Breastfeeding Cuts Breast Cancer for High Risk Women by 59%
A new study just published has documented that breastfeeding makes women with a family history of breast cancer 59 percent less likely to develop a breast malignancy themselves.
The study did not find this difference among women who didn’t have a family history of breast cancer.
Among women with a family history of breast cancer, the scientists found that those who breastfed were less than half as likely to develop pre-menopausal breast cancer as those who had not breastfed. This lowered risk with breastfeeding was similar to taking an anti-estrogen drug for five years. Anti-estrogen drugs cause many side effects including dizziness, mood swings, leg swelling, difficulty seeing and heart attack-causing blood clots.
How long a woman breastfeeds appears to be less critical than whether she breastfeeds at all.
Why does breastfeeding reduce the risk of breast cancer? The study states that the explanation is still unknown, It is suspected that when women do not breastfeed, inflammation and engorgement shortly after birth produces changes in breast tissue that may increase the chances of breast cancer.
