-----------------------------------------------------------
From:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medi...p?newsid=10086
------------------------------------------------------------
Atkins diet may make women infertile, interferes with genetic
imprinting
29 Jun 2004


If you are a woman and you are on the Atkins diet, you may have a
problem if you want to start a family, say scientists. A high protein
diet could make it more difficult for a woman to conceive. Scientists
at the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine, Englewood, USA, have
come to this tentative conclusion after carrying out a study on mice.

Dr. David Garner, lead researcher, said "Although our investigations
were conducted in mice, our data may have implications for diet and
reproduction in humans." He said that a diet which consists of 25% (or
more) protein disrupts the development of mice embryos.

Dr. Garnes believes the same problem may appear in humans.

There is a genetic process called ‘imprinting'. This controls the
activity of genes inherited from the mother and father. A high protein
diet seems to interfere with this process.

The scientists had two groups of mice. They fed one group on a diet of
25% protein and the other group on 14% (protein). Four weeks after
being on this diet they mated.

Only a third of the mice (36%) on the high protein diet developed with
a normal H19 gene, as opposed to 70% of the other group.

Only 65% of the embryos from the high protein group developed into
baby mice while 81% of the lower protein group embryos developed into
baby mice.

They also found that the fetuses in the high protein group developed
more slowly than the other group. They also found more defects in the
baby mice from the high protein group.
--
Steve
http://www.geocities.com/beforewisdom/

"The great American thought trap: It is not real unless it can be seen
on television or bought in a shopping mall"