Zinc is the link to success.

• Position: Breast-Feeding

Zinc plays an important role in a woman's ability to breastfeed her child successfully, as it is an essential trace element that is passed to infants through mother's milk. The levels of zinc in mother's milk and the effects of zinc deficiency in infants have been studied previously, but the role of zinc in breast development and function in lactating mothers is a relatively new area of research.

The protein ZnT2 transports zinc in specific tissues in the body, including the mammary glands. Shannon L. Kelleher, associate professor of cellular and molecular physiology as well as pharmacology and surgery at Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, Hershey, and colleagues previously had found that some women have mutations in ZnT2 and, when the protein does not function correctly, breast milk will have very low amounts of zinc, which can cause severe zinc deficiency in exclusively breast-fed infants. Their recent research suggests that ZnT2 mutations also may cause other deficiencies in breast milk and create difficulty for breastfeeding in general.

"This finding changes the paradigm. It is no longer only about transporting zinc into milk, but now it's also about milk composition and milk production," asserts Kelleher.

When ZnT2 is lacking, there is reduced mammary gland development and severe defects in function...