In the nursing mother, when obviously possible, the uterus tends to regain its size more easily after childbirth, the risks of developing breast and ovarian cancer are reduced, the risk of suffering type 2 diabetes decreases , of course if there were no metabolic problems in pregnancy. This is known. But that’s not enough.
For the woman who offers her breast to the baby, there would be a sort of additional protection against the main cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack or stroke, as well as from death due to circulatory problems. And these are not minor benefits. The risk of developing cardiovascular disease in general terms would drop on average by 11%.
Healthier arteries
Looking at what happens on average for over ten years, breastfeeding women have a 14% reduction in the risk of developing coronary artery disease, a 17% chance of dying from heart and arterial diseases , the risk of suffering a stroke is reduced by 12%. All this, of course, in comparison with mothers who have not breastfed.
To rattle off these data is a large meta-analysis, or a sort of “compendium” of eight vast studies on the subject conducted around the world, edited by a team that involved experts from the University of Innsbruck, the University of Bristol, of Imperial College London and the University of Cork, coordinated by Peter Willeit.
200,000 women
The research examined eight different large studies on the subject, involving almost one million and 200,000 women with an average age of around 51 at the time of the survey, with a first birth around 24-25 years, and is published in Journal of the American Heart Association. 82% of the women considered in the studies breastfed on average for over a year: women who did not breastfeed were considered the comparison population.
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During the observation period, more than 54,000 cases of cardiovascular disease in general, just under 27,000 cases of coronary heart disease, almost 31,000 strokes and 10,766 fatal events related to circulatory problems were observed. From the analysis of this huge amount of data, the association between breastfeeding and decreased cardiovascular risk in the women considered in the study clearly emerged.
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The duration of breastfeeding
Regarding the duration of breastfeeding, the study shows that the advantages in protective terms would be greater when breastfeeding for at least one year, and then decrease with the decrease in the duration of maternal feeding to the baby. The study, it must be said, proposes data that make us reflect but express an association between a lower vascular risk and the habit of breastfeeding by new mothers, without explaining the possible mechanisms that can affect this situation.
The role of oxytocin
However, there are some hypotheses in this sense, deriving from other previous research, which can help to understand how breastfeeding can represent a sort of additional protective factor for specific cardiovascular risk. For example, it is thought of a role in this sense by oxytocin, whose secretion increases during breastfeeding. The hormone promotes childbirth and lactation, as well as helping to strengthen the bond between mother and child.
Prolactin
But it could also help to promote a drop in blood pressure and hypertension, as we know, it is certainly not a friend of heart and arterial health. In the same way, a higher rate of prolactin is also observed in breastfeeding women, which would have a positive effect in reducing the future risk of developing diabetes. We are only at the beginning of the process of building a mosaic which, however, seen in its entirety and with several pieces that are still missing, demonstrates by numbers the value of breastfeeding in female cardiovascular protection.
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.