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Subject:
From:
"Susan E. Burger" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 3 Jul 2004 08:51:29 -0400
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Daer all:

The issue of asthma and breastfeeding has particular poignancy for me.
When I first started my PhD, we all were required to do a presentation
critiquing an article, in a huge auditorium with all the other graduate
students in all five disciplines of nutrition (biochemistry, human,
clinical, community & international), all your comittee members and other
professors who were interested.  All of the graduate students were required
to attend your talks and write an anonymous critique of your presentation.
This was one of the few fixed requirements for the degree.  The unspoken
message that terrified us all was that this was where they determined
whether or not you were worth it.

So, we all watched in horror as one poor student presented an article on
breastfeeding and asthma when my major professor verbally ripped the
presentation to shreds pointing out what the authors, the reviewers, and
the poor student missed because the expectation was that breastfeeding was
protective against asthma.  The data tables displaced for all of us to see
showed exactly the opposite, there was less asthma in the formula fed
group. The following discussion centered around the possibility that the
breastfed mothers were far more attentive from all that skin to skin
contact and probably NOTICED the asthma sooner and more frequently than
formula feeding mothers.

I have never forgotten the feeling of horror and empathy we all had for our
colleague on that podium when I read articles.  ALWAYS check the data
tables despite what the author concludes.

The other issue that I want to bring up is something I discovered buried in
a file when I working at a not for profit organization that worked on
blindness prevention.  Data can get reversed even prior to publication and
it may never be discovered.  I found the original research files for what
was later published as an article on vitamin A and respiratory disease.
The data was exactly the opposite in these files than what was later
published.  I was so busy at the time, I kept thinking about whether or not
I should contact the journal but never did.  Also, there were so many other
articles published on the topic that I didn't feel as much impetus to do
so.  In the end, the files were burned to a crisp on 9/11 when a fireball
went through the 2nd floor of the building where I used to work - just
across the street from the South Tower.  I still feel guilty for not doing
or saying something about those files, but I felt one could never be sure
about the validity of either set of data - were the files the ones that
were wrong or the published article?  My point is that I'm sure this is not
the first time this type of reversal of data has occurred.

Valerie's point about checking who funds the research is still valid
because we all have bias when we are looking for a particular effect - so
we must always make sure on both counts that we are really looking at what
the data are telling us and not what we or someone else wants us to see.

Best regards,

Susan E. Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC

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