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Biomedical subjects

A J Naylor

Publications and source records attributed to A J Naylor.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

Selenium supplementation affects broiler growth performance, meat yield and feather coverage.

(1) Selenium (Se) is an essential part of numerous selenoproteins, most of which are involved in the antioxidant system of the body. It is also required by poultry for the maintenance of optimal health and meat quality. This paper reports data from a study examining the effect of dietary source and concentration of selenium on broiler performance and meat quality. (2) Increased dietary selenium content markedly reduced feed conversion ratio (FCR) as a result of significantly lower feed intakes of birds while maintaining the same weight gains. (3) Selenium supplementation increased feathering, with organic selenium (selenised yeast) being superior to inorganic selenium (sodium selenite). (4) Birds receiving organic selenium in their diets had improved eviscerated weight, breast yield and reduced drip loss. (5) There were significant concentration x source interactions on yields of breasts and marylands (thigh plus drumstick), with elevated levels of organic selenium increasing the yields, whereas the opposite was true for the inorganic selenium.

Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena↗

Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. Protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding in the twenty-first century.

The BFHI is a global UNICEF/WHO-sponsored effort to promote breastfeeding by ensuring that all women are provided with sound information regarding their infant feeding choices and that those who elect to breastfeed their infants are given physiologically sound, evidence-based advice and skilled assistance prenatally and as they begin nursing their infants during their postpartum hospital or birth center stay. The initiative is based on ten policy or procedure statements, The Ten Steps, which were jointly developed and published in 1989 by the sponsoring agencies in consultation with international experts. In 1990, the Ten Steps were accepted as the central theme of the Innocenti Declaration and, later that year, endorsed at the World Summit on Children. In 1992, UNICEF and WHO launched a major international campaign to encourage all hospitals with maternity services to accept the Ten Steps as basic maternity and newborn infant care policies and procedures. These Ten Steps were reviewed briefly in this article. Official designation as Baby Friendly requires a careful assessment completed by a trained external team to confirm that the institution is truly carrying out all Ten Steps and conforming to the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. During the 8 years since the initiative began, more than 15,000 hospitals in 136 countries have been designated as Baby Friendly. Twenty-seven of these officially designated institutions are in the United States, where the campaign has been active only since 1996. The BFHI is considered one of the most successful international efforts ever performed to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. Although it does not ensure that mothers will aspire to or achieve the widely accepted goal of approximately 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding, it helps mothers to initiate exclusive nursing, an essential step in the right direction.

Breast Feeding↗

Lactation management education for physicians.

All health professional groups support breastfeeding as the ideal way to nourish an infant, but numerous surveys have shown that, in general, even perinatal health professionals are not prepared to provide lactation management as part of routine care. Integration of lactation topics into current medical curriculum, whether traditional or problem-based, is the ideal and is possible. Faculty are encouraged to assess the current program for signs of "curriculosclerosis," a prevalent disease characterized by Abrahamson as "hardening of the categories," to look for ways to elasticize the relevant departments, and to integrate lactation management topics at the appropriate place in the larger educational plan. Faculty leadership is crucial. Remedial work, in terms of continuing education, will be necessary for perinatal health professionals until the curriculum model has been in place in preservice and postgraduate programs sufficiently long. Breastfeeding as a primary health care strategy, with its clear health and economic benefits, must be a part of any health care reform and, as such, will be a service expected to be provided by perinatal health professionals.

Education, Medical↗

A study of salicylate and caffeine excretion in the breast milk of two nursing mothers.

Salicylate excretion was studied in the breast milk of a nursing mother (Patient A) taking chronic therapeutic doses of aspirin, and caffeine excretion was monitored in the breast milk of a nursing mother (Patient B) who was a heavy coffee drinker. Salicylate concentrations were maximal in serum at 2.25 hours (10.8 mg/dL) and in milk at 3.00 hours (1.0 mg/dL) following 975 mg of aspirin in Patient A. Caffeine concentrations peaked at 5.50 hours in serum (2.14 micrograms/mL) and at 2.00 hours in milk (1.15 micrograms/mL) during a period of steady coffee drinking by Patient B. Milk:serum concentration ratios ranged up to 0.08 for patient A and up to 0.63 for Patient B, demonstrating that relatively more caffeine than salicylate was excreted into milk. Sodium, potassium, pH, and percent solute remained essentially unchanged in milk samples from both patients throughout the study periods so that changes in the state of hydration of pH of the milk could not be implicated for the observed excretion patterns. More than 25 liters of milk at its peak drug concentration would have to be consumed by the infants of Patients A and B respectively to provide the salicylate content of one aspirin tablet or the caffeine content of an average cup of coffee.

Adult↗