Margaret & Suzanne,

Thank you, Margaret, for your excellent memory & for
making the connection!

The article is incredible, I pulled it right out from
its proper folder within seconds to quote it for those
who have not seen it.  (Okay, I'm bragging about a
shining moment for my filing system, but trust me, it
doesn't always work this way...)

"Mother's Milk Found to Be Potent Cocktail of
Hormones" was written by Natalie Angier but
unfortunately it's missing a date.  Trusting my memory
(which unfortunately pales next to my filing system)
I'm guessing it appeared in the New York Times August
23, 1993.  Would have been a Tuesday, Science Section,
so if that was a Tuesday that's a good date.  The
article concerns a study reported the date of the
article in The Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences by Yitzhak Koch etc of the Weizmann Institute
of Science Rehovot, Israel.

The study speculated that the gonadotropin-releasing
hormone (GnRH) is generated by lactating breast tissue
and that it may  protect female sex organs by stalling
maturation until the body is ready for reproduction.

The article also cites Sergio R. Ojeda, head of the
neuroscience division at the Oregon Regional Primate
Research Center, for suggesting that GnRH may calm the
estrogen surge an infant girl is exposed to just
before birth.  Since estrogen levels skyrocket in the
placenta just before birth, a baby girl who does not
receive correcting hormones at her mother's breast is
at increased risk of early sexual maturation --  and
therefore all attendant risks.

This neural hormone synthesized in lactating breast
glands is simply unavailable in a can.  Kinda makes
the legal swatting between abm manufacturers reported
in recent posts look a little silly.  This hormone in
all its wonder is just one star in the milky way.  I'm
content some days just to sit in awe and wonder.

The article ends:
"Despite the many puzzles that still surround breast
milk, its power is so evident that in Sweden, at
least, 'it's considered unethical to feed infants
anything but human milk,' said [Dr. Martha Neuringer
(Oregon Health Sciences U./Portland)].  After the
birth of a child, a woman is given plenty of time off
from work to nurse an infant.  For those who cannot
nurse, there are banks of human milk, just as there
are blood banks.  And the comparison is apt, for both
are rivers of life whose depths scientists have yet to
fathom."

This article is fascinating & I would love to know if
anyone reading Lactnet is aware of more recent
research.  If so, please e-mail me privately as well
as post to Lactnet.


Susan Johnson  MFA, IBCLC






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