Babies and women may be protected against developing diabetes disease
through breast feeding, according to new research. This current study
states that the longer women nursed, the lower their risks of
developing diabetes.
Diabetes as a medical disorder characterized by varying or persistent
elevated blood sugar levels, especially due to eating, is a serious
disease which symptoms are very similar for all types of diabetes.
Breast feeding is when a woman feeds a baby or a young child with milk
produced from her breasts. The best thing for feeding a baby is breast
milk, as experts say, if the mother does not have transmissible
infections.
Although study findings are not conclusive, researchers explain that
breast-feeding may change metabolism of mothers which may help keep
blood sugar levels stable and make the body more sensitive to the blood
sugar-regulating hormone insulin.
This theory is based on some evidence that show that in rats and humans
that are breast-feeding, mothers have lower blood-sugar levels than
those who did not breast-feed.
According to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association, women who breast-fed for at least one year were about 15
per cent less likely to develop diabetes type 2 than those who never
breast-fed. For each additional year of breast-feeding, there was an
additional 15 per cent decreased risk.
A total of 157,000 nurses participated in the new study. They answered
periodic health questionnaires and were followed for at least 12 years.
During the study, 6,277 participants developed type 2 diabetes.
