Dr. Alison Stuebe, who I interviewed for this podcast on Ban the Bags, is author of a new study showing that breastfeeding can protect against maternal coronary disease. MedWire news reports:
In their analysis of 89,326 parous women in the Nurses’ Health Study, Stuebe et al found that compared with women who had never lactated, women who had breastfed for 2 or more years had a 37 percent lower risk for CHD [coronary heart disease] after adjusting for age, parity, stillbirth history, early-adult adiposity, parental history, and lifestyle factors.
The authors note that this protective effect is characterized by a threshold effect at 2 years, as women had a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.87 for CHD if they had breastfed for more than 1 year versus no lactation, compared with 0.77 for 2 or more years.
Add this to prior research showing that breastfeeding protects against breast cancer, metabolic syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, helps you control weight, cholesterol, and insulin, in addition to preventing many other health problems.
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