Metabolic syndrome is a clustering of factors like overweight and high blood pressure which is a strong indicator of diabetes risk. In fact, metabolic syndrome can be considered as a type of ‘pre-diabetes’ state. Metabolic syndrome affects around one third of women aged 20 to 59 in the United States. A team of researchers at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Epidemiology and Prevention Services and colleagues elsewhere in the US set out to determine what impact breastfeeding has upon the risk of metabolic syndrome later in life. Previous studies have shown that breastfeeding improves levels of blood glucose and lipids.

They studied a group of 1,399 women aged between 18 and 30, none of whom had metabolic syndrome at the start, and followed them up for 20 years. During this time, 120 new cases of metabolic syndrome occurred. Breastfeeding was found to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome by 39-56% among women who did not also have gestational diabetes, a form of the diabetes that can develop only during pregnancy. For those that did develop gestational diabetes, the protective effect of breastfeeding against later metabolic syndrome was even greater – up to 86%.

It is not clear why breastfeeding has this favorable effect on the risk of metabolic syndrome. It was independent of factors like physical activity and also weight gain in pregnancy. However, there was a link between having less central (abdominal) obesity and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. It is clear from this study that breastfeeding has a long-term impact on a woman’s health.

Source:

Gunderson EP et al Duration of lactation and incidence of metabolic syndrome in women of reproductive age according to gestational diabetes mellitus status: a 20-year prospective study in CARDIA – the coronary artery risk development in young adults study. Diabetes online December 2009