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Estrogen protects pregnant women
USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Feb, 2008
Young women are less likely than men or post-menopausal females to suffer liver or muscle damage from a deficiency of the nutrient choline, according to a study from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Researchers discovered that the hormone estrogen turns on a gene in the liver that produces choline, a nutrient used to form cell membranes. This means premenopausal women, who have high levels of estrogen, can make their own supply of the nutrient.
"This finding helps explain why a majority of young women who consume too little choline in their diet do not suffer from liver and muscle damage like men and post-menopausal women do," notes Steven Zeisel, professor of nutrition and the study's lead author. Estrogen's effect appears to protect younger women from choline deficiency during pregnancy and lactation, when significant amounts of the nutrient are transported from mother to infant.
Choline is contained in egg, meat, and wheat germ, among other foods. Research has found that the offspring of pregnant females who ate a choline-rich diet perform 30% better in memory tests than babies from mothers who ate a normal diet. The effects lasted throughout the life of the offspring.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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