Originally published December 8 2005
Study claims breast feeding reduces risk of type II diabetes
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dr. Alison Stuebe, a clinical fellow in maternal fetal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, authored a study that found each year of breast feeding lowered a mother's chance of developing type II diabetes by 15 percent.
Breast-feeding your baby can cut your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research shows.
Each year she breast-feeds cuts the risk of type 2 diabetes by 15 percent," said study author, Dr. Alison Stuebe, a clinical fellow in maternal fetal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and an instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Along with providing optimal nutrition, breast milk also provides compounds that boost babies' immune system and help protect against bacteria, viruses and parasites, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In addition, breast-fed children have lower rates of childhood illnesses and tend to be leaner than their formula-fed counterparts.
And research has shown mothers benefit as well: Breast-feeding helps a mother's body return to normal faster after pregnancy, according to the FDA.
Stuebe and her colleagues suspected breast-feeding might affect type 2 diabetes risk because it substantially changes a mother's metabolic requirements, and research has shown that breast-feeding improves insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.
The researchers used data from the Nurses' Health Study and the Nurses' Health Study II, which together included more than 150,000 women who had given birth during the study period.
After controlling for body mass index (BMI) -- because a high BMI is a known risk factor for type 2 diabetes -- the researchers found that long-term breast-feeding reduced a woman's risk of developing diabetes.
Dr. Loren Wissner Greene, an endocrinologist at New York University Medical Center in New York City, said the explanation for why women who breast-feed for long periods may have lower rates of diabetes could be a simple one: "The small weight changes from lactation can make a significant impact on diabetes risk."
In fact, Wissner Greene said, the best advice for anyone to avoid type 2 diabetes is to maintain a healthy weight, and lose weight if you're carrying excess weight.
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