We as women are often bothered about how our bodies and those of our families are not working well – we could just start asking – what is the recipe for wellness? This post may at a glance show you that there so much missed in modern medical literature. What explains normal functioning?
Having the right ingredients in best quality and as needed is the start – hence I have chosen not every ingredient need for happy breasts – but some that are so often overlooked. This leads to a lot of angst, and many hours spent visiting people who earnestly also ignore the obvious.
A lack of oil in a car engine will seize it up. A lack of water in a plant potted will kill it eventually. As does a lack of what is needed to run a body. Leads us to today’s post on zinc. There is a lot more on ingredients to be found on my Periods App – and in all of the three in the series, the ‘raw ingredients’ section has been written with well bodies in mind – discover what may be creating all the dramas as all look elsewhere for ways to calm the warning signs down.
Oil for the car, water for the plant and eggs for an omelette .
For happy breasts? Add in more zinc. Zinc is a micronutrient – we do not need much but it is essential if we want wound healing, the gut to work, the body to grow and nature as expected, and for breast development, hair to stay on the head (as zinc is needed to make hormones and to allow the conversion from T4 to T3 (so metabolism works).
Any RDI (recommended daily intake) is a guess. Optimal health is not met necessarily – but to stop us from dying we need at least this .. . (and we are all different). You may read more here
Zinc is an essential trace element that activates several hundred enzymatic reactions. These reactions are fundamental to life and biological activity. Some of the activities that zinc are involved in:
- DNA & RNA synthesis
- Gene expression
- Nervous system function
- Immune function & immune signaling such as cell apoptosis
- Neuronal transmission
- Brain function
- Zinc possesses powerful anabolic activities in the cells
- Formation of zinc proteins known as “zinc fingers”
- Zinc is essential for blood clotting and platelet formation
- Zinc is involved in Vitamin A synthesis
- Folate is made available through zinc enzyme reactions
- Along with copper, Zinc makes up the antioxidant enzyme system, Zn/Cu superoxide dismutase
- Steroidal hormone synthesis
- Growth & development of children
- Testosterone and semen formation
- The highest concentration of zinc is found in the male prostate gland
No one grow well – and hence are seen to have ’genetic’ problems – and often all it is, is a lack of ingredients – or that they are blocked from being used in the body.
Zinc in Pregnancy And Lactation
It is critical that a pregnant woman satisfy her body’s need for zinc. The official RDI for pregnant women is 19 milligrams per day. A report in the October 1992 American Journal of Epidemiology indicated that low zinc intake was associated with approximately a two-fold increase in risk of low birth weight, and low zinc intake earlier in pregnancy was associated with more than a trebling of pre-term delivery.
Research reported in the British medical journal, The Lancet, September 1992, notes that by the sixth month of lactation even a well-nourished mother may provide less zinc than is necessary for her child. Breastfed babies who received zinc supplements grew significantly in length and weight over those given a placebo.
Zinc Deficiency
Zinc insufficiency symptoms in women include defective, late and retarded growth of primary and secondary reproductive developments. Smaller breasts, narrow hips, disturbance of menstrual periods, fertility problems, pre-eclampsia in pregnancy and pre-menstrual syndrome are some of the effects.
Zinc deficiency indications in men include hypogonadism, defects in testes, defective primary and secondary reproductive development, fertility problems, loss of libido, impotence and aspermia.
Zinc is one of the most important micronutrients in breast milk:if they are troubled with colic – mum taking more zinc may go through the milk in just a few day and settle junior’s gut woes entirely.
Infants need large quantities of it during the first months of their lives to support growth, immune function, and cognitive development. We do not need ‘research’. We need to follow the recipe for wellness. Zinc is needed – and if it is missing – if the mother cannot absorb it as there are other issues – as pyroluria or MTHFR or apparent ‘genetic’ issues – then the situation can become dire for the growing baby. http://www.advance-health.com/zinc.html
Zinc is the number-one nutritional deficiency in U.S. children, according to a Tufts University study. More than 50 percent of poor children and 30 percent of non-poor children, ages 1-5, get less than 70 percent of the Recommended Dietary Allowance of zinc. (The optimal levels may well be much higher). The study shows that of 16 key nutrients, more children were deficient in zinc than in any other nutrient. Zinc deficiency has been implicated as a factor in:
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More on zinc’s importance here and here.
Mastitis again? Infections? Can’t heal? Feeling as though you are going mad? Can’t digest your food? Hair falling? Baby is colicky STILL?
Maybe reach for some oysters . .