Dear all: The issue of asthma and breastfeeding has particular poignancy for me because that is how I learned to read the literature very carefully. When I was first beginning my doctorate, the unspoken rule was that you MUST do well on your presentation of an article in front of all the other graduate students and your committee members. This was a terrifying experience where you were in a big auditorium, your fellow graduate students rated your presentation anonymously (all were required to attend) and your professors grilled your critique of the article unmercifully. This was one of the very few requirements of the PhD and unofficially we knew that this was how they decided you were worth the effort or not. I felt as nauseous for the first of these presentations as I did for my final defense. We all watched cringing as the poor person presenting the article on breastfeeding and asthma was verbally ripped to shreds by my major advisor because he had made the same assumption as the authors of the article - that OF COURSE breastfeeding would have a positive effect on asthma. There, clearly indicated in the screen for all to see was the author's table that showed exactly the opposite. At the time, the discussion centered on the fact that breastfeeding mothers were far more attentive with all that skin to skin contact and must be noticing the asthma much sooner than the formula feeding moms. So, I have never forgotten the terror of that poor person in his moment of humiliation in front of the rest of us and ALWAYS check the numbers in the table because even authors and reviewers can get it wrong. My true confession is that, while working for a nonprofit organization, I discovered in the files the raw data from research that was later published on vitamin A and respiratory disease. It was very clear from this raw data that the person had switched the results for the final article - either intentionally or unintentionally. By then, there was plenty of research published by many others and I never knew whether I should have brought those files to light --- I wasn't sure whether the files themselves may have been in error. Too late now for sure, because all those files were burned to a crisp on 9/11 when a fireball from the plane blew through the 2nd floor of the building across the street from the South Tower where I used to work. Best, Susan Burger, MHS, PhD, IBCLC *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html