acetaminophen, particularly when exposure was in the second trimester.269,270 Not all studies of pregnant women have confirmed this phenomenon,271 but most of these studies have relied on questionnaires that ask mothers to recall their use of analgesics over a relatively long period in pregnancy, 6 to 8 weeks or so. Acetaminophen does not produce a long-term reduction in pain and fever because it is excreted from the body quickly, and so exposures in pregnancy are short and vary in their timing. That timing may matter for the male reproductive organs as they develop.
(269. Kristensen DM, Hass U, Lesne L, et al. Intrauterine exposure to mild analgesics is a risk factor for development of male reproductive disorders in human and rat. Human Reproduction. 2011;26(1):235–244. [back]
270. Snijder CA, Kortenkamp A, Steegers EA, et al. Intrauterine exposure to mild analgesics during pregnancy and the occurrence of cryptorchidism and hypospadia in the offspring: The generation R study. Human Reproduction. 2012;27(4):1191–1201. [back]
271. Kristensen DM, Mazaud-Guittot S, Gaudriault P, et al. Analgesic use—prevalence, biomonitoring and endocrine and reproductive effects. Nature Reviews Endocrinology. 2016;12(7):381–393.)
The United States has one of the highest rates of preterm birth worldwide. You might wonder if environmental factors contribute to this important predictor of child health. The evidence suggests that they do: a study in the hospital where Martin was born, published by Kelly Ferguson (now at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) and her colleagues, documented strong associations of a phthalate used in food packaging, DEHP, with higher odds of preterm birth, especially preterm birth precipitated by early labor or rupture of the membranes.276 It’s complicated to sort out whether phthalate-induced preterm birth is happening by an endocrine mechanism. Phthalates also induce inflammation and oxidative stress, which can make the placenta not function as well as it should.
(276. Ferguson KK, McElrath TF, Meeker JD. Environmental phthalate exposure and preterm birth. JAMA Pediatrics. 2014;168(1):61–67.)
Remember that chemical exposures in a pregnant woman can affect at least three generations: the exposed mother, her child, and her children’s children. Germ cells, the cells in the testis or ovary that contribute to a child, are programmed from the time the mother (or father) is in her (or his) mother’s womb. Add in the complexity that signals for gene expression (without changes in the code) may get passed even farther down the family tree, and you can see the many ripples from the tsunami.
According to research from the University of Calgary, prebiotics may even assist in the fight against childhood obesity by helping to “reduce body fat in children who are overweight or obese by altering their gut microbiota.”27
(27. “Prebiotics Reduce Body Fat in Overweight Children,” ScienceDaily, June 7, 2017, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170607123949.htm.)
A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2005 indicates that children who previously were malnourished experience an increased rate of behavior-related disorders and behaviors as they age. Could this be one of the root causes of individuals giving up on their goals, their community, and themselves?
A 2016 study on 600 children showed that children who have increased screen time are more likely to have poor sleep quality and problem behaviors.6
(6 J. Parent, W. Sanders, and R. Forehand, “Youth Screen Time and Behavioral Health Problems: The Role of Sleep Duration and Disturbances,” Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics 37, no. 4 (2016): 277–84.)
researchers safely covered premature infants’ cribs for a few hours during the night, blocking bright light.10 This simple adoption of a light-dark cycle accelerated the babies’ growth and development to such an extent that it reduced their hospital stay by as much as 30 percent. The babies gained weight faster (a faster body weight gain correlates with better overall brain development) and their heart rate was more stable.
(10 S. Vásquez-Ruiz et al., “A Light/Dark Cycle in the NICU Accelerates Body Weight Gain and Shortens Time to Discharge in Preterm Infants,” Early Human Development 90, no. 9 (2014): 535–40.)
human babies at birth have the largest percentage of body fat of all three. And why? Because body fat supports the growth and development of the brain, much of which happens in the first five years of life. And it is that ability to store body fat that helped us ascend the evolutionary ladder.
Breast-fed infants experience many health benefits compared to formula-fed babies. The mortality rate from infectious disease is far lower in breast-fed babies. A study from Brazil found that non-breast-fed babies were 14.2 times more likely to die of diarrhea and 3.6 times more likely to die of respiratory infections than exclusively breast-fed babies. Partially breast-fed babies were 4.2 times more likely to die of diarrhea and 1.6 times more likely to die of respiratory infections than exclusively breast-fed babies.4
(4. Victora, C. G. et al., “Evidence for protection by breast-feeding against infant deaths from infectious diseases in Brazil,” The Lancet 2, no. 8554 (August 8, 1987): 319–22, http://pmid.us/2886775.)
Some benefits of breast-feeding are long-lasting. In the Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT), children whose mothers had participated in a World Health Organization program that encouraged them to breast-feed had a substantially higher IQ at age six—5.9 IQ points higher—and better academic ratings from teachers than children whose mothers had not participated.5 Another study found that breast-fed infants had IQs that were 8.3 points higher at age 8 than formula-fed infants.6
(5. Kramer, M. S. et al., “Breastfeeding and child cognitive development: New evidence from a large randomized trial,” Archives of General Psychiatry 65, no. 5 (May 2008): 578–84, http://pmid.us/18458209.
6. Lucas, A. et al., “Breast milk and subsequent intelligence quotient in children born preterm,” The Lancet 339, no. 8788 (February 1, 1992): 261–64, http://pmid.us/1346280.)
Along with water, the main constituents of milk are:7
The sugar lactose (which is composed of the simple sugars glucose and galactose). Human milk typically has 70 grams of lactose per liter.
Fats, typically 40 grams per liter.
Human milk oligosaccharides—special sugars that, like fiber, are indigestible by humans but feed gut bacteria. Human milk typically has 15 grams of oligosaccharides per liter.
Protein, typically 8 grams per liter.
(7. Zivkovic, A. M. et al., “Human milk glycobiome and its impact on the infant gastrointestinal microbiota,” issue supplement 1, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108 (March 15, 2011): 4653–58, http://pmid.us/20679197.)
One would think the designers of infant formula would try to make an exact copy of human breast milk. Alas, they don’t. Infant formula is cholesterol-deficient. Formula typically has only 10 to 30 milligrams per liter of cholesterol, one-tenth the amount in human breast milk.17 This deficiency has consequences. Breast-fed babies reach normal serum cholesterol levels by age six months, while formula-fed babies are severely cholesterol-deficient at age six months.18 Cholesterol is important for neurological function and immunity, so this could be a reason why formula-fed babies have lower IQs and higher rates of infectious disease mortality.19
(16. Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, Dietary reference intakes for energy, carbohydrate, fiber, fat, fatty acids, cholesterol, protein, and amino acids (macronutrients) (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2005), 547, www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10490&page=547.
17. Ibid., 546, www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10490&page=546.
18. Isomura, H. et al., “Type of milk feeding affects hematological parameters and serum lipid profile in Japanese infants,” Pediatrics International (March 21, 2011), http://pmid.us/21418403. Jaminet, P., “Low serum cholesterol in newborn babies,” July 14, 2011, http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=4079.
19. For discussions of the role of serum cholesterol in immune function, see Jaminet, P., “HDL and immunity,” April 12, 2011, http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=3112. Jaminet, P., “Blood lipids and infectious disease, part I,” June 21, 2011, http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=3836. Jaminet, P., “Blood lipids and infectious disease, part II,” July 12, 2011, http://perfecthealthdiet.com/?p=4066.)
At birth, a baby’s body is only about 5 percent of adult size, yet the infant’s brain already weighs fully 28 percent of its adult weight. By age 1, the infant brain weighs 75 percent of its adult size and by age 6, 90 percent.20 So the infant brain is not only very large compared to its body, it also grows faster than the rest of the body throughout the first year of life. The infant brain uses a lot of energy. At birth, the infant brain accounts for 11 percent of body weight but fully 74 percent of calorie consumption. By comparison, the adult brain accounts for just 2 percent of body weight and 23 percent of calorie consumption.21
Because pregnant women donate nutrients to their developing babies, mothers may become malnourished during pregnancy. Postpartum depression, for instance, is linked to iron deficiency.8
(8. Albacar, G. et al., “An association between plasma ferritin concentrations measured 48 h after delivery and postpartum depression,” Journal of Affective Disorders 131, nos. 1–3 (June 2011): 136–42, http://pmid.us/21130499.)
We know from other studies that breast-fed babies have IQs 6 to 8 points higher than formula-fed babies,18
(18. Kramer, M. S. et al., “Breastfeeding and child cognitive development: New evidence from a large randomized trial,” Archives of General Psychiatry 65, no. 5 (May 2008): 578–84, http://pmid.us/18458209. Lucas, A. et al., “Breast milk and subsequent intelligence quotient in children born preterm,” The Lancet 339, no. 8788 (February 1, 1992): 261–64, http://pmid.us/1346280.)
It is common for children of obese mothers to experience stunted growth.22 The children are malnourished, but not for lack of calories. They lack micronutrients: vitamins, minerals, and other biological compounds.
(22. Garrett, J. and M. T. Ruel, “The coexistence of child undernutrition and maternal overweight: Prevalence, hypotheses, and programme and policy implications,” Maternal and Child Nutrition 1, no. 3 (July 2005): 185–96, http://pmid.us/16881899.)
Choline makes babies smarter. Pregnant mothers need to take special care to get adequate choline. Maternal choline deficiency leads to lifelong memory and learning deficits in the child.26
Choline prevents folate deficiency. Choline can perform many of the functions of folate, and relieves folate deficiency.27
Choline is better than folic acid for preventing neural tube defects. Taking a multivitamin with folic acid cuts the risk of neural tube defects in half.28 But in California mothers, the incidence of neural tube defects in the bottom quartile of choline intakes was seventeen times higher than in the top quartile; among the median group the risk was seven times higher.29
26. Zeisel, S. H., “The fetal origins of memory: The role of dietary choline in optimal brain development,” issue supplement, Journal of Pediatrics 149, no. 5 (November 2006): S131–36, http://pmid.us/17212955.
27. Niculescu, M. D. and S. H. Zeisel, “Diet, methyl donors and DNA methylation: Interactions between dietary folate, methionine and choline,” issue supplement, Journal of Nutrition 132, no. 8 (August 2002): 2333S–35S, http://pmid.us/12163687.
28. Thompson, S. J. et al., “Periconceptional multivitamin folic acid use, dietary folate, total folate and risk of neural tube defects in South Carolina,” Annals of Epidemiology 13, no. 6 (July 2003): 412–18, http://pmid.us/12875798.
29. Shaw, G. M. et al., “Choline and risk of neural tube defects in a folate-fortified population,” Epidemiology 20, no. 5 (September 2009): 714–19, http://pmid.us/19593156.)
That last statistic is worth pondering. Completely saturating the body with folate cuts the rate of neural tube defects in half. Partially relieving choline deficiency cuts the rate by a factor of 17. (Remember, most of the women in that top quartile were getting less than the U.S. Adequate Intake level of choline.) It seems likely that neural tube defects are a result of choline deficiency, and folic acid is a poor way to relieve choline deficiency
At the moment of birth, infants have extremely low LDL levels and a total serum cholesterol level of about 72 milligrams per deciliter.25 (Low LDL levels prevent babies in the womb from forming antibodies against their mom.) As a result of low LDL levels, infants have a limited ability to form antibodies and their immunity is impaired.
(25. Mishkel, M. A., “Neonatal plasma lipids as measured in cord blood,” Canadian Medical Association Journal 111, no. 8 (October 19, 1974): 775–80, http://pmid.us/4370703.)
In breast-fed infants, serum cholesterol rises rapidly, reaching 163 milligrams per deciliter at age one month and 194 milligrams per deciliter at age six months.26 This serum cholesterol level, around 200 milligrams per deciliter, is where immune function is normal. Cholesterol rises more slowly in formula-fed infants, reaching only 140 milligrams per deciliter at age six months27—one reason formula-fed infants suffer more frequent infections.
(26. Isomura, H. et al., “Type of milk feeding affects hematological parameters and serum lipid profile in Japanese infants,” Pediatrics International 53, no. 6 (December 2011): 807–13, http://pmid.us/21418403. 27. Ibid.)
To get in sync, circadian clocks require a small “nudge” from physical activity to inform them that it is daytime, not night. It is this “nudge” that extends life. An indication that daytime exercise promotes good circadian rhythms is its effect on sleep quality. For every additional hour of physical activity during the day, children fall asleep three minutes more quickly and sleep twenty minutes longer.59 The same pattern holds in adults.60
(59. Nixon, G. M. et al., “Falling asleep: The determinants of sleep latency,” Archives of Disease in Childhood 94, no. 9 (September 2009): 686–89, http://pmid.us/19633062. A hat tip to Anahad O’Connor, “The claim: Exercise more during the day, and you will sleep better at night,” The New York Times, November 30, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/health/01really.html.
60. King, A. C. et al., “Moderate-intensity exercise and self-rated quality of sleep in older adults. A randomized controlled trial,” JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association 277, no. 1 (January 1, 1997): 32–37, http://pmid.us/8980207.)
During pregnancy, your body is methylating even more than usual to support the developing baby and its placenta. Nausea, vomiting, or gallbladder issues—all common during pregnancy—are frequently caused by poor methylation. And did you know that neural tube defects and congenital heart defects are not results of a folic acid deficiency, as we so often hear? They are results of a methylation deficiency. Most health professionals aren’t aware of this either—but now you are. So if you’re pregnant or planning to become pregnant, make sure that you and your partner are both getting all the nutrients you need to methylate properly
Another NOS3 danger is birth defects. During fetal development, your baby is growing rapidly and needs you to form new blood vessels to nourish his or her developing cells and tissues. If a dirty NOS3 slows down your ability to form these blood vessels, your baby’s heart won’t get the support it needs and he or she could develop a congenital heart defect—which, as it happens
During pregnancy, women experience high levels of estrogen and nitric oxide. In fact, estrogen stimulates NOS3 to work better and to produce more nitric oxide. This additional nitric oxide is essential for forming new blood vessels, preventing blood clots, and increasing blood flow to the developing baby. If you have a dirty NOS3 during pregnancy, you’re at increased risk of recurrent miscarriage, congenital birth defects, and preeclampsia. I want you to know about these risks ahead of time so that you can support your NOS3 as needed and prepare for a safe pregnancy.
Researchers have found that mothers who consumed more choline during pregnancy have babies with improved memory and learning abilities, while mothers with a lower-choline diet during pregnancy tend to have children with decreased memory and more learning disabilities. A number of studies have found that most pregnant women in the United States are choline-deficient, so please work with a naturopathic physician or integrative/functional medicine doctor to make sure that you and your baby are getting all the choline and methylfolate you need.
Your brain is 60 percent fat. One-third of this amount is made up of the long chain omega-3 fat DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), which plays a critical role in supporting membrane fluidity and structure, cell signaling, inflammation cooling, and nerve growth (via BDNF) in the brain.44 During fetal development, the long chain omega-3 fat DHA and the omega-6 fat AA (arachidonic acid) accumulate in the central nervous system, whereas only very small amounts of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) are found there. Experts assume these highly unsaturated fats are continuously exchanged throughout our lifetime, but very little is actually known about the transfer across the blood–brain barrier. In animals, supplementing with DHA increases the concentration of DHA in the central nervous system, and the supplemental omega-3 shows improved cognition, reduced neuronal edema, increased dendrite growth, and stabilization of brain energy levels.45
44. Daniella Tassoni et al., “The role of eicosanoids in the brain,” Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition 17, Supplement 1 (2008).
45. James D. Mills et al., “Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and reduction of traumatic axonal injury in a rodent head injury model,” Journal of Neurosurgery 114, no. 1 (2011), https://doi.org/10.3171/2010.5.jns08914.)
In humans, the flavor of breast milk varies from one mother to another and from one day to the next, depending on the foods eaten in a meal. When mother eats a variety of foods, breastfeeding — unlike monotonous formula feeding — can provide an infant with a rich source of sensory variety. As a result of early and varied flavor experiences, breasted infants are more willing to eat similarly flavored foods at weaning. Assuming teh mother diet is diverse, varied sensory experiences with food flavors in mothers milk may explain why children who are breastfed tend to be less picky and more willing to try new foods during childhood.
J. A. Mennella and J.C. Trabulsi, “Complementary Foods and Flavor Experiences: Setting the Foundation,” Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism 60 (2012): 40-50
nowadays, many offspring are “prepared” in utero to eat a highly processed diet, even to the extent of being born with a suite of metabolic disorders.[56] Maternal obesity and diabetes during pregnancy increase the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes in offspring.[57] Insulin-producing cells in the pancreas of a fetus of a diabetic mother are stimulated to grow in size and number due to high levels of blood sugar in mothers diet. That, in turn, causes the fetus to produce more fat, which causes gat babies in a malicious cycle. The greater a woman’s weight gain during pregnancy, the higher the risk her child will be overweight by three years of age and will continue to be overweight into adolescence and adulthood.[58] With each passing generation for the last century, these maternal effects have accumulated, and they have led to the twin-epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Calcium
Kids produce new bone tissue on a daily basis. In fact, minimizing the effects of age-related bone loss begins during childhood and particularly puberty, when bone tissue undergoes massive spikes in growth. Kids from four to eight years old need 1,000 mg of calcium per day, and kids from nine to thirteen years old need 1,300 mg per day. It is crucial that calcium be accompanied by adequate levels of vitamin D and vitamin K.
In raising my own children, I have realized that kids (and adults) digest organic raw dairy, goat’s milk, camel’s milk, and A2 dairy (dairy that doesn’t have A1 protein, which some people are sensitive to) far more easily than commercial cow’s milk, and without risk of gut damage unless a true food allergy is present. The best sources of calcium are sardines with the bones, hard cheeses like cheddar and pecorino, raw milk, full-fat fermented dairy products like yogurt and kefir, and dark leafy greens like collard greens, kale, and Swiss chard.
Iodine
Iodine is an essential nutrient (meaning it is not produced by the body; it must be ingested from an outside source) and is necessary for proper thyroid hormone production. Thyroid hormone regulates growth factors, such as growth hormone, that contribute to cognitive and physical growth. Iodine deficiencies are associated with stunted height as well as lower IQ scores. Kids from four to eight years old need 90 mcg per day, while kids from nine to thirteen years old need 120 mcg per day. The best sources are seaweed (kombu, kelp, and nori have the highest content) and milk. For example, my children often strike off to school with sardines, anchovies, mackerel, or herring wrapped in nori.
Iron
Iron supports neurological development and blood cell formation. Kids from four to eight years old need 10 mg per day, while kids nine to thirteen years old (for girls, prior to menarche) only need 8 mg per day. The best sources are red meat, organ meats such as chicken liver, and shellfish (especially clams, if your kid has a taste for shellfish). Meat is a better source than plants because the iron bound to heme—the non-protein part of hemoglobin and the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood—is more bioavailable than iron that is not bound to heme. Iron from non-meat sources, such as spinach, lentils, beans, and cashews, should be combined with high sources of vitamin C, such as citrus fruits and dark leafy greens, to improve the bioavailability of the iron. For example, another frequent lunchbox item for our children is thinly sliced chunks of steak; organic elk, bison, buffalo, or beef jerky; braunschweiger; pemmican; or headcheese; along with kiwis, orange slices, and steamed greens.
Zinc
Zinc supports physical growth and immune system development. Research suggests that 5 to 6 mg of supplemental zinc per day can reverse delayed growth in kids. Other research suggests that zinc supplementation in zinc-deficient kids under the age of five can reduce diarrheal infections and pneumonia. Kids from four to eight years old need 5 mg per day, while kids from nine to thirteen years old need 8 mg per day. The best sources are red meat (particularly lamb), oysters, crab, and lobster.
Vitamin A
Severe vitamin A deficiency can cause night blindness and permanent blindness and mild deficiency increases the risk of upper respiratory tract infection, while adequate amounts can enhance eye health, bone health, and balanced hormones. Kids from four to eight years old need 400 mcg per day, while kids from nine to twelve years old need 600 mcg per day. The best sources are liver, cod liver oil, eggs, full-fat dairy, sweet potatoes, kale, spinach, and carrots. A mess of scrambled eggs with cheese, sweet potatoes, and kale is a typical breakfast for our kids, and dinners include roasted carrots, yams, or steamed greens.
The B12
The requirement for kids from four to eight years old is 1.2 mcg per day, while for kids from nine to thirteen years old, it’s 1.8 mcg per day. The only sources of vitamin B12 are animal products like red meat, poultry, fish, and shellfish, so if you are raising a plant-based eater, they will definitely need to supplement with B12.
Vitamin K2
Vitamin K2 is responsible for the proper absorption of calcium and for shuttling calcium into your teeth and bones. Effective doses for adults tend to range between 50 and 200 mcg per day, and since vitamin K2 is very safe to consume, it is fine for kids to consume the low end of that range. The best sources are natto (a Japanese fermented soybean dish), egg yolks, grass-fed butter (particularly Green Pastures X-Factor Butter Oil), cream, ghee, liver, gouda cheese, kefir, sauerkraut, and emu oil. (Emu oil contains over fifty times more vitamin K2 than chicken liver or cheese, four times more than duck fat, twenty-five times more than cream and butter, and ten times more than ghee and egg yolks. Walkabout Australian Emu Oil is a good brand.)
Choline
Choline assists the liver with processing fat and toxins and acts as a precursor to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, making choline a critical part of enhancing memory formation and skill acquisition. Kids from four to eight years old need 250 mg per day, while kids from nine to thirteen years old need 375 mg per day. The best sources are egg yolks and liver. (Getting the impression yet that your child should be eating eggs and organ meats?)
Additional information:
Children generally absorb twice the amount of radiation as adults (and their bone marrow alone absorbs up to ten times more!): Leeka Kheifets et al., “The Sensitivity of Children to Electromagnetic Fields,” Pediatrics 116, no. 2 (August 2005): 303–13, https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2004-2541.
Exposure to radio frequency radiation from WiFi and cellular phones can disrupt normal cellular development, especially in babies and children. Several studies… the disruption of protein synthesis is so severe that the authors of one study noted, “This cell property is especially pronounced in growing tissues, that is, in children and youth. Consequently, these population groups would be more susceptible than average to the described effects: Myung Chan Gye and Chan Jin Park, “Effect of Electromagnetic Field Exposure on the Reproductive System,” Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine 39, no. 1 (March 2012): 1–9, https://doi.org/10.5653/cerm.2012.39.1.1; Diana Henz, Wolfgang I. Schöllhorn, and Burkhard Poeggeler, “Mobile Phone Chips Reduce Increases in EEG Brain Activity Induced by Mobile Phone-Emitted Electromagnetic Fields,” Frontiers in Neuroscience 12 (April 2018): 190, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00190.
When pregnant women are exposed to air pollution, it can cause preterm births and is associated with asthma, autism, lower IQ, and worse performance on standardized tests in their children: Tara Kerin et al., “Association Between Air Pollution Exposure, Cognitive and Adaptive Function, and ASD Severity Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder,” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 48, no. 1 (January 2018): 137–50, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3304-0; Ying Liu et al., “The Association between Air Pollution and Preterm Birth and Low Birth Weight in Guangdong, China,” BMC Public Health 19, no. 1 (January 2019), https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-6307-7; Frederica P. Perera et al., “Prenatal Airborne Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Exposure and Child IQ at Age 5 Years,” Pediatrics 124, no. 2 (August 2009): 192–202, https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2008-3506; Tara Kerin et al., “Association Between Air Pollution Exposure, Cognitive and Adaptive Function, and ASD Severity Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder,” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 48, no. 1 (January 2018): 137–50, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3304-0; Yulong Chen, “Air Pollution and Academic Performance: Evidence From China,” SSRN Electronic Journal, November 2018, 1–36, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3341008.
CNN reported on a major study showing that the same air pollution that results in cognitive decline now affects 95 percent of humans worldwide: Jason Kilian, and Masashi Kitazawa, “The Emerging Risk of Exposure to Air Pollution on Cognitive Decline and Alzheimers Disease – Evidence from Epidemiological and Animal Studies,” Biomedical Journal 41, no. 3 (July 2018): 141–62, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bj.2018.06.001; James Griffiths, “Air Pollution Is Making Us Dumber, Study Shows,” Cable News Network, August 28, 2018, https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/27/health/air-pollution-cognitive-abilities-intl/index.html.
In one test of furniture for a baby’s nursery, a rocker put off seven times more formaldehyde than the State of California considers safe, the paint for the nursery contained five times the amount of chemical gases as the recommended limit, and more than one hundred chemicals wafted from the crib mattress, including alcohols and industrial solvents: Tunga Salthammer, Sibel Mentese, and Rainer Marutzky, “Formaldehyde in the Indoor Environment,” Chemical Reviews 110, no. 4 (January 2010): 2536–72, https://doi.org/10.1021/cr800399g; Environment California Research & Policy Center, Travis Madsen and Rachel Gibson, “Toxic Baby Furniture: The Latest Case for Making Products Safe from the Start,” Environment California Research & Policy Center, May 6, 2008, https://environmentamerica.org/sites/environment/files/reports/Toxic-Baby-Furniture—The-Latest-Case-for-Making-Products-Safe-from-the-Start.pdf
Nutrition and pregnancy
Most people recognize that during pregnancy, the mother's habits can affect the health of her offspring. Thus it's important that clients know what to eat and what to avoid when pregnant. To begin with , pregnancy is a period of anabolism, or growth. Women should eat more when pregnant than they typically do, and recognizethat the resulting weight gain is a critical part of a healthy pregnancy. Studies show that low gestational weight gain (in other words, not gaining enough weight when pregnant) often results in infants with low birth weights, who may experience delayed development. The mother's weight determines fetal weight. if she does not gain enough weight, the fetus may remain small simply to protect Ihe mother's bodyweight. Here are some guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy,
Underweight women should gain between 25 and 35 Ib
Overweight women should gain no more than 15 to 25 Ib
Women 5'2" or shorter should gain between 10 and 25 Ib
To achieve this weight gain, women should ingest an additional 300-500 kcals per day, and closer to 500 if exercising regularly. This means total intake could climb to 2500 or 3000 kcal per day during pregnancy. Of course, if the food choices are sound during this increased intake, the pregnant wom an will also benefit from an increase in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. This is also critical to the mother's health as well as the health of the developing fetus. Without this adequate calorie and micronutrient intake, the rapidly developing fetus can be subject to a host of birth defects. Inadequate nutritional status during development can also have consequences for the child's later life, even as an adult. poor nutrition during fetal development can lead to eventual cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and Type II diabetes yea rs later.
During pregnancy, women should avoid the following,
Alcohol and caffeine (more than 300 mglday); high intakes of alcohol and caffeine can lead to birth defects and spontaneous abortion
Tobacco
Cured/deli meats, raw eggs, and raw seafood, all of which can carry harmful bacteria
Artificial sweeteners
More than 6 ounces of fish per week, because of potential heavy metal contamination. In particular, women should avoid shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and tilefish, which are known to be high in mercury.
Empty calories (i.e., junk food containing processed ingredients, sugar, and little nutrition)
Folate
Folate (vitamin 89) is essential to prevent neural tube defects. Intake is most critical within the first few weeks of pregnancy. Dark green leafy vegetables and legumes are good sources. Many other breads and cereal are fortified. Those of child bearing age should include ample folate and typically, a folic acid supplement is recommended by many doctors.
Vitamin D
A deficiency in vitamin D can lead to minimal calcium absorption and a low infant birth weight. Vitamin D is found in small amounts in many foods as well as in several fortified foods. Sun exposure (20-30 minutes, 2-3 times per week) is the ideal source for vitamin D
Calcium
Calcium intake can be important for the prevention of a condition known as pre·eclampsia . Pre-eclampsia leads to hypertension and protein in the urine of pregnant women . Calcium needs are increased dUfing pregnancy. Good sources include dark green leafy vegetables, bok choy, tofu, legumes, figs, seeds, nuts, fortified milks and fortified cereals
Iron
Iron is essential for many processes, especially during pregnancy. Legumes, dark green vegetables, dried fruits, molasses, nuts, seeds, whole grains and animal foods contain iron. When one consumes vitamin C with iron-containing foods, absorption is enhanced.
Zinc
Zinc is important not only for athletes but pregnant women. Its role in growth and development is critical in the developing fetus. Legumes, nuts, whole grains, cereals and animal foods are good sources of zinc. Deficiency can lead to congenital malformations.
Protein
Overall protein intake should be increased by at least 25 grams during the second and third trimesters. This can be obtained by increased overall energy intake via whole foods or by ingesting natural, unsweetened protein supplements. This protein becomes part of the fetus' structurat development, as approximately 2.2 Ib (l kg) of protein are incorporated mto the development of the fet us and the placenta ,
Fatty Acids
Since most women are advised to limit intake of large fish (e.g., tuna) due to potential environmental pollutants, toxins, and contaminants during pregnancy, pregnant women should get an ample amount of omega-3 fatty acids from other foods including flax, walnuts, canola oil , hemp, small fish (e.g., herring), algae, green leafy vegetables and seaweed. Supplementation with omega-3 fish oil rich in EPA and DHA has also been shown to be beneficial for both mother and child. Supplementation improves infant brain development during pregnancy and can reduce the incidence of post-partum depression in the mother after giving birth. It's important, though, to avoid oil that comes from the liver of the fish, such as cod liver oil, as this is high in potentially toxic vitamins A and D….Several macronutrients and micronutrients are critical for ensuring the health of both the pregnant mother and her child. Indeed, nearly 35% of major fetal cardiac defects could be prevented by maternal use of vitamin and mineral supplements rich in folate before conception and during the post-conceptual period. In addition to proactively seeking out the best foods, foods high in the vitamins and minerals listed above, it's a good idea to take a multivitamin/multimineral supplement (especially one designed specifically for pregnancy).
Some studies show that children delivered by C-section may lack important Bacteroides species for up to the first 18 months of life, making them more likely to suffer from asthma and allergies. New studies suggest that babies born by C-section react differently to stress, and may even be more susceptible to depression and anxiety — all hypothetically correlated to gut and microbiota health. Not all studies are so downbeat, though: New research has shown that at around 6 weeks, the microbiota of most of these children has normalized, with some of the true to breast-feeding.
Breast-feeding
mother’s milk contains sugars that baby cannot digest, which seems like a waste of maternal energy, but these sugars aren’t for the baby. They are probiotics designed to feed the accompanying microbes in mother’s milk. And the microbes, in return, produce food for your in the form of fatty acids like butyrate. That makes mother’s milk both a prebiotic and probiotic drink.
These probiotics not only feed the starter microbiota, they also reduce the release of the stress hormone cortisol, keeping you happy and content
The first milk produced right after delivery is called colostrum and is packed with hundreds of species of bacteria. It is also full of maternal white blood cells and antibodies to establish a newborn’s foundational immune system — kind of an immune system transplant, designed to provide instant protection for your defenseless body. For such an innocuous-looking substance, milk packs an astounding immunological punch.
after around 6 months of breast-feeding, the bacteria in your mother’s milk start to change. Instead of bacteria that are expert at digesting milk sugars, teh new milk microbiota starts to look a lot like your mother’s own oral bacteria. This transformation helps prepare you for solid food, because a lot of the work of digesting starts in teh mouth.
Bifidobacterium breve (1205)
It improves gut health in both premature babies9 and those born by cesarean delivery,10 often with a lifelong impact
10. Jian-jun Ren, Zhao Yu, Feng-Ling Yang, Dan Lv, Shi Hung, Jie Zhang, Ping Lin, Shi-Xi Liu, Nan Zhang, and Claus Bachert, “Effects of Bifidobacterium breve Feeding Strategy and Delivery Modes on Experimental Allergic Rhinitis Mice,” PloS One 10, no. 10 (2015): e0140018, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0140018.
Bifidobacterium bifidum
If you were born vaginally, B. bifidum will be one of your oldest bacterial friends. Newborns typically pick it up as they pass through the birth canal. It competes with pathogens including E. coli and yeasts such as Candida and helps prevent diarrhea. B. bifidum in combination with L. acidophilus and L. casei (in capsule form) for eight weeks has been shown to help people with major depressive disorder.17
17. Ghodarz Akkasheh, Zahra Kashani-Poor, Maryam Tajabadi-Ebrahimi, Parvaneh Jafari, Hossein Akbari, Mohsen Taghizadeh, Mohammad Reza Memarzadeh, Zatollah Asemi, and Ahmad Esmaillzadeh, “Clinical and Metabolic Response to Probiotic Administration in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial,” Nutrition 32, no. 3 (March 2016): 315–20, doi:10.1016/j.nut.2015.09.003.
Infantile colic is the medical diagnosis when babies cry for hours each day, usually between the ages of 3 weeks and 6 months. This produces severe strain on the family, and is a common cause of visits to pediatricians and family physicians in the first year of life. The general belief appears to be that the cause and treatment are unknown.
THE IMPORTANCE OF COLIC
An online search turns up some useful recent articles. In a 2015 review (1) of the literature, authors reiterate that the “cause” of infantile colic is not known, but that it is benign and “self-limiting” (goes away by itself) and that parents should be reassured.
However, the laboratory findings they report in the review article contradict that conclusion, and the most recent research is even more concerning. The immune system of babies with colic is impacted – babies are inflamed, all over their bodies, as demonstrated by blood tests (3). We know that excessive and prolonged inflammation is harmful, and a precursor of most chronic illnesses from allergies, to autoimmunity, cardiovascular disease, mental illness, learning difficulties, arthritis, some cancers, and eventually neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. In fact, some research have tied colic to the later development of migraines (5). We need to figure out what can be done about colic, and then do it.
WHAT CAUSES COLIC?
Based on a 2017 article, it appears now well understood that most cases of infantile colic involve “dysbiosis”, or problems with the baby’s gut bacteria (2). Accordingly, many babies respond to treatment with probiotics, and a frequent laboratory anomaly, an elevated fecal calprotectin, improves along with the baby’s behavior (3). In that study, normal babies had a calprotectin level of 100, while colicky babies were up to 900, and came down to at least 600 as their symptoms improved in response to probiotics.
The calprotectin is a component of white blood cells, the body’s immune cells charged with fighting problem situations. In the functional medicine understanding, calprotectin is likely to increase if something causes the gut to feel “under threat.” This can include infections, unsuitable food, excessive stress, parasites, toxins from present or past mold, and other toxins such as heavy metals and pollution.
To take a step back, it is important to realize that our gastrointestinal tracts are in effect “outside the body”. That is, there is continuous “tube” that starts at the mouth and ends at the anus, and this tube is completely exposed to the environment, the way a donut hole would be for a donut. The body has taken advantage of this to park a majority of the immune system along the intestine, so that the environment can be sampled and processed continuously, and the cells of the immune system can transmit the information to the rest of the body.
The intestine is also tasked with being the organ that absorbs nourishment from food, which is in a sense the opposite from protecting the body from harmful environmental impacts. This makes our intestine a likely location for problems to arise. Hippocrates evidently said “all disease starts in the gut.”
INFLAMED BABIES
When the body is exposed to infections, or toxins, or harmful foods, the immune system sounds the alarm; the individual may experience abdominal cramping and perhaps flu-like symptoms – fatigue, headache, feeling poorly, and feeling grumpy. It’s interesting that infantile colic occurs in the evening, which happens to be a time when the body’s major anti-inflammatory hormone, cortisol, begins to drop off towards nighttime low levels (but that is a guess on my part).
All babies of course are exposed to many environmental impacts, especially from germs and other allergens, and must learn to “tolerate” the vast majority of these influences (since only a very small fraction of germs are dangerous). The “education” of the immune system occurs thanks to “beneficial bacteria” the baby acquires during the first few moments of life, as he or she (hopefully) comes down the birth canal. One of the most abundant and clinically important vaginal bacteria are called Lactobacillus reuteri, and that is one probiotic that works well to improve or resolve infantile colic (2).
HOW SHOULD WE TREAT COLIC?
If we understand this sequence, we can derive many of the likely treatments and prevention for colic. A healthy vaginal biome is the first step – it also plays a role in preventing premature labor and delivery, and chorioamnionitis, a placental inflammation that raises the risk for pregnancy complications and autism spectrum disorder. A healthy vaginal biome prevents bacterial vaginosis and yeast vaginitis. It is depleted by douching, antibiotics, stress, and altered by oral contraceptives in ways not entirely understood (4).
Next, the baby has to be exposed to this biome. The relevant bacteria are not acquired as efficiently in babies delivered by C-sections. L. reuteri can be taken by mouth, in quantities that successfully repopulate the vaginal tract for mothers, and it can be given to babies.
When colicky babies are given L. reuteri, at least 65% of breastfed babies respond with reduced crying and reduced calprotectin (3). The calprotectin level decreases more in the babies that do respond, confirming that there is a group of babies whose calprotectin is high basically because they are low on the L. reuteri.
CHANGING THE DIET
Another treatment that apparently has acquired conventional medicine support is dietary restriction. For exclusively breastfed babies, this means that mom must restrict her food intake. Many foods have been found to be at fault, and in the conventional medical world, where increased gut permeability is not a well-understood phenomenon, there is no attention to restoring mom’s proper gut function.
The treatment of increased gut permeability is poorly defined by research. In the alternative and functional realm, a number of interventions are thought to be helpful in healing a leaky gut. These are summarized as the “5R” protocol, which consists of removing, restoring, repairing, reinoculating, and rebalancing. Basically you need to remove irritants, restore proper digestive juices, repair the barrier with nutrients, reinoculate with probiotics, and rebalance patient’s (usually) overstressed lives.
To take another step back, leaky gut has been a contentious issue between allopathic or conventional medicine on the one side, and naturopathic and unconventional practitioners on the other. However, in this case, one side clearly won, as the junction between intestinal cells was found, on close inspection, to be made up of pores and portals. The body intends for the gut to be permeable at times, most likely to allow gut immune cells to flood into the bloodstream when needed, and relay messages throughout the body. Unfortunately, there is a food that causes leaky gut, at least temporarily in all creatures, and that is the protein gliadin, the main peptide in gluten, which is found in wheat and other grains.
LEAKY GUT
So, to return to the thread of this argument, if a mother has an overreaction to gluten, or another reason for excessive IP, then poorly digested proteins from the foods she eats commonly will find their way into her bloodstream. These proteins will elicit an immune response, because the immune system does not “like” to see poorly digested proteins – it assumes they are dangerous without investigating. These poorly digested proteins presumably make their way into breast milk and are passed down to the baby, who is overreacting due to dysbiosis or toxins.
The baby then becomes inflamed. About 10-40% of babies suffern from colic, depending which source you read. This represents a massive failure on our part to foster the optimal development of the most vulnerable among us.
Baby's gut wall doesn't close until age 2
VITAMIN D STATUS
Low vitamin D levels during pregnancy can contribute to childhood obesity
A study that followed 532 mother-child pairs from early pregnancy through age six found an inverse correlation between maternal vitamin D levels and child obesity. One-third of the women in the study had very low 25(OH)-vitamin D concentrations as measured in the first half of pregnancy. Measurements of obesity markers obtained at age four showed significantly increased body mass index and waist circumference in the children of very low vitamin D mothers. This outcome was slightly increased at age six, at which time body fat percentage was measured and also found to be higher among the children in this group. A proposed mechanism follows studies showing that vitamin D can inhibit the conversion of pre-adipocytes into mature fat cells, suggesting that children exposed to very low vitamin D in early gestation might develop a higher adipose cell count. This study highlights the importance of monitoring vitamin D levels, especially during pregnancy. Contributed by Sheena Smith, MS
Daraki V, Roumeliotaki T, Chalkiadaki G, et al. Low maternal vitamin D status in pregnancy increases the risk of childhood obesity. Pediatr Obes 2018 Jan 28. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.12267. [Epub ahead of print] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijpo.12267/abstract
Infants born to vitamin D-deficient mothers might be at risk for neonatal brain injury
A review article published in Neonatology explores the neuroprotective role of vitamin D in the brain development of neonatal and pediatric populations. The authors call attention to several preclinical trials that show infants born to vitamin D-deficient mothers are at a high risk of developing neonatal brain injury. Specifically, the authors identify clinical studies that show neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) tend to be vitamin D-deficient. Although there is some clinical evidence to support use of vitamin D supplementation to reduce size and severity of brain infarcts, such studies have been performed on animal models or adult humans. To date, there is limited data available on whether additional prenatal or postnatal vitamin D supplementation might influence the prevalence or severity of neonatal HIE. This article raises awareness of the need for further investigation in this area. Contributed by Mario Roxas, ND
Stessman L, Peeples E. Vitamin D and its role in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury. Neonatology 2018;113(4):305-312.
CESAREAN DELIVERY
it’s faster, more lucrative, and more easily scheduled. In 2013 payment for cesarean delivery is about 50% higher than average payments with vaginal births ($27,866 versus $18,329). It’s no wonder rates of cesarean births increased in the US by 50% between 1996 and 2001.
infants born by cesarean delivery have an increased risk of developing asthma, allergies, and autoimmune disease in later childhood. Compared with babies delivered vaginally, those delivered by cesarean were 26% more likely to be overweight and 22% more likely to be obese.
BREASTFEEDING, GMOs, and LOW FIBER DIETS
breastfeeding has been associated with a host of positive health outcomes ranging from fewer ear infections to lower risk of leukemia.
Researchers in Sweden discovered that a substance found in human breast milk called HAMLET (human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells) has elective ability to kill cancer cells
Breast milk is rich in living white blood cells, immunoglobulins, and oligosaccharides that feed a particular strain of beneficial bacteria from the genus Bifidobacterium.
The preferred foods to first feed a baby are liver, egg yolks, avocado, and pureed greens
In 2014 the average daily dietary fiber intake was 16 grams per day, despite the recommended 38 grams. In 2009 the USDA’s Economic Research Service found that in American adults a mere 3% of calories a day came from fruits and 5% of calories from vegetables (the majority of which were potatoes). This is a very far cry from the fiber-rich and plant-centered diets humans ate up until the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s.
if a child is exposed to gluten within the first 5 months of life the probability of celiac goes up 500%, if exposed working the first 7 months it's 178%... Baby gets whatever mom eats
RANDOM ADVICE
The best way to set up young children to be strong is to lay them face down when they're a baby. They will have to do what equates to a push up to investigate what is going on around then which will improve the neck extensors strength... https://youtu.be/tFJy73EtFus
You achieve 90% of your coordination by age 12. Children should be exposed to as much variety in sports and their environment as possible. Before age 12 it is a priority that kids have fun in whatever sport or endeavor they enter
Children develope technical skills at the rate with which they develope strength
To convey important information in a way that will get through to your children, recruit someone they respect. Eg the football coach... Because most of the time they will not listen to you because you're their parent
Exposure to RF-EMFs and ELF-EMFs during pregnancy, infancy, and childhood is particularly concerning since the rate of cell growth and maturation is highest during these developmental stages. Growing cells are much more sensitive to environmental toxins such as EMFs, compared to established cells. Research has indicated that EMF exposure to growing cells could not only affect an individual cell’s ability to grow and reproduce naturally, but also lead to functional complications. A healthy cell is the foundation for healthy organ function and therefore, when cells are not able to mature properly, the organ’s ability to function optimally is also compromised, leading to poor health outcomes.
INOSITOL IMPROVES PREGNANCY RATES
According to a recent review published this month in Medicine, researchers demonstrated that myo-inositol supplementation can increase pregnancy rate by increasing oocyte and embryo quality during an in vitro fertilization (IVF) program.
Inositol acts as second messenger which regulates several hormones such as follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), thyroid stimulating hormone, and insulin.
Previous studies have shown that an inositol deficiency is common in individuals with insulin resistance and PCOS. There appears to be a reduced ability to process, metabolize, and effectively use inositol from foods, which is a distinctive characteristic feature of insulin resistance. As a result, the nutritional requirements of these patients may not be met by a simple change in the diet, and inositol should be considered a conditionally essential nutrient in these women.
Although inositol is an insulin sensitizing agent commonly used for those with PCOS and insulin resistance, it also has some roles in reestablishing menstrual regularity and ovulation.
This review consisted of 7 studies including 935 women. The average dose of myo-inositol was 4 grams/day over a 3 month period before and during controlled ovulation induction. Myo-inositol supplementation was associated with a significantly improved pregnancy rate in infertile women undergoing an IVF program.
Since inositol plays a role in the regulation of FSH, it is critical for FSH signaling, oocyte maturation, and embryo development. Oocyte and embryo quality are considered to be the main challenge of IVF in assisted reproduction. Inositol is safe, inexpensive, and can have a therapeutic approach for women with fertility issues.
It is important to note that the conversion of myo-inositol to D-chiro-inositol is impaired in individuals with PCOS and insulin resistance, so supplementation in these individuals should take the form of both D-chiro-inositol and myo-inositol.
Also, one must keep in mind that exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) including bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates, PCBs, PBBs, PBDEs, pesticides, and heavy metals may also contribute to infertility. It is important to minimize further exposure by eating organic produce, drinking filtered water, using household products that are fragrance-free and free of phthalates and BPA, and replacing non-stick pans with glass, ceramic, or cast iron. Nutrients that support detoxification pathways include n-acetyl-cysteine, glutathione, calcium D-glucarate, milk thistle, and sulforaphane.
By Michael Jurgelewicz, DC, DACBN, DCBCN, CNS
A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH FOR BREASTFED BABIES
I propose that the correct treatment of infantile colic is this:
Start the baby and mom on L. reuteri. Mom could start on women’s probiotics, such as Metagenic’s Women’s Probiotic, or even Jarrow’s (though the Jarrow version has lower numbers of bacteria). For the baby, the preparation used in the research studies (6) contained 100 million units daily of L. reuteri. I have not investigated brands for this yet, but it appears widely available.
Start mom on an elimination diet, hopefully as part of an investigation for leaky gut. Ideally one would figure out the 5Rs. What needs to be eliminated (foods, harmful organisms)? What does mom need for efficient digestion, for efficient gut membrane repair, for an improved gut biome? How can we provide her with the support and guidance she wants to improve the stress level in her life?
If the baby’s symptoms do not resolve, investigate the baby and mom for toxins, heavy metals, mold, and chronic infections.
Above all, we must stop saying that colic is some kind of inevitable temporary problem that no one understands or knows how to treat. It likely is of importance to the baby’s and mother’s future health. Colic represents an opportunity to address a breakdown in intestinal function.
References…
Am Fam Physician. 2015 Oct 1;92(7):577-582. Infantile Colic: Recognition and Treatment Johnsno, JD, Cocker K, Chang E
Pediatrics. 2015;135(suppl 1):S5–S6. In: Abstracts from the 6th Excellence in Pediatrics Annual Conference, December 4–6, 2014, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Fecal calprotectin during treatment of severe infantile colic with Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938. Savino F, De Marco A, Ceratto S, et al.
J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2017 May;64(5):691-695. Infantile Colic Is Associated With Low-grade Systemic Inflammation. Pärtty A1, Kalliomäki M, Salminen S, Isolauri E.
AIDS. 2013 Aug 24;27(13):2141-53. Hormonal contraception decreases bacterial vaginosis but oral contraception may increase candidiasis: implications for HIV transmission. van de Wijgert JH1, Verwijs MC, Turner AN, Morrison CS.
Iran J Child Neurol. 2017 Summer;11(3):37-41. Is Infantile Colic an Early Life Expression of Childhood Migraine? Tabrizi M1, Badeli H1, Hassanzadeh Rad A1, Aminzadeh V1, Shokuhifard A1.
Pediatrics. 2010;126:e526-e533. Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 in infantile colic: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Savino F, Cordisco L, Tarasco V, et al.
