Anthropology Lecture Series- Milk with Altitude: Investigations into human milk and high growth in high altitude living Tibetans
Anthropology Lecture Series- Milk with Altitude: Investigations into human milk and high growth in high altitude living Tibetans
Abstract.
Quinn, E A., Childs Geoff
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis
Funding: National Science Foundation BCS 1518013, Leakey Foundation for Human Origins Research, Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
Altitude related stressors present considerable physiological challenges to humans. Environmental stressors are particularly acute during early life, and it has been hypothesized that many high altitude phenotypic adaptations may emerge during gestation and early infancy. One likely candidate for providing these organizational signals is human milk. Many of the hormones with known organization effects on infant physiology are found in variable amounts in milk. Understanding how high altitude influences milk composition, especially the hormones involved in growth and metabolic development, provides important insights on how developmental plasticity may have contributed to human adaptation.
