There are many advantages of breastfeeding not only for newborns but also for mothers. Today we add one more: according to new research, women who breastfeed for at least 6 months have a significantly lower risk of getting type 2 diabetes in the following years.
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There are many advantages of breastfeed not only for newborns but also for mothers. Today we add one more: according to new research, women who breastfeed for at least 6 months have a significantly lower risk of getting sick with diabetes type 2 in subsequent years.
Breastfeeding your baby would reduce the risk of diabetes for life. This is the result obtained from the study conducted by a research team of the University of California and published in the medical journal "Journal of the American Medical Association" (JAMA).
More specifically, women who breastfeed for at least six months have a 47% reduced risk of developing diabetes during their lifetime. Those who still breastfed but did so for less than six months saw their risk of diabetes reduced by 25 percent.
To underline this new positive aspect of breastfeeding, the experts sampled 1200 women between the ages of 18 and 30, including 615 black Americans (involved as they are generally more prone to diabetes and breastfeeding less). All had participated in medical observations between 1985 and 2015.
So commented Erica Gunderson, lead author of the study:
“We found a very strong link between breastfeeding duration and the reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes after taking into account all predisposing factors for this disease. The incidence of diabetes gradually decreased with increasing duration of breastfeeding, regardless of race, gestational diabetes, lifestyle, body size and other metabolic risk factors measured before pregnancy "
The reasons why breastfeeding offers this benefit to women are not yet fully understood. Scientists believe that there are biological reasons behind it. For example, breastfeeding is known to stimulate hormones that control insulin levels in the blood and lowers blood sugar.
Breast feeding also causes contractions that help the uterus return to its normal size after delivery and causes an additional energy expenditure of around 200 calories per day. Finally, this mode of nutrition forces the body to exploit the fat reserves located on the buttocks, hips and thighs provided by our intelligent organism for this very purpose. For all these reasons, breastfeeding can also help mothers get back in shape after pregnancy.
Other very important benefits that experts keep pointing out and all women should know are that breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer by 30% for women who are breastfeeding for at least one year and for ovarian cancer of the 25% for women who breastfeed for at least two months. Women who breastfeed for six months would also be protected from the risk of high blood pressure for decades to come.
You may also be interested in the benefits of breastfeeding:
- Breastfeeding: Mom's milk is as powerful as a drug
- Breastfeeding protects and reduces mortality in women with breast cancer
- Breast milk: a super food. Breastfeeding is good for mom and baby
In light of all the benefits it offers, it is clear that breastfeeding should be favored and encouraged as much as possible around the world.
