A study to be published in The Lancet this Saturday indicates a link between breastfeeding and reduced blood pressure levels. Blood pressure can be a predictor of heart disease risk later in life. 

The study is believed to be the first experimental study of how early nutrition influences blood pressure. The study began nearly 20 years ago by scientists at the Institute of Child Health in London, England with pre-term babies. 

The 216 pre-term babies that were studied were divided into three groups: one group received donated breast milk, one group received infant formula made for pre-term babies, and the third received regular infant formula. Most infants remained in the study for one month. 

Sixteen years later the children returned to have their blood pressures compared. The researchers found that the diastolic reading was 3.2 points lower in the breast milk fed children. The systolicreading was 2.7 points lower in the breastfed group. 

There was not difference in readings between the groups fed the two types of formulas. Although the numbers appear small, heart disease studies have found that if adults' diastolic blood pressure was lowered two points, the prevalence in the U.S. of high blood pressure would drop by 17%, the risk of heart disease would fall by 6%, and the risk of stroke and heart attack would drop by 15%.

Source: Associated Press

Subject:  Benefits of breast-feeding supported

http://www.msnbc.com/news/520441.asp

Subject: Protein in Breast Milk Found to Trigger Immune System

Protein in Breast Milk Found to Trigger Immune System Researchers based in Toronto appear to have found why breast-fed babies seem to get sick less often than formula-fed babies. The researchers have identified a protein in breast milk that directly triggers antibodies of the immune system.

This protein helps the infant produce its own antibodies, after the temporary antibodies that are passed to the nursing infant from its mother have ceased to provide protection against disease.

Reference links:

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/98/2/603

Source: Comtex

Subject: Breast Milk and Cognitive Ability

Breast Milk and Cognitive Ability Researchers have again published information indicating that breast milk feedings may have small long term benefits for child cognitive development.
An article in the current issue of Archives of Disease in Childhood, Fetal Neonatal Edition, shows that very low birthweight infants who received breast milk feeding, at age 7-8 years of age, have increased IQ scores in both verbal and performance over those who did not receive breast milk. The entire study can be read at the link below.

Reference links:

http://adc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/fetalneonatal;84/1/F23

Source: Archives of Disease in Childhood

Surgeon General released the first comprehensive national framework to promote breastfeeding and optimal breastfeeding practices on October 30, 2000. The HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding was developed by health and scientific experts from 14 federal agencies and 23 health care professional organizations, including the American Academy of Paediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

During the past 15 years, the Office of the Surgeon General has highlighted the public health importance of breastfeeding through numerous workshops and publications. Scientific evidence suggests that breastfeeding provides a range of benefits for an infant's growth, immunity and development. In addition, breastfeeding has also been shown to improve maternal health. The Blueprint for Action released on October 30th promotes a plan for breastfeeding based on education, training, awareness, support and research. Specifically, the plan lays out a framework based on the recommendation that infants be exclusively breastfed during the first four to six months of life, preferably for a full six months. The plan also suggests that, ideally, breastfeeding should continue through the first year of life.

Despite the many benefits of breastfeeding, statistics reveal that 64 percent of American mothers breastfeed in the early postpartum period, with only 29 percent still breastfeeding six months after birth. Racial and ethnic disparities in breastfeeding are wide, revealing extremely low rates among African-American women. In 1998, 45 percent of African-American mothers breastfed their infants in the early postpartum period; 66 percent of Hispanic mothers and 68 percent of white mothers breastfed. Only 19 percent of African-American mothers were still breastfeeding at six months, compared to 28 percent of Hispanic mothers and 31 percent of white mothers. That same year, 54 percent of low-income Asian and Pacific Islander children and 59 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native children were ever breastfed. "Low breastfeeding rates documented in the Blueprint for Action are a serious public health challenge, particularly in certain minority communities," said David Satcher, M.D., U.S. Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health.

"With scientific evidence indicating that breastfeeding can play an important role in an infant's health, the time has come for us to work together to promote optimal breastfeeding practices. Each of us, at all levels of the public and private sectors, must now turn these recommendations into programs that best suit the needs of our own communities."

Healthy People 2010, the nation's health agenda for the next decade, has set an objective to increase the proportion of all mothers who breastfeed in the early postpartum period to 75 percent. "The Healthy People objectives will be realized only when we work together to put in place culturally appropriate strategies to promote breastfeeding, with particular emphasis on education and support from health care professionals, employers and family members, especially fathers and grandmothers," said Wanda Jones, Dr. P.H Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health (Women's Health) and director of the Office on Women's Health.  The Blueprint offers action steps for the health care system, families, the community, researchers and the workplace, to better focus attention on the importance of breastfeeding. It recommends that health care professionals who provide maternal and child care are trained on the basics of lactation and breastfeeding counselling; that women who return to work after childbirth should have access to childcare facilities or private rooms on-site to accommodate breastfeeding; that social support and information resources be established for women such as hotlines and peer counselling; and that research be conducted on issues surrounding breastfeeding.

The Blueprint was developed by the Subcommittee on Breastfeeding, under the auspices of the HHS Environmental Health Policy Committee, including members of the Federal Interagency Working Group on Women's Health and the Environment, coordinated by the Office on Women's Health. The full text of the HHS Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding can be found on a new specialty section on breastfeeding on the Web site of the National Women's Health Information Center (the first link listed below) or through its toll-free telephone service at 1-800-994WOMAN (TDD: 1-888-220-5446). For a brief look at some of the many programs and services currently promoting and supporting breastfeeding within health care, work sites, and communities nationwide, visit the Web site developed by the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the second link below.

www.4woman.gov

www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding

Source: HHS