Scientists breastfeeding protects mothers from cardiovascular disease in the long term

Physicians are studying the long-term effects of breastfeeding
Do breastfeeding of babies in mothers actually lead to health benefits? Researchers found that the health benefits of breastfeeding can affect both mother and child and last for decades. For mothers, breastfeeding reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes by almost one-fifth.

Researchers at the internationally recognized University of Oxford have found that breastfeeding protects mothers from heart attacks and strokes in the long term. The physicians published the results of their study in the medical journal "Journal of the American Heart Association".

Breastfeeding strengthens the relationship between mother and child. Physicians now found that breastfeeding also leads to strong health benefits in the mother. When women breastfeed their babies, it reduces the likelihood of heart attacks and strokes. (Image: juan_aunion / fotolia.com)

Breastfeeding removes stored fat deposits during pregnancy
The very large-scale international study found that women breastfeeding their babies reduce their risk of heart attack or stroke by almost one-fifth. The current study has shown that breastfeeding helps the female body post-pregnancy recovery. The metabolism of women changes drastically during pregnancy. For example, the female body accumulates fat to drive the baby's growth. The longer a woman breastfeeds, the faster and more completely such fat deposits are broken down, Dr. Peters from the University of Oxford. Without breastfeeding, these metabolic changes persist and may even have long-term health effects.

How does breastfeeding affect the long term??
For their study, the doctors examined nearly 300,000 Chinese women between the ages of 30 and 79 years. The participants were medically supervised for a period of eight years. When the women had breastfed, the likelihood of heart disease was reduced by 9 percent and the risk of stroke dropped by 8 percent compared to non-lactating women, the researchers explain.

More breastfeeding leads to more benefits
If the women breastfeed more, this led to greater benefits. The women who had breastfed their child for at least two years showed a roughly 18 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Each additional six months of breastfeeding corresponded to a reduced risk of heart disease of 4 percent, the researchers say.

Even healthy women benefit from breastfeeding
The study also considered physiological factors such as smoking, drinking, obesity, diabetes and blood pressure. In addition, the income and education levels were also considered, say the researchers. These factors only minimally changed the results. This suggests that even very healthy women could additionally benefit from breastfeeding. Peters.

Previous studies showed conflicting results
The current study was just a so-called observational study. Thus, it does not prove that breastfeeding has actively led to the identified benefits, say the experts from the University of Oxford. However, the study carried out was the largest of about a dozen studies examining the effects of breastfeeding on the future health of mothers. Some of these studies had quite contradictory results. For example, some pointed out that the benefits identified would not occur until about two years later. There were also studies that claimed that prolonged breastfeeding could be counterproductive, say the authors.

Women in developing countries seem to benefit especially from the effects
The new study had a huge sample size and the detailed amount of data gave the findings extra weight, say the experts. Prolonged breast-feeding may therefore be particularly beneficial to the health of mothers in developing countries, where overall breast-feeding is higher than in western countries. (As)