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Longer Breastfeeding Linked to Lower RA Risk 5-13-08
MALMO, Sweden, May 13 -- Women who breastfeed for an extended period of time
after the birth of their children may be less likely to develop rheumatoid
arthritis (RA), researchers found.
Breastfeeding for more than a year reduced women's risk of the condition 54% and
breastfeeding for at least a month tended to reduce the risk 26%, reported Mitra
Pikwer, of the Malmö University Hospital here, and colleagues online in Annals
of the Rheumatic Diseases.
However, giving birth was not protective nor was oral contraceptive use,
according to the community-based study.
These findings add to the evidence for the many health benefits of breastfeeding
for mother and child, the researchers said.
Female hormones are thought to play a role in RA because the incidence is twice
as high for women than men, the researchers said.
Arthritis often improves during pregnancy, but there's conflicting evidence of
benefits in RA of oral contraceptives, which contain some of the same hormones
that are elevated during pregnancy, the researchers said.
So, they looked at these issues in a nested, case-control study within the
larger Malmö Diet and Cancer Study, which examined the effect of diet on cancer
incidence and mortality.
Their analysis included 136 women with incident rheumatoid arthritis identified
through a community-based RA registry, the local outpatient clinic
administrative register, and national hospital and death registries.
These women were matched by age to 544 women in the study who did not have
rheumatoid arthritis.
Parity was not significantly different between case and control groups, but
women who developed RA were less likely to have a history of breastfeeding.
Most of the women in both groups reported having used oral contraceptives (81.7%
of cases and 84.5% of controls). Use had no impact on risk of developing RA
(odds ratio 1.03 versus no use, 95% confidence interval 0.63 to 1.67).
Breastfeeding, however, appeared to have a dose-dependent effect in reducing RA
risk.
Women who had breastfed their children for 13 months or more had an odds ratio
of 0.46 for incident RA (95% CI 0.24 to 0.91) and those who breastfed for one to
12 months had an odds ratio of 0.74 (95% CI 0.45 to 1.20) compared with those
who had never breastfed (P=0.025 for trend).
Breastfeeding appeared to be particularly protective against rheumatoid
factor-negative disease, although the trend for lower risk with longer duration
was seen regardless of rheumatoid factor status.
Women who gave birth to more children tended to be at lower RA risk, with a 13%
reduction for each child they had (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.71 to 1.06).
However, in the multivariate analysis, breastfeeding appeared to be a more
important factor in development of RA than the number of children.
Longer duration of breastfeeding remained a significant predictor of RA risk
after controlling for confounding factors, including smoking and education level
(OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.83).
The same was true when the analysis was restricted to parous women.
"Taken together, these findings suggest different short-term and long-term
effects of breast feeding on the immune system and on susceptibility to RA," the
researchers said.
The protective effect may arise from long-term immunomodulation through the
development of progesterone receptors on lymphocytes, differences in cortisol
concentrations, and other potential mechanisms, Dr. Pikwer's group said.
They noted, though, that confounding may have been an issue, particularly
because of the long lag time between the breastfeeding reported by the women and
development of rheumatoid arthritis.
A larger study is needed to confirm the results, the researchers said.
Comment/ Hint:
The best gift you can give you child if rheumatoid arthritis runs in your family if breastfeeding and supplementing with Molecularly Distilled Fish Oil!
While breastfeeding you should consume 3 Nature's Way Fisoil Pills. These are the most digestible as they break down in the small intestine. As a plus, there is no fishy taste or back-up and these pills are small. Also very affordable!
If bottle feeding add 1 tsp a day of molecularly distilled fish oil.