Breast Feeding Found to Be Protective Against Rheumatoid Arthritis
Women who breast feed for a longer period of time are less likely to get rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to a new study published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
In the study of 136 women with RA and 544 women without the disease, researchers at the Malmo University Hospital in Sweden examined the effects of breast feeding, administration of oral contraceptives and having children (but not breast feeding) on RA.
The results showed that only women who had children and breastfed them were at reduced risk of RA and the protective effect of breast feeding increased the longer the women maintained it. Women who had breastfed for one to 12 months had three-quarters the chance of getting the disease. Women who had breastfed for 13 months or more had only half the chance of getting RA as those who had never breastfed. Notably, this relationship was not found with the use of oral contraceptives, which mimic the hormonal effects of pregnancy.
The authors say that there was some difficulty in drawing a direct connection between the higher rates of breast feeding and the correlating drop in the number of women affected by RA. However, they claim that the study shows another reason why women might consider to continue breast feeding. 5/16/08
