Re: breast feeding & breast cancer

[Guest guest]

Antonia,

All studies on breast cancer that I have seen show reduced risk due to duration of breastfeeding.

However: One study of over 60,000 women (Archives of Internal Medicine, August 2009) concluded that exclusive breastfeeding and lactational amenorrhea had no impact on the rate of breast cancer. And then a 5-year study of "9 independent teams of scientists, hundreds of peer reviewers, and 21 international experts analyzing over 7000 large-scale studies" found that breastfeeding lowers both pre- and post-menopausal cancer and that "women who experience fewer menstrual cycles over their lifetime tend ot have lower risk for breast cancer," that the risk due to breastfeeding is because of the delay in "the return of a new mother's menstrual cycle." This report "Food, Nutrition, Phyiscal Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective" should be available at the AICR website. It is 517 pages and thus I did not bother to download it.

The AICR (American Istitute for Cancer Research) is the first cancer organization to issue an official recommendation about breastfeeding. I believe I saw a brochure on this at their website and there is a 12-page booklet you can download called "What You Should Know About Breastfeeding"(May 2008).

But in general the research usually stresses the benefit of 3, 5, or 6 months of breastfeeding. Studies show that lactational amenorrhea reduces the risk of ovarian cancer.

For the week of December 27, 2009, I blogged on breast cancer. I was upset by a comment made by an expert in our local newspaper. Our blogs can be reached in the upper right corner of www.NFPandmore.org.

Sheila

breast feeding & breast cancer

Hello all,I was just wondering whether anyone could help me out with a query....In terms of reduction of breast cancer risk, is it the length of time of breast feeding per se that is correlated, or the length of lactational amenorrhoea?Many thanks for any help,Best wishes,Antonia Braithwaite----------------