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Could Breastfeeding Reduce Your Risk of Breast Cancer?

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A connection between breastfeeding and breast cancer risk

The purpose of the breast is utilitarian; it is the food source and feeding station for young humans freshly arrived in the world and so it has been throughout the history of the species.

But in an age where scientific understanding has brought control over reproduction, economic and societal change have negated the desirability of and need for large families in much of the world, particularly in more developed countries. So women are now having fewer children than they used to, and consequently this has meant women now are not spending the same amount of time breastfeeding as had traditionally been the case. And even when women do have children, they are generally breastfeeding them for shorter periods of time than used to be the norm.

As average family size and breastfeeding have declined, breast cancer has increased. This is not just a coincidence, as breastfeeding, along with giving birth to children in general, has been proven to decrease the chances of breast cancer developing later in life.

What the Studies Show
Writing in The Lancet back in 2002, medical researchers reviewed 47 studies performed in 30 different countries that explored the links between childbirth, breastfeeding and breast cancer. After correlating all of these data, these researchers concluded that for each child born, a mother’s risk for breast cancer dropped by 7%, and that for each year spent breastfeeding (a cumulative total) there was a 4% reduction in risk.

There was a significant discrepancy found between the breastfeeding practices of women in developed countries and the practices of those who lived in developing nations. In women from developed countries who had breastfed and never developed cancer, the average time spent breastfeeding was just 3 months, while woman from developing nations in Asia and Africa who had remained cancer-free breastfed their children for an average of 30 months each. The researchers calculated that if women in the developed world were to have the same number of children on average as women from the developing world, and spent the same amount of time breastfeeding them, breast cancer risk would be cut in half and that two-thirds of this reduction would be attributable to breast feeding.

In support of these findings, another study involving women from China found that six years worth of breastfeeding decreased their chances of contracting breast cancer by 63%.

Possible Explanations for the Breastfeeding - Breast Cancer Connection
Most of the speculation about the cause of this phenomenon has concentrated on the significant role played by estrogen in the development of many breast cancers. Pregnancy and lactation both reduce the amount of estrogen produced by the ovaries, which means that more time spent breastfeeding and more pregnancies will lower lifetime exposure to estrogen by a potentially significant amount. There have been other suggestions aimed at explaining the connection that do not focus on estrogen, however.

It is known that environmental carcinogens are stored in fat, which is the main constituent of the breast. However, when milk production is actively occurring, fat cells in the breast are not able to store these kinds of chemicals efficiently, meaning that pregnancy and especially breastfeeding can help cleanse breast tissue of potentially harmful substances that may play some role in helping to bring on breast cancer. It has also been speculated that the cells of the breast may change in some unknown way when lactation is occurring, helping them develop resistance or immunity to the type of cellular degeneration associated with cancer. Something else that has been brought up is the emotional connection between mother and child that occurs during breastfeeding, which is strong and usually intensely satisfying for both. Perhaps these positive emotions help women to build their resistance to cancer naturally - possibly by strengthening their immune systems, which do have the capacity to fight off cancer cells without medical intervention in some instances.

What these Data Mean for You
Certainly, no one would suggest that women have more children or breastfeed more simply as a defense against breast cancer. Nor are the findings about the breastfeeding-breast cancer link meant to imply that somehow life was better for women in the past simply because they were staying at home and having more babies. Time is not going to be reversed, and the clock is not going to be turned back - family planning and smaller families are here to stay, and it would be in no one’s best interest to try and alter this reality. Breast cancer rates may be higher; but a woman’s freedom to control her own body has resulted in longer lifespan and a dramatically improved overall state of physical and mental health. What can be said is that, practical considerations aside, when women do decide to have children breastfeeding appears to be the healthier choice not just for babies, but for mothers as well.

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