Cecile H. Edwards

Pica in an Urban Environment

The practice of pica, the compulsive ingestion of nonfood substances over a sustained period of time, was studied in 553 African American women who were admitted to prenatal clinics in Washington, D.C. Dietary, biochemical, and psychosocial correlates of the pica practices of a subset of this urban population are presented in this paper. Geophagia, compulsive eating of clay or dirt, was not observed in these women; pagophagia, or the ingestion of large quantities of ice and freezer frost, was self reported in 8.1% of the women, who consumed 1/2 to 2 cups a day from 1 to 7 days per week. Serum ferritin concentrations of pica women were significantly lower during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy; the average values for three trimesters of pregnancy for both ferritin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin were significantly lower in pica women than their nonpica counterparts (P = 0.0001 and P = 0.017, respectively). Although not significantly different, the iron (66 vs. 84% RDA) and calcium (60 vs. 75% RDA) contents of the diets of pica women were less those of nonpica women. Gestational age, body length, and body weight were not different, but head circumferences of infants delivered to pica women who consumed freezer frost and/or ice were smaller than those of nonpica women (P = 0.012). The hypothesis is presented that pica in African American women may be a mediator of stress, acting through the immune system. The size of the social support network of pica women was significantly less than that of nonpica women.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Multiple factors as mediators of the reduced incidence of low birth weight in an urban clinic population.

A five year prospective observational study was initiated in 1985 at Howard University to describe the nutritional, clinical, dietary, lifestyle, environmental, and socioeconomic characteristics of women who enrolled in the hospital prenatal clinic. The participants were nulliparous, between the ages of 18 and 35 years, free of diabetes and abnormal hemoglobins (sickle cell disease, thalassemia, and hemoglobin C), and had been admitted prior to the 29th week of gestation. During the three year period from 1985-1988, the incidence of low birth weight (LBW) in 239 deliveries to project participants was 8.3%, whereas that of women simultaneously enrolled in the prenatal clinic with the same eligibility requirements, but not recruited for the research project, was 21.9% (P = 0.001). The incidence of LBW in infants of African American women with these eligibility requirements who were delivered by private physicians but were not enrolled in the project, was 6.3%. The reduction in LBW of infants delivered to participants in this study is attributed to the enhanced social and psychological support by project staff during their pregnancies. The caring, sensitive demeanor of the research project staff may have empowered the participants to (a) give greater compliance (91 vs. 70%) in the ingestion of the routine physician-prescribed vitamin/mineral supplement, which provided nutrients low (less than 70% of the 1989 RDAs) in their customary diets, such as folate, pyridoxine, iron, zinc, and magnesium and (b) show greater accountability in keeping prenatal clinic appointments.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

An inexpensive metabolism apparatus for collecting CO2, excreta and blood from small experimental animals

Abstract A simple, inexpensive metabolism apparatus for the simultaneous and intermittent collection of CO 2 , urine, feces and blood from small experimental animals is described.

Chromatography of compounds of biological interest on glass fiber, paraffin-coated, and untreated cellulose paper☆

Selected organic compounds commonly occurring in plant and animal tissues have been chromatographed on glass fiber, paraffin-coated and untreated cellulose paper in a number of different solvent systems. The RF values of these compounds represent new additions to the literature in the solvent systems studied.

Methionine and homocysteine as protective agents against irradiation damage.

Abstract Supplements of methionine or homocysteine, betaine and choline were fed to Wistar rats prior to irradiation and during a 26 day period postirradiation. The data suggest that the homocysteine supplement was most effective in protecting the rats against loss in body weight and eye cataracts. Both methionine and homocysteine offered some protection against hypertrophy of the kidney and spleen in male rats. Reproductive organs in male rats were not protected from atrophy by these compounds, however.

Utilization of methionine by the adult rat: VI. Influence of anesthesia and surgery on the uptake of methionine-2-C14 and methionine-methyl-C14

Summary The uptake of methionine-2-C14 and methionine-methyl-C14 and their distribution in water-soluble, fat-soluble and protein fractions of tissues of adult rats have been investigated in surgically treated rats while under anesthesia and in similarly treated rats 7 to 11 days following surgery. The uptake of the alpha carbon of methionine was less in all tissues of surgically treated and recovered rats than in control animals. Though the incorporation of the methyl carbon of methionine was significantly less in 12 tissues of surgically treated animals, the uptake of the methyl carbon by most tissues was similar to that of control animals in the majority of animals which had recovered from surgery. Injection of the amino acid into the aorta resulted in twice the concentrations of radiocarbon arising from methionine-methyl-C14 in bone marrow as occurred when methionine was administered via the gastrointestinal tract. Surgically treated restrained rats absorbed significantly less methionine from the gastrointestinal tract than unrestrained control rats. The ability of such rats to incorporate methionine into plasma protein was markedly decreased in comparison to control animals.