Natasha Longo
PreventDisease.com
Many mothers experience disappointment when breastfeeding challenges arise and there's a good reason for it--they possess liquid gold and they know it. When there are obstacles which prevent their newborn from receiving optimal ratios of fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and immune boosters in their breast milk, who can blame a new mom for being upset their baby will receive second best in an infant formula.
These formulas are not only second best but are becoming outright toxic to infants. According to a new study by University of California, San Diego bioengineers, free fatty acids created during the digestion of infant formula cause cellular death and severe intestinal conditions.
Breast milk is the perfect food for baby, with numerous advantages over baby formula, especially in the first four months or so. Infant formula has no DHA, cholesterol, lipase, lactoferrin, lysozyme, lactose, vital oligosaccharides, living cells and almost no immunoglobins. All of these components are essential to a newborn's health yet absent in infant formula.
Babies fed a dairy-based formula grow up to have higher blood pressure than babies who are breast-fed, British researchers reported.
Babies fed enriched bottle milk are also more likely to be obese by the age of five.
Human milk oligosaccharides, or HMO, produce short-chain fatty acids that feed a beneficial microbial population in the infant gut. Not only that, the bacterial composition adjusts as the baby grows older and its needs change.
Earlier studies have shown that breast milk lowers the incidence of diarrhea, influenza and respiratory infections during infancy, while protecting against the later development of allergies, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses. As scientists have learned more about the role intestinal flora plays in health, they have gained appreciation for how an infant's early diet can affect this beneficial microbial universe.
The report by San Diego bioengineers was based on in vitro tests comparing the digestion of fresh human breast milk and nine different infant formulas. It was online in the journal Pediatric Research. Scientists have long known that premature infants fed formula are more likely to develop necrotizing enterocolitis (cellular death of intestinal tissue) than those fed breast milk. The condition is the leading cause of death from gastrointestinal diseases in premature infants, but the underlying mechanism has not been understood. Alexander Penn, a research scientist working in the Microcirculation Laboratory of bioengineering Professor Geert Schmid-Schonbein from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, believes they have come closer to an answer.
Penn and others had previously determined that the partially digested food in a mature, adult intestine is capable of killing cells, due to the presence of free fatty acids which have a "detergent" capacity that damages cell membranes. The intestines of healthy adults and older children have a mature mucosal barrier that may prevent damage due to free fatty acids. However, the intestine is leakier at birth, particularly for preterm infants, which could be why they are more susceptible to cellular death of intestinal tissue.
Therefore, the researchers wanted to know what happens to breast milk as compared to infant formula when they are exposed to digestive enzymes. They "digested," in vitro, infant formulas marketed for full term and preterm infants as well as fresh human breast milk using pancreatic enzymes or fluid from an intestine. They then tested the formula and milk for levels of free fatty acids. They also tested whether these fatty acids killed off three types of cells involved in necrotizing enterocolitis: epithelial cells that line the intestine, endothelial cells that line blood vessels, and neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that is a kind of "first responder" to inflammation caused by trauma in the body.
Overwhelmingly, the digestion of formula led to cellular death, or cytotoxicity -- in less than 5 minutes in some cases -- while breast milk did not. For example, digestion of formula caused death in 47 percent to 99 percent of neutrophils while only 6 percent of them died as a result of milk digestion. The study found that breast milk appears to have a built-in mechanism to prevent cytotoxicity. The research team believes most food, like formula, releases high levels of free fatty acids during digestion, but that breast milk is digested in a slower, more controlled, process.
Read more at - http://preventdisease.com/news/12/121912_Researchers-Show-How-Infant-Formula-Causes-Cellular-Death-In-Five-Minutes.shtml
PreventDisease.com
Many mothers experience disappointment when breastfeeding challenges arise and there's a good reason for it--they possess liquid gold and they know it. When there are obstacles which prevent their newborn from receiving optimal ratios of fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and immune boosters in their breast milk, who can blame a new mom for being upset their baby will receive second best in an infant formula.
These formulas are not only second best but are becoming outright toxic to infants. According to a new study by University of California, San Diego bioengineers, free fatty acids created during the digestion of infant formula cause cellular death and severe intestinal conditions.
Breast milk is the perfect food for baby, with numerous advantages over baby formula, especially in the first four months or so. Infant formula has no DHA, cholesterol, lipase, lactoferrin, lysozyme, lactose, vital oligosaccharides, living cells and almost no immunoglobins. All of these components are essential to a newborn's health yet absent in infant formula.
Babies fed a dairy-based formula grow up to have higher blood pressure than babies who are breast-fed, British researchers reported.
Babies fed enriched bottle milk are also more likely to be obese by the age of five.
Human milk oligosaccharides, or HMO, produce short-chain fatty acids that feed a beneficial microbial population in the infant gut. Not only that, the bacterial composition adjusts as the baby grows older and its needs change.
Earlier studies have shown that breast milk lowers the incidence of diarrhea, influenza and respiratory infections during infancy, while protecting against the later development of allergies, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses. As scientists have learned more about the role intestinal flora plays in health, they have gained appreciation for how an infant's early diet can affect this beneficial microbial universe.
The report by San Diego bioengineers was based on in vitro tests comparing the digestion of fresh human breast milk and nine different infant formulas. It was online in the journal Pediatric Research. Scientists have long known that premature infants fed formula are more likely to develop necrotizing enterocolitis (cellular death of intestinal tissue) than those fed breast milk. The condition is the leading cause of death from gastrointestinal diseases in premature infants, but the underlying mechanism has not been understood. Alexander Penn, a research scientist working in the Microcirculation Laboratory of bioengineering Professor Geert Schmid-Schonbein from the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, believes they have come closer to an answer.
Penn and others had previously determined that the partially digested food in a mature, adult intestine is capable of killing cells, due to the presence of free fatty acids which have a "detergent" capacity that damages cell membranes. The intestines of healthy adults and older children have a mature mucosal barrier that may prevent damage due to free fatty acids. However, the intestine is leakier at birth, particularly for preterm infants, which could be why they are more susceptible to cellular death of intestinal tissue.
Therefore, the researchers wanted to know what happens to breast milk as compared to infant formula when they are exposed to digestive enzymes. They "digested," in vitro, infant formulas marketed for full term and preterm infants as well as fresh human breast milk using pancreatic enzymes or fluid from an intestine. They then tested the formula and milk for levels of free fatty acids. They also tested whether these fatty acids killed off three types of cells involved in necrotizing enterocolitis: epithelial cells that line the intestine, endothelial cells that line blood vessels, and neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that is a kind of "first responder" to inflammation caused by trauma in the body.
Overwhelmingly, the digestion of formula led to cellular death, or cytotoxicity -- in less than 5 minutes in some cases -- while breast milk did not. For example, digestion of formula caused death in 47 percent to 99 percent of neutrophils while only 6 percent of them died as a result of milk digestion. The study found that breast milk appears to have a built-in mechanism to prevent cytotoxicity. The research team believes most food, like formula, releases high levels of free fatty acids during digestion, but that breast milk is digested in a slower, more controlled, process.
Read more at - http://preventdisease.com/news/12/121912_Researchers-Show-How-Infant-Formula-Causes-Cellular-Death-In-Five-Minutes.shtml
