Iron, Vitamin D May Lead to Smarter, Healthier Children

Many people have low iron in their blood. But pregnant women need extra iron for their own health and their baby's health. Iron is important to the development of a baby's brain and central nervous system.

In poor countries, however, providing all pregnant women with iron supplements can be a financial issue. Some experts say giving supplements to babies after they are born is enough.

Someone who disagrees is Parul Christian, a nutritionist at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Maryland. She and other scientists have been doing research in Nepal. She says their latest findings should settle any question about the value of making sure every pregnant woman receives iron supplements.

Iron is a micronutrient. Micronutrients are important substances that are found in small amounts in foods.

The researchers first completed a study among poor women in Nepal ten years ago. During pregnancy some of the women received supplements containing iron and another micronutrient, folic acid.

Professor Christian says that study showed the supplements could improve child survival.

Now the children are older. The researchers returned to Nepal and tested their neurological development. They found improved intellectual and fine motor abilities among those whose mothers had received iron and folic acid during pregnancy and for three months after.

The findings appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Another new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, looks at levels of vitamin D in babies. It says newborns with the lowest levels were twice as likely to develop respiratory infections as those with normal levels of vitamin D.

Vitamin D helps build strong bones and strengthens the body's defenses against disease. The vitamin is commonly added to cow's milk and also found in supplements. But vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin. The body naturally produces it from sunlight.

Carlos Camargo from Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts and other researchers did the study. It followed more than nine hundred children in New Zealand until they were five years old.

CARLOS CAMARGO: "And what we found was that children who had the lowest levels of vitamin D had a high risk of developing infections and wheezing throughout childhood."

He says the problem of vitamin D deficiency is not limited to countries with the least sun.

CARLOS CAMARGO: "People are moving more and more indoors. And they work indoors. They play indoors. Everything's indoors. And so we're actually starting to see low levels of vitamin D in areas where the sun is plentiful."

VOA Health Report

What Do You Know About the Common Cold?

VOA Special English Health Report.

Do you think getting cold can give you a cold? Is it bad to drink milk when you have a cold? Can chicken soup cure a cold?

Ranit Mishori is a family medicine doctor at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. She says colds are more common in winter, but not because of low temperatures. The cold weather just means people stay inside more.

RANIT MISHORI: "People tend to congregate and be together and the way the common cold virus is transmitted from one person to another is through handshakes, through sneezing, or coughing on one another."

Adults generally get two to three colds a year. Children are likely to catch four or five. Dr. Mishori says some people mistakenly believe they can become resistant to colds.

RANIT MISHORI: "There are about two hundred different viruses that cause the common cold. People think that once you get infected one time you develop immunity for the rest of your life. This is wrong."

There is still no cure for the common cold. But Dr. Mishori says there are ways to feel better sooner.

RANIT MISHORI: "So if you get a cold and on day one and you start taking about two grams of vitamin C a day, there is evidence that it might shorten the number of days that you will be suffering with these symptoms."

She says honey can also help.

RANIT MISHORI: "There is increased evidence that it helps shorten the duration of the common cold sometimes even by two to three days."

Dr. Mishori says honey seems to be especially effective in children with colds. But the Agriculture Department says never to feed honey to babies less than one year old. It says even honey in prepared foods may contain substances that can make babies very sick.

Some people believe in treating a cold with chicken soup. Does it work?

RANIT MISHORI: "Chicken soup has anti-inflammatory properties, so it helps reduce the duration of the cold but also it helps clear the mucus."

Mucus is the sticky substance that can make you cough and have trouble breathing during a cold.

Have you ever heard the old saying "feed a cold, starve a fever"? Dr. Mishori says this is not necessarily a good guideline to follow. She says if you have a cold but do not feel hungry, then don't eat.

RANIT MISHORI: "But you have to drink a lot and you can drink water or you can drink tea -- anything that gets fluids into your body. That's very important."

But what about drinking milk during a cold? Some people think it only causes more mucus. Dr. Mishori says yes and no.

RANIT MISHORI: "Dairy products do not cause increased secretions, but they can thicken the secretions. So it's possible that discomfort is somewhat more enhanced when you drink milk. But obviously, if you’re a baby and that's all you drink, you should not stop giving babies milk."

World's Oldest Man Turns 113

In Japan, Tomoji Tanabe turned 113, but he says he intends to stick around for at least another 5 years. He avoids alcohol and cigarettes, but, he loves to drink milk.