Iron pots help fend off anemia.Ethiopian children eating food cooked in iron pots are less likely to have iron-deficient blood than their playmates who eat similar foods prepared in aluminum pots, a team led by researchers at McGill University McGill University, at Montreal, Que., Canada; coeducational; chartered 1821, opened 1829. It was named for James McGill, who left a bequest to establish it. Its real development dates from 1855 when John W. Dawson became principal. in Montreal reports in the Feb. 27 LANCET lancet /lan·cet/ (lan´set) a small, pointed, two-edged surgical knife. lan·cet n. . After cooking Ethiopian foods in the lab, the scientists found that some iron from iron pots had leached into the food. They compared 195 children who ate food cooked in aluminum pots with 207 children whose food was cooked in iron pots supplied by the researchers. After 1 year, blood tests showed that the iron-deficiency, or anemia, rate fell from 57 to 13 percent in the group with iron pots but only from 55 to 39 percent in the other. The children whose families used iron pots also grew slightly more, and none suffered from iron overload Iron overload A side effect of frequent blood transfusions in which the body accumulates abnormally high levels of iron. Iron deposits can form in organs, particularly the heart, and cause life-threatening damage. . If larger studies show similar results, "real gains in child, adolescent, and maternal health Maternal health care is a concept that encompasses preconception, prenatal, and postnatal care. Goals of preconception care can include providing health promotion, screening and interventions for women of reproductive age to reduce risk factors that might affect future pregnancies. should be possible at low cost," says Bernard Brabin of the Liverpool (England) School of Tropical Medicine The School of Tropical Medicine was established in 1921 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. Its establishment, was due to the results of a government initiative as well as private efforts, and was an important landmark in the development and research in tropical medicine in . |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion