PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

B Vahlquist

Publications and source records attributed to B Vahlquist.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1977

[Nutritional deficiencies affecting children of the Third World. The example of Ethiopia (author's transl)].

For the large non-privileged population groups in developing countries and diet shows many deficiencies, often with major disturbances of health as a consequence. This is particularly true for the children. The monotony and the bulkiness of the traditional diet, the often sparse number of meals as well as periodic deteriorations of the food situation ("hungry season") all contributes to make the nutritional situation precarious. The vicious circle between PEM and infections contribute in a major way to the high mortality rate among preschool children in developing countries. In this paper a review is given of different nutritional deficiency diseases affecting children in the Third World. The practical illustrations derive mainly from Ethiopia. During the period between 1962-1975 there has been lively cooperation in the field of nutritional research between Ethiopia and Sweden.

Avitaminosis↗
PubMed1976

Breast milk composition in Ethiopian and Swedish mothers. I. Vitamin A and beta-carotene.

The vitamin A and beta-carotene contents of breast milk were determined at different stages of lactation in three population groups: nonprivileged Ethiopian, privileged Ethiopian, and Swedish mothers. In addition, a fractionation of vitamin A giving the proportion of retinol was performed. The concentrations of retinol-binding protein (RBP) and (in part of the material) beta-carotene and prealbumin in plasma were also measured. The mean concentrations of vitamin A and beta-carotene in the milk from the Swedish mothers (period 0.5 to 6.5 months) were in the range of 40.0 to 53.1 and 16.3 to 20.8 mug/100 ml, respectively. For the privileged Ethiopian mothers (period 0.5 to 3.5 months) the corresponding ranges were 36.2 to 36.4 and 26.2 to 28.1 mug/100 ml and for the nonprivileged Ethiopian mothers (period 0.5 to 6.5 months) 28.1 to 33.1 and 23.9 to 25.6 mug/100 ml. Only the nonprivileged Ethiopian mothers were examined during a later stage of lactation (6.5 to 11.5 and 11.5 to 23.5 months). The concentrations of vitamin A and beta-carotene in their milk showed a downward trend. The proportion of retinyl ester (percentage of total vitamin A content) was significantly higher in the milk of Swedish mothers than in privileged and nonprivileged Ethiopian mothers. In the Swedish mothers retinol constituted 3.5% of the total vitamin A content of the milk; in Ethiopian mothers it was 15 to 30%. Determination of RBP in plasma showed normal values for Swedish mothers and lowered values for Ethiopian mothers--particularly the nonprivileged, in whom 14 of 81 values were below 20 mug/ml. RBP was demonstrated in colostrum, but only in a low concentration (in the order of 5 mug/ml).

Adult↗