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story to find out more. Zinc and Iron
Interplay ExploredBy Marcia Wood March 25, 2002Puzzling interactions of two essential
nutrients--zinc and iron--are the focus of experiments by
Agricultural Research Service scientists
at Davis, Calif. Their studies may help explain why, for some pregnant women,
taking prenatal iron supplements interferes with benefits from zinc. Janet C. King, director of the ARS
Western Human Nutrition Research Center at Davis, is collaborating in the
study with Concepcion Mendoza, a post-doctoral scientist in King's laboratory.
Fernando E. Viteri of the University of
California at Berkeley is a co-investigator. In an earlier study of zinc, King and others tested 13 pregnant volunteers,
aged 18 to 40. The researchers followed the volunteers' uptake and use of zinc
from food. They tracked the volunteers from the beginning of pregnancy through
the first 3 months of breast-feeding. Four of these volunteers, on their
doctors' orders, took a daily iron supplement. Previous studies, done elsewhere, showed that zinc absorption in rats
increased during lactation. In the human study, King and colleagues found that
all of the volunteers, except the four who took iron supplements, increased
their zinc absorption during breast-feeding. Now King, Mendoza and Viteri are building upon this previous work in an
ongoing experiment with pregnant volunteers, aged 22 to 40. The researchers
want to determine whether zinc levels are affected by taking iron supplements
at a particular time of day, or with or without a meal. To find that out, the scientists are providing zinc supplements to all of
the volunteers to take every day. Some of the women are also taking iron
supplements daily, either in the morning with their breakfast or at bedtime.
Zinc likely affects every general function in the human body. It is an
important part of many enzymes needed for healthy skin and for the immune,
nervous and digestive systems to work properly. Foods that are good sources of
zinc include beans, whole grains, shellfish, red meat and dark-meat poultry.
For more information about this zinc and iron research, see the Agricultural
Research magazine. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. Story contacts Western Human Nutrition Research Center Marcia A Wood U.S. Department of Agriculture |