Breastfeeding reduces type 2 diabetes risk

Even mothers can benefit from breastfeeding

10/30/2012

Women who suffer from gestational diabetes may, according to a science study, reduce the subsequent diabetes type-2 risk when they breastfeed their newborn.

Women who suffer from gestational diabetes may, in the longer term, reduce type II diabetes risk by 40 percent when breast-feeding their child. Scientists came to this conclusion during a study by the Institute for Diabetes Research, Helmholtz Zentrum München, which partners with the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD).

The researchers examined the data from the German prospective gestational diabetes study. It turned out that breastfeeding causes a long-term effect if the mothers breast-feed their baby for at least three months.

„During the gestational diabetes long-term study, researchers have been investigating the development of Type 2 diabetes in preg- ness diabetics for 19 years“, as the institute announced. So far, only short-term effects on the mother's metabolism could be determined by breastfeeding. Recent results show that lactating subjects can gain improved glucose and fat metabolism. In addition, nursing mothers had lower estrogen levels, the research team reports. It is now new that breastfeeding can also reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. (Sb)

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Picture credits: Rolf van Melis