Can breastfeeding reduce your chances of diabetes?
The JAMA Internal Medicine recently published the Coronary Artery Disease Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. The researchers found that breastfeeding for six months or longer can halve the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes in mother.
Breastfeeding has a lot of benefits for both the mom and child. Lactation hormones on the pancreatic cells can help decrease the glucose circulating as well as decrease insulin secretion. Milk production has been linked to lower basal and glucose stimulated beta cell secretory.
In the CARDIA study, 1238 women (n=615 black and n=623 white) without diabetes before pregnancy. Each woman was tested for glucose tolerance as well as other risk factors for up to 7 times during the study.
Mothers who breastfed for more than six months had a 47% decreased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes compared to women who did not breastfed. Mothers who breastfed for six months or less had a 25% decrease in diabetes risk.
Mothers were followed during the childbearing years and screened regularly for diabetes prior and after pregnancies.
Dr. Gunderson of Kaiser Permanente stated that there was a strong correlation between the time of breastfeeding and a decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes which included all potential confounding risk factors.
As the duration of breastfeeding increased, the prevalence of diabetes decreased irrespective to behavior, race, or gestational diabetes that were evaluated prior to pregnancy.
For additional information please visit JAMA Internal Medicine.
Questions: Do you as a healthcare professional encourage new mothers to breastfeed as long as possible? What other benefits of breastfeeding as they apply to the mother are you familiar with?
