Article: Breastfeeding Protects Mum From Diabetes
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Breastfeeding protects mums from diabetes
by Peter Lavelle
Published 08/12/2005
There's no doubt that a child who is breastfed is likely to be a healthier child. Here are some of the advantages of breastfeeding:
* It reduces infections in children (and they're less likely to get allergies)
* Kids are less likely to become overweight as they get older
* Because they're less likely to be overweight, they're less likely to develop diabetes.
Now it seems that breastfeeding will help mum avoid diabetes too. Researchers have found that women who breastfeed for a continuous six-month period (or more) are less likely to develop diabetes than women who don't.
Researchers studied a group of 230,000 female nurses between 25 and 55 years old, who were part of the ongoing Nurses' Health Study run by Harvard Medical School in the US.
The study involved the women filling out questionnaires about different aspects of their health, which they updated every two years. The researchers looked at whether or not they had breastfed (if they'd given birth to children), and whether or not they went on to develop Type 2 diabetes.
Of the 230,000, about 6,200 went on to develop Type 2 diabetes. After allowing for other risk factors - things like diet, exercise, smoking, and being overweight - the researchers calculated that having breastfed within the past 15 years was strongly protective against developing Type 2 diabetes.
The longer a woman breastfed, the stronger the protection. For each year they breastfed, the women reduced their risk of diabetes by 15 per cent. So a woman with two children, who breastfed each of them for a year, reduced her risk of diabetes by nearly a third.
Sustained breastfeeding of one baby gave more protection than breastfeeding several children for short periods, the researchers found. A woman had to breastfeed for at least six months to get the benefit - less than six months, and there was no reduced risk of diabetes.
Also, the reduction in risk only lasted about 15 years. Beyond this, a woman's risk was the same as if she'd never breastfed. And women who had developed gestational diabetes - that is, diabetes during pregnancy only - didn't get any later protection against diabetes from breastfeeding.
Why did breastfeeding confer this protective effect? Previous studies have shown that breastfeeding makes the body's metabolism more sensitive to insulin, and tends to stabilise glucose levels, the researchers say.
Just why this happens isn't fully understood. It may be because when the mother manufactures milk she uses energy - about 500 calories (2100 kilojoules) a day, or about the equivalent of a 6-8 kilometre jog. This makes the mother absorb more glucose from the blood and keeps glucose levels from fluctuating outside normal ranges.
Is it worth breasfeeding simply for this protective benefit? That's up to the mother to decide. But diabetes is a condition well worth avoiding - it's a risk factor for serious conditions like heart disease, kidney disease and disorders of the eye. And then there are the other benefits to mum of breastfeeding - it establishes a bond between mother and child, and it's clean, convenient and cheap.
The Public Health Association of Australia recommends breastfeeding ideally for two years, with no solids for the first six months.
