Baby Tears May Show New Hope In Testing Nutritional Deficiencies

Highlights

Vitamins and minerals are essential nutrients for carrying out various functions by the body
Crying baby may shed vitamins in their tears, this could help to measure nutritional deficiencies
Inexpensive, tear-based microfluidic devices or strips may help to improve access for nutritional assessment

Babies often cry easily and those tears may help to viably measure nutritional deficiencies, finds a study from the Michigan Technological University.

The research study was published in the journal Experimental Eye Research.

Nutrition and Cognitive Development in Young Children
Nutrition plays an important role in cognitive development of children. Various mental assessment scales are used to measure the cognitive development of individuals.

‘Inexpensive, tear-based microfluidic devices or strips may help improve access to nutritional tests.’

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Maryam Khaksari, a research specialist at the Chemical Advanced Resolution Methods (ChARM) Laboratory at Michigan Tech, said, "Our goal was to seek the viability of establishing measurable units of tears for nutritional assessments."

"Your body cannot manufacture vitamins, and vitamins reflect available food sources in your body. That's what makes them good indicators of nutritional health."

The research team is trying to develop inexpensive, tear-based microfluidic devices or strips for improving access to test nutritional deficiencies.

Undetected Nutrient Deficiencies: The Cause of Ill Health
Micronutrient and antioxidant deficiencies are most common and go unnoticed. They are the root cause of most lifestyle related diseases.

Nutritional deficiencies in children can have lifelong effects. The research study tested the tear and blood samples of 15 infants who were four-months-old and their parents.

Water soluble vitamins which commonly include Vitamin B and C were present in infants. While, fat soluble vitamins that include Vitamin A, D, E and K were higher among parents.

Vitamin Deficiency Calculator
Vitamin deficiency is one of the major factors causing various diseases and conditions. Use this tool to know the vitamin that is deficient for any particular disease or condition.

There is usually a connection between parents and babies and correlation between Vitamin E and B. Formula-fed babies are exception, as they contain higher levels of vitamin B.

The research work may show promise for studying the trends in tear vitamin levels.

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The author also says, "Since tears contain vitamins, they might have real potential to replace other clinical tests."

Nutritional Deficiencies in Children
Vitamins and Minerals are essential nutrients for children. Most of the children are deficient in the mineral iron and vitamin D.

Vitamins
Vitamins are essential for regulating body functions. Vegetables, cereals, fruits, nuts, dairy products, poultry, fish are all rich sources of vitamins.

Water-soluble vitamins include Vitamin B, C and Folic acid. These vitamins are dissolved in water and transported to other parts of the body.

Fat Soluble vitamins include vitamin A, D, E and K . These vitamins are absorbed and stored in the fat from where they are transported to the body.

Minerals
Minerals are vital for a healthy living. Calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron are all some of the common minerals that are necessary to maintain the electrolyte balance in the body.

References

Maryam Khaksari, Lynn R. Mazzoleni, Chunhai Ruan, Robert T. Kennedy, Adrienne R. Minerick. Determination of water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins in tears and blood serum of infants and parents by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. Experimental Eye Research, 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.exer.2016.12.007
Basic Vitamins: Water-Soluble and Fat-Soluble - (http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=1261)
Minerals - (https://medlineplus.gov/minerals.html)

Source-Medindia