It has long been known that breast milk protects the baby from a very serious disease known as necrotizing or necrotizing enterocolitis, or put another way, since babies are fed with formula milk, massively, the number of children suffering from the disease has increased.
Necrotizing enterocolitis is a disease that involves the destruction of parts of the intestine. It is estimated that 1.3 children suffer per 1,000 and in 85% of cases it occurs in premature babies. 10% of premature babies suffer from it and a third of babies who suffer from it do not survive. Now several researchers have found what is the protein in breast milk that protects babies and is called neuregulin-4 (NRG4).
In a study published in the magazine American Journal of Pathology, the researchers explain that they have worked with the NRG4 protein in order to know how it behaves in the face of such a serious condition as necrotizing enterocolitis. We have already commented that 30% of babies who suffer from it die, which is a lot, but it is that of those who survive, many have to remove segments of the intestine and may become dependent on intravenous nutrition, as it is not able to digest food normally.
To carry out the study, they analyzed breast milk, baby intestine samples and also worked with rats to see what happened when they were fed with formula without the aforementioned protein or with formula with NRG4. The rats were subjected to conditions such that their intestinal cells had all the numbers of suffering destruction. Those who only took formula suffered from that death of intestinal cells, a behavior similar to what happens with necrotizing enterocolitis. But nevertheless, those who received the protein suffered it with less intensity or were not affected.
Mark Frey, one of the study participants, explains it as follows:
Our research suggests that without the NRG4 protein found in breast milk, a normal protective mechanism in the immature intestine may be lacking ... If a baby taking formula encounters an EN trigger, such as an infection or intestinal injury, it could run a higher risk of a potentially lethal condition.
It is not a benefit of breast milk, it is normal
Although I have already commented on it in the first paragraph and although Frey explains it perfectly, I want to emphasize this: we are not talking about a benefit of breast milk, something that has been discovered to be a plus for the health of babies, in plan "we know that there is a very serious disease and we just found the cure. " It's the opposite. When all babies were fed breast milk, or at least most, this disease barely existed. Babies died of many other things, sure, because hygiene was not the same as now, vaccines did not exist as we now know them and conditions, in general, were very different.
Babies started receiving artificial milk because mothers were told it was much better than their own milk and from that moment on Babies began, in greater numbers, to suffer from diseases such as necrotizing enterocolitis, very serious, that it is not that it is produced by ingesting artificial milk (there is no substance in the formula that produces it), but that it is an indirect consequence, since babies who drink artificial milk stop drinking breast milk, which it protects.
It smells like commercial strategy
It is not the first time I see it and it surely will not be the last. The publication of the study and the news they smell like a commercial strategy. A strategy that, as I say, has already been used dozens of times. I explain: some researchers find in breast milk a component with an impressive ability, the data is made public, it is said that breast milk is better than artificial milk because it contains this substance and a few months later, a milk brand appears explaining that They have made that substance part of their formula, and everyone is happy.
This is the order with which they present it to us, although in reality the order is the other way around: laboratories that manufacture artificial milk are probably those who know best breast milk, so they constantly try to approximate their formulas to it, adding new components. When they manage to isolate a substance and introduce it into their formula, they do not announce it directly, but first they devalue the formulas for breastfeeding and the substance that they have already managed to include in order to explain the achievement, some time later.
I don't know if it will be true or not, but since the study researchers have managed to work with the protein in isolation, we may soon see that protein in baby formula milkAnd, honestly, it will be good news because it will help save many lives, in the cases of those babies who are not breastfed.
The importance of continuing to promote breastfeeding and continue helping mothers
But breast milk is much more than a protein and the health of babies goes through many more diseases than we have talked about today. It is one more. Very serious, very important, but one more. Therefore, despite the fact that the formulas in the future are sold with the "and now with NRG4, which protects your baby's intestine to avoid serious and serious diseases", hundreds of substances will still be missing They have a role in the development and protection of the baby.
That is why it is very important to continue promoting breastfeeding, but more importantly than professionals are able to help mothers who want to breastfeed their babies to achieve it. It is a good for mothers, it is a good for babies and it is a social and economic good (thanks to breastfeeding you can save up to 23,000 euros per child by reducing income from premature babies).
