Page 43 - The Miracle of Hormones
P. 43
The Two Governors Of Our Body:
The Hypothalamus And The Pituitary Gland
The Wonder of Mother's Milk:
The Prolactin and Oxytocin Hormones at Work
The nutritional needs of a newly born baby are very different from
those of an adult. Because a baby's immune system is weak compared to
that of an adult, it is necessary to give it support from outside. The ideal
nutrient to respond to all the new baby's needs is mother's milk. Research
has shown that breast-fed children are much more healthy and their bod-
ies are better developed. 7
Another wonder of mother's milk is that it changes its composi-
tion according to the changing needs of the baby at each stage of its
development. The huge baby food producers have spent millions of
dollars on research trying to determine the ideal mixture of ingredi-
ents for a baby's healthy development. So far, they have not found a
perfect mixture, but they have determined that a special mixture is
needed to meet the requirements of the baby at each stage of its devel-
opment. In laboratories equipped with the most advanced technology,
attempts have been made to produce artificial baby food similar to
mother's milk, but no artificial nutrient has yet been developed to take
its place.
Here is a real wonder. A few cells in the mother's breast calculate all
the needs of a newborn baby in the outside world; that is, the needs of a
being they have never before seen or encountered. Then they produce
what scientists have never succeeded in producing in the laboratory—
mother's milk with its perfect mixture of nutrients. However, the cells
that make up the milk glands in the mother's breast are, like other cells,
unconscious, without intelligence; yet it is possible for them to calculate
the formula needed to produce it.
How does the production of mother's milk begin and how is it con-
trolled? A number of wonders of creation are hidden in the answer to this
question. In the production of milk, the hormonal system and the nervous
system work in concert and the production occurs after planning based on
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