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Scientific research suggests that breastfeeding might reduce risk of Breast Cancer, Ovarian cancer, Osteoporosis and now it might lower the risk of developing diabetes.

Research suggests that Breastfeeding might protect babies and their mothers from developing diabetes.

There is a plausible connection that a breast-feeding mothers' metabolism changes to lower the risk of developing diabetes the longer she nurses.

Dr. Alison Stuebe, leading author and a researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, states that the metabolic changes may help keep blood sugar levels stable and make the body more sensitive to the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin.

Lower blood-sugar levels seem to be more apparent in breastfeeding mothers over mothers that did not breastfeed based on evidence in a study with rats and humans.

The new study, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, involved 157,000 nurses who participated in two long-running health studies.

They filled out periodic health questionnaires and were followed for at least 12 years. During the study, 6,277 participants developed type 2 diabetes.

Women who breast-fed for at least one year were about 15 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who never breast-fed. For each additional year of breast-feeding, there was an additional 15 percent decreased risk.

The first study began in 1976. 6.3 percent of women who breast-fed less than one year or not at all developed diabetes, compared with 5.5 percent of women who breast-fed for more than a year.

The second study began in 1989. The rates were 1.9 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.

With diabetes the nation's sixth-leading cause of death and 82 million U.S. women of childbearing age, even a small risk reduction could have a big effect, Stuebe said.

Stuebe states that, continuous breast-feeding for at least one year appeared to be slightly better than breast-feeding each child for shorter durations, but the differences were minimal.

Schwartz said the results might reflect the healthy lifestyles of women who breast-feed rather than breast-feeding itself.

Exercise, diet and smoking did not change the results according to researchers.

Previous research has suggested breast-feeding might reduce women's risk of breast and ovarian cancer and osteoporosis, said Dr. Ruth Lawrence of the University of Rochester in New York, author of a medical textbook on breast-feeding, she also called the results compelling.

Lawrence states that if diabetes could be added to that list, the effect would be substantial.

Breast-feeding has numerous health benefits for babies, too, so encouraging mothers to nurse "is kind of a win-win from a public health standpoint," Stuebe said.