Breastfeeding reduces mothers' cardiovascular disease risk

Date:
January 11, 2022
Source:
American Heart Association
Summary:
Women who breastfed at some time in their lives were less likely
to develop heart disease or stroke, compared to women who did not
breastfeed, according to a meta-analysis of previous studies.

Breastfeeding was also associated with a lower risk of dying from
cardiovascular disease for the women. Previous research has also
noted that the maternal health benefits of breastfeeding are
associated with a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and
some cancers.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Women who breastfed were less likely to develop heart disease or a stroke,
or die from cardiovascular disease than women who did not breastfeed,
according to a meta-analysis published today in a pregnancy spotlight
issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), an open
access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.


==========================================================================
The special issue, JAHA Spotlight on Pregnancy and Its Impact on Maternal
and Offspring Cardiovascular Health, includes about a dozen research
articles exploring various cardiovascular considerations during pregnancy
for mother and child.

The health benefits of breastfeeding for children are well
known. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is linked
with fewer respiratory infections and lower risk of death from infectious diseases among the children who were breastfed. Breastfeeding also has
been linked to maternal health benefits, including lower risk for Type
2 diabetes, ovarian cancer and breast cancer.

"Previous studies have investigated the association between breastfeeding
and the risk of cardiovascular disease in the mother; however,
the findings were inconsistent on the strength of the association
and, specifically, the relationship between different durations of breastfeeding and cardiovascular disease risk. Therefore, it was important
to systematically review the available literature and mathematically
combine all of the evidence on this topic," said senior author Peter
Willeit, M.D., M.Phil., Ph.D., professor of clinical epidemiology at
the Medical University of Innsbruck in Innsbruck, Austria.

Researchers reviewed health information from eight studies conducted
between 1986 and 2009 in Australia, China, Norway, Japan and the U.S. and
one multinational study.

The review included health records for nearly 1.2 million women (average
age 25 at first birth) and analyzed the relationship between breastfeeding
and the mother's individual cardiovascular risk.



==========================================================================
"We collected information, for instance, on how long women had breastfed
during their lifetime, the number of births, age at first birth and
whether women had a heart attack or a stroke later in life or not,"
said first author Lena Tschiderer, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher at
the Medical University of Innsbruck.

The review found:
* 82% of the women reported they had breastfed at some time in
their life.

* Compared to women who never breastfed, women who reported
breastfeeding
during their lifetime had a 11% decreased risk of developing
cardiovascular disease.

* Over an average follow-up period of 10 years, women who breastfed
at some
time in their life were 14% less likely to develop coronary heart
disease; 12% less likely to suffer strokes; and 17% less likely
to die from cardiovascular disease.

* Women who breastfed for 12 months or longer during their lifetime
appeared to be less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than
women who did not breastfeed.

* There were no notable differences in cardiovascular disease
risk among
women of different ages or according to the number of pregnancies.

Despite recommendations to breastfeed by organizations including the
WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
both of which recommend babies are breastfed exclusively through at
least six months of age, only 1 in 4 infants receives only breastmilk
for the first six months of life.

Black infants in the U.S. are less likely than white infants to be
breastfed for any length of time, according to the CDC.

"It's important for women to be aware of the benefits of breastfeeding for their babies' health and also their own personal health," Willeit said.

"Moreover, these findings from high-quality studies conducted around
the world highlight the need to encourage and support breastfeeding,
such as breastfeeding-friendly work environments, and breastfeeding
education and programs for families before and after giving birth."
The U.S. has the highest maternal death rate among developed countries,
and cardiovascular disease is the leading cause, according to the 2021
Call to Action Maternal Health and Saving Mothers policy statement from
the American Heart Association. The statement, which outlines public
policies that address the racial and ethnic disparities in maternal
health, notes that an estimated 2 out of 3 deaths during pregnancy may
be preventable.

"While the benefits of breastfeeding for infants and children are well established, mothers should be further encouraged to breastfeed their
infants knowing that they are improving the health of their child and
improving their own health as well," said Shelley Miyamoto, M.D., FAHA,
chair of the American Heart Association's Council on Lifelong Congenital
Heart Disease and Heart Health in the Young (Young Hearts), the Jack
Cooper Millisor Chair in Pediatric Heart Disease and director of the Cardiomyopathy Program at Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora. "Raising awareness regarding the multifaceted benefits of breastfeeding could be particularly helpful to those mothers who are debating breast vs. bottle feeding.

"It should be particularly empowering for a mother to know that by breastfeeding she is providing the optimal nutrition for her baby
while simultaneously lowering her personal risk of heart disease."
A limitation of this meta-analysis is that little information was
available about women who breastfed for longer than two years. "If we
had this additional data, we would have been able to calculate better
estimates for the association between lifetime durations of breastfeeding
and development of cardiovascular disease in mothers," Tschiderer said.

The Austrian Science Fund funded this study.

special promotion Get a free digital "Metabolism Myths"
issue of New Scientist and discover the 7 things we always
get wrong about diet and exercise. Claim_yours_now_>>> landing.newscientist.com/what-is-new-scientist-sd/ ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Heart_Association. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Lena Tschiderer, Lisa Seekircher, Setor K. Kunutsor, Sanne
A. E. Peters,
Linda M. O'Keeffe, Peter Willeit. Breastfeeding Is Associated
With a Reduced Maternal Cardiovascular Risk: Systematic Review
and Meta‐Analysis Involving Data From 8 Studies and 1 192
700 Parous Women. Journal of the American Heart Association, 2022;
DOI: 10.1161/ JAHA.121.022746 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220111091356.htm

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