Breastfeeding could lower cancer risk
Studies have found many benefits to babies who are breastfed. But what about to their mothers? New research finds that women with a family history of breast cancer had a lower risk of developing the disease themselves if they breastfed.
The paper, published in the latest Archives of Internal Medicine, was based on questionnaires of 60,000 women who had given birth and took part in the long-running Nurses Health Study out of Harvard. Researchers followed them from 1997 to 2005 and found 608 cases of breast cancer from the group.
Women who had a mother or a sister with breast cancer and had breastfed were 59 percent less likely to develop breast cancer compared to women who had never breastfed. The study did not find a difference in risk for women without a family history of breast cancer.
The authors found that it didn't matter how long a woman breastfed -- the reduced risk was similar if a woman did it for three months or three years.
But the study leaves some unanswered questions. Experts don't know why breastfeeding could reduce the risk of cancer. And since the study was observational, there are reasons other than breastfeeding that could explain participants' decreased breast cancer risk. And in a study limited to nurses, are the results applicable to the general public?
Researchers think when women don't breastfeed, their breast tissue changes and that could increase the risk for cancer. But more study is needed in this area, they said.
For now, the study's authorhers say women with a family history of breast cancer should be encouraged to breastfeed, especially since the practice is associated with other health benefits.
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