A new study by Yale University researchers suggests that
women who breastfeed for at least a year may reduce their rate of
developing breast cancer by nearly 50 percent, compared to women who
never breastfed.
The researchers compared about 500 Connecticut women diagnosed with
breast cancer to 500 other women the same age who did not have breast
cancer. They discovered that the women who breastfed for at least 13
months - or had breastfed more than three children - had
about half the risk of developing breast cancer than the women who had
never breastfed.
The study, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute and the
National Institute of Environmental Health, was published in the
British Journal of Cancer (2001; 84:1472-1476).
The same Yale researchers also recently published a study that showed
Chinese women who breastfed for two years or longer reduced their
chances of breast cancer by about 50 percent. Read
more about that research here.
Some researchers believe that breastfeeding may help prevent breast
cancer because breastfeeding suppresses menstrual cycles, or that
breastfeeding helps eliminate toxins from the breast. Either way,
current research is showing that breastfeeding is not only good for
babies - but good for moms too!
|
Breastfeeding
All
About
