Breastfeeding

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 2

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Food in Infants
What do we know?
“Humans are the only mammals who feed our young special complementary foods before weaning and we are the only primates that wean our young before they can forage independently. There appears to be a sensitive period in the first several months of life when infants readily accept a wide variety of tastes and this period overlaps with a critical window for oral tolerance.” (Borowitz S.) We do a deep dive here plus some information on the mineral calcium and a segment on loneliness.
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 30

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This week we look at breastfeeding, the guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and some science related to the nutrients in breastmilk. Should we breastfeed our children past 1 year of age? Should we push the government to do more to support nursing babies? We also discuss curiosity and parenting.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 11 Issues 48 and 50

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Newsletter #48 – Biological Clock and Aging
What do we really know about aging?
We know that it accelerates under chronic unremitting stress of varied sources. Including – chronic high fat and sugar laden westernized diets, chronic chemical or drug exposure or acute if a toxic load, chronic sedentary behavior, chronic metal sadness or abuse, physical abuse, injury that is profound and much more.
It is no wonder looking at that list that we are aging poorly now despite high quality medical interventions that keep us alive. Thus, what is our biological clock say about our age versus the chronological clock of age. Think of this as how old do you appear biologically or cellularly versus how old you really are by days.
Newsletter #50 – Breastmilk is a Miracle of Evolution
After the birth of a child, a beautiful event occurs and provides a point of visceral connection physically and epigenetically between mom and her babe. That event is breastfeeding. Mother’s milk is an evolutionary marvel whereby a mother dedicates part of her energy stores to her offspring for survival. She gives of herself literally and figuratively even during periods of food scarcity. Over thousands of years, humans have evolved this dynamic and rich fluid to promote species survival in the context of our dependent selves as babies. We have massive brains needing large amounts of energy to grow and mother’s milk is the culmination of the species learned process of survival. Human milk is the perfect dynamic personalized food for an infant to thrive. It is different for each mother child dyad. It changes based on environmental and human flux. It is in simple terms the best food for a newborn while simultaneously being the best medicine for all that ails a newborn.
Enjoy,
DR. M
For the written newsletter visit: https://www.salisburypediatrics.com/patient-education/dr-magryta-s-newsletter

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #11 – Dr. EA Quinn, Breastfeeding Through History

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Dr. EA Quinn and I had a wide ranging discussion on breastmilk from an evolutionary perspective for podcast episode #11.
Dr. Quinn is a biological anthropologist with a specialty in human biology. Her research is broadly focused on understanding the ways in which human milk is an essential part of human biological variation and how such variation has been selected for by different ecological pressures.
Her primary research project at present is Infancy @Altitude, a longitudinal birth cohort study of ethnic Tibetan mothers and infants living in the Nubri Valley, Nepal. She is investigating the ways in which ecological pressures – in this case the ecological pressures of hypoxia, chronic cold stress, shorter growing seasons, UV radiation, and infectious diseases – create selective pressures on human milk and how this translates into adaptive patterns of child growth.
One of the major findings of this research was elevated milk fat in the high altitude sample compared to other previously studied human populations and lower levels of metabolic hormones than predicted based on maternal body composition.
Breastmilk is a magical human derived food and medicine all wrapped up into one. The magnificence of human milk is on full display during this hour long podcast.
I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Dr. EA Quinn,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #9 – Dr. Tracy Shafizadeh, Evivo Probiotic for Babies

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Dr. Tracy Shafizadeh is a nutritional scientist, speaker, and author with over 15 years of experience in scientific communications and life science research. Prior to serving as the Director of Scientific Communications at Evolve BioSystems, she led both product development and research services at various start-up life science companies, including Lipomics Technologies, Tethys Bioscience and Metabolon, Inc. Dr. Shafizadeh received her PhD in nutritional biology from UC Davis, studying intestinal development and folate metabolism in newborns.

Today, we spend the hour discussing the maternal and infant microbiome with respect to maternal breastmilk, human milk sugars and childhood outcome. Evolve Biosystems has produced a probiotic with excellent science to help guide us in new therapeutic discovery. We head to the beginnings of disease onset when the infant is only starting to take his or her first breaths.

I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Tracy Shafizadeh,

Dr. M

 

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #8 – Dr. Kjersti Aagaard, A Womb With a View

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Dr. Kjersti Aaagard, is an expert in maternal-fetal medicine holding the distinction as the Henry and Emma Meyer Professor and Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. She serves as vice chair of research for obstetrics and gynecology and is a professor in the Departments of Molecular and Human Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. She is an expert in the study of the maternal microbiome and metagenomics Research.

She is a tour de force of knowledge in the evolutionary understanding of the maternal-fetal communications throughout pregnancy and post delivery. We share a fascinating hour discussing the maternal microbiome, breastmilk, diet and much more as they relate to mom and her babe.

I hope that you enjoy this stimulating conversation with Dr. Aagaard,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #7 – Dr. William Parker, The “Macrobiome” and Human Health

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Dr. William Parker, Associate Professor of Surgery and Global Health at Duke University, will discuss the biome depletion theory and how our cleanliness is disrupting normal immune function. These processes can have profound downstream effects on maternal and child health. From the Duke Medical School: What is widely known as the “hygiene hypothesis” is more appropriately described as the biota alteration or biome depletion theory: Changes in symbiont composition in the ecosystem of the human body in Western culture has led to immune dysfunction and subsequent disease. We are working on several aspects of this theory. Our earlier studies probe the immunological differences between laboratory-raised and wild-raised animals as a means of assessing differences between humans with and without Western culture, respectively. Other studies probe the role of biome enrichment, in particular the addition of helminths, in the treatment of disease. Studies are ongoing in both humans and in animals, with particular attention to the role of biome depletion in cognitive dysfunction.

We discuss the future of human health with a specific focus on our macrobiome friends, parasites, with whom we have co evolved. They are now missing and we are not better off because of it.

 

Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. William Parker,

Dr. M

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