Posted on 12/03/2009 8:10:23 PM PST by neverdem
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
There is more evidence that breastfeeding benefits moms as well as their babies.
Breastfeeding was shown to significantly lower a woman's risk for developing metabolic syndrome in a study reported today by researchers with Kaiser Permanente.
The longer the women in the study breastfed, the more protection they seemed to derive.
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors linked to both diabetes and heart disease, including elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance, and belly fat.
The new study is one of the most rigorously designed trials ever to explore the impact of breastfeeding on such risk factors.
Researchers examined data on 704 women who were followed for two decades, starting before their first pregnancy.
Because the women were enrolled in a larger heart disease risk study, the researchers had information on wide range of health and lifestyle factors. None of the women had metabolic syndrome at enrollment, but 120 developed the condition during the 20 years of follow-up.
In the population as a whole, breastfeeding for longer than nine months was associated with a 56% reduction in risk for developing metabolic syndrome during the follow-up period.
In women who developed gestational diabetes during one or more pregnancies, the risk reduction was 86%.
Gestational diabetes is a major predictor of type 2 diabetes. Women who develop diabetes during pregnancy have a fourfold greater risk for developing type 2 diabetes, lead researcher Erica P. Gunderson, PhD, tells WebMD...
(Excerpt) Read more at webmd.com ...
Is it me, or just now folks are coming to realize that the closer mankind gets to the way it was meant to be, the better it is?
I wonder if it’s too late to start?...
“I wonder if it’s too late to start?...”
Hahaha. My thoughts exactly.
Lactation, for lack of a better word, is good.
Women who breastfeed are also less susceptible to breast cancer among the other benefits.
All women should breastfeed at least once for a few months whether induced or though pregnancy.
The benefits of big smokin’ hot tatas is too great. I mean it’s healthy yeah, that’s what I meant healthy.
Only half joking here. The breast cancer reduction is true.
Mom ping, if you’re still doing the list....
It’s not just you.
It’s taken a while to get over that *Better living through chemistry* mentality.
I wish my mom had nursed us. I might not be having the food allergy type problems I’m having now if she had. I nursed my kids because of that and not one of them has food allergies.
At least that’s one thing I did as a mother that leaves me with no regrets.
I was recently diagnosed as pre-diabetic.
Now this news. There is a God in heaven.
My sister in law breast fed both her children. Not only did she not lose weight like some women who nurse do, she became diabetic in her late 40s.
Sadly, sometimes genetics is destiny. Most of these studies show probablity shifts which are small when applied to any individual.
When you look at these studies of sample populations they like to use the term risk, as in relative risk, for a predisposing risk factor. They can be good numbers for groups; the larger the sample, the better the number. They can’t predict anything for an individual. The best an individual can do is lessen the odds.
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