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Subject:
From:
Carla D'Anna <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 21 Mar 1998 15:11:44 -0600
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Kelly asked
>Can anyone tell me about bone loss that some mothers experience when nursing
>beyond six months? An Associated Press story reports about a study that
>showed this. I had never heard this and would perceive this as one of those
>stories that is negative about nursing.

You are right to be suspicious, this is typical half truth reporting, yes
there is bone loss associated with lactation but there is recovery after
weaning.   More can be found on this in the following resources:

From NUTRITION DURING LACTATION, 1991 Institute of Medicine
National Academy of Sciences  page 205,206
this excellent 309 page text is available free from http://www.ncemch.org/
or more specifically from the URL below as item #D081
                                             (that is a zero not the letter 0)
http://www.circsol.com/mch/html/cf/catalog.cfm

"In general, published studies suggest that bone mineralization decreases
acutely in lactating women but that remineralization occurs in the post
lactation period."

and

"These data suggest that acute bone loss is likely to occur during
lactation; however, the magnitude of the losses is difficult to estimate
from the published data.  Assessments in older women suggest either that
calcium repletion occurred more effectively among women who had lactated or
that other behavioral characteristics among that group promoted enhance bone
mass over the long term."

Many more recent and detailed references can be found from a PubMed search at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/

I sent a very large cluster of abstracts to Kelly privately.  If anyone else
wants them emailed privately let me know.  No point in us all doing the same
search but it was too big to post to lactnet.

Carla

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