Women who breastfeed ‘experience lower diabetes risk’

Breastfeeding for an extended period of time can lower women's risk of developing diabetes, according to a new study.

The Kaiser Permanente research came to this conclusion after analysing 30 years of follow-up data from the CARDIA study, a US investigation of cardiovascular disease risk factors that enrolled around 5,000 adults aged 18 to 30 in 1985 to 1986.

It was shown that 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. Those who breastfed for six months or less, meanwhile, had a 25 percent reduction in diabetes risk.

The long-term benefits of breastfeeding on lower diabetes risk were also shown to be similar for both black and white women, as well as those with and without gestational diabetes.

Lead author Dr Erica Gunderson, senior research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, said: "We found a very strong association between breastfeeding duration and lower risk of developing diabetes, even after accounting for all possible confounding risk factors."

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