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Breastfeeding for six months or longer reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes nearly in half for women throughout their childbearing years, according to new Kaiser Permanente research in JAMA Internal Medicine. There is a very strong association between breastfeeding duration and lower risk of developing diabetes.
Women who breastfed for six months or more across all births had a 47 percent reduction in their risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those who did not breastfeed at all. Women who breastfed for six months or less had a 25 percent reduction in diabetes risk. Researchers analyzed data during the 30 years of follow up from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study.
The new findings add to a growing body of evidence that breastfeeding has protective effects for both mothers and their offspring, including lowering a mother’s risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The long-term benefits of breastfeeding on lower diabetes risk were similar for black women and white women, and women with and without gestational diabetes.
Black women were three times as likely as white women to develop diabetes within the 30-year study, which is consistent with higher risk found by others. Black women enrolled in CARDIA were also less likely to breastfeed than white women.
The incidence of diabetes decreased in a graded manner as breastfeeding duration increased, regardless of race, gestational diabetes, lifestyle, body size, and other metabolic risk factors measured before pregnancy. Mothers who breastfeed for months after their delivery, may be reducing their risk of developing type 2 diabetes as they get older.
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