Posted on 11/22/2005 4:24:30 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
BREASTFEEDING, backed for the health effects it bestows on the baby, also appears to reduce the mother's risk of developing adult onset diabetes, researchers said today.
The protective effect probably comes from the way breast feeding uses up energy and keeps blood sugar levels stabilised, said the report from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
A look at women 15 years after they had their last baby "found that each year a woman breast feeds reduced her risk of diabetes by 15 per cent", said Alison Stuebe, a physician who led the study.
The finding was based on a look at more than 150,000 US nurses whose health histories have been tracked for years. A woman with two children who breast fed each of them for a year could reduce her risk of diabetes by nearly a third in later years, she said.
"A breastfeeding woman uses up about 500 calories a day making milk for her baby. That's the equivalent of running about four to five miles (six and a half to eight km) a day ... a lot of energy," Dr Stuebe added.
The study was published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.
While earlier studies have shown that nursing mothers have better insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance than mothers who are not, no research had been done to directly examine the association, the authors said.
The effect, however, does wear off as time passes, the report said.
Diet, lack of exercise and obesity can lead to adult onset diabetes, which affects about nine million women in the United States.
"These data suggest that lactation may reduce the risk of (such) diabetes in young and middle-aged women. Further clinical studies are needed to confirm this finding," the study concluded.
So does not drinking and I'm not doing that, either.
Well that's about to change with the arrival of Gummy boobs.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1526944/posts
I have diabetes, but I'm pretty sure my wife won't fall for this....
Another good reason ping!
"So does not drinking and I'm not doing that, either."
So you're not not drinking?
500 calories a day to breastfeed. It sure kept me skinny!
However, if the effect wears off after a while, it means women with young children are relatively safe...but, at what age does adult onset diabetes get to be a threat? Forty? Fifty?
I'm going to send this article to my father. This must be what he did wrong..............
I nursed my children a total of 9 years. Does that mean I can eat all the sugar I want with no chance of diabetes???
Pinz
Kid-tested, mother-approved...
ping
AAAAwwww, you beat me to this punch line! Drat it!
*S*
You don't get diabetes by eating sugar. You probably will get it if you're overweight/ do very little physical work.
If you eat it, burn it.
Wearing out your X cells in your pancreas by demanding too much insulin is how you develop type II, from what I've been reading. Injesting to many simple carbs is a sure-fire way to burn out those cells.
Our whole family eats mostly veggies and protein after we found most of us were pretty insulin resistant a few years ago.
I still wonder how to do the math on all of those years of nursing. I sure do miss the effects of the prolactin. :-)
Pinz
Absolutely!
*reading* Oh honeeeeeeeey! C'mere and check this out!
No...really, dear! I only have your best interests at heart!
`:oD
Ah!
A new qualifier in my on-line dating profile.
"Diabetic seeks lactating lady for cure."
I see. Then I seem to have discovered another way of getting type 2 diabetes. Mine involved losing 2/3rds of my pancreas to cancer. You don't even wanna know what happened to my spleen, lungs and gall bladder.
Ouch! I'd much rather eat donuts. ;-)
Seriously, I hope that you're well on your way to a complete recovery. And that your surgeon managed to get all of those little cancer devils while he was removing chunks of your organs.
I'm sure glad he left your sense of humor in tact. :-)
Happy Thanksgiving,
Pinz
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