Scioso
Scioso t1_j4qref5 wrote
Reply to Living in a greener residential area increases the diversity of oligosaccharides in breastmilk. This in turn may affect the child’s health, as the oligosaccharides in breastmilk can protect the infant from harmful microbes and reduce the risk of developing allergies and diseases. by universityofturku
This is actually a big deal. OP just linked the press release, but this was in Nature (one of the most important research journals) publication. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-27317-1
From the paper,
“The results were independent of the education level, occupation, marital status and health of the children’s parents as well as the socio-economic disadvantage in the residential area.”
Generally I’m a cynic and quickly can find reasons to scoff at what I see on Reddit. This isn’t one of them.
This may be a “huh” moment that spurns on a lot of research in many fields.
Scioso t1_j4rl6y9 wrote
Reply to comment by DATY4944 in Living in a greener residential area increases the diversity of oligosaccharides in breastmilk. This in turn may affect the child’s health, as the oligosaccharides in breastmilk can protect the infant from harmful microbes and reduce the risk of developing allergies and diseases. by universityofturku
Not a doctor, nor anyway an expert in children.
I’d say right now it’s nothing to worry about, and may end up being practically irrelevant.
This is a new study, with a mainly unexplained mechanism (the breakdown of why things happen the way they do).
It will be years before any meaningful result filters out to a layperson.
Even if this is actually useful knowledge (seems like it might be), it very likely will be rolled into another theory/ used to confirm something else.
In ten years you’ll probably see a litany of products on the shelves that advertise providing the same thing as actual nature. Likely, they will all be varying degrees of ineffective.
However, as a scientist, this is a big step BECAUSE of what it could help to happen. Science is a ton of confirming ideas that are pretty much solved, so things like this are interesting.