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Duration of breast feeding may influence health in later life

Duration of breast feeding and arterial distensibility in early adult life: population based study

Editorial: Does the duration of breast feeding matter?

Breast feeding in infancy is related to reduced arterial function 20 years later, finds a study in this week's BMJ. Although breast feeding should continue to be recommended to promote infant health, these findings raise an important question about the optimal duration of breast feeding.

Leeson and colleagues measured arterial distensibility (a marker of early cardiovascular disease) in 331 young adults. They found a greater "stiffness" of the artery wall in those who were breast fed for four months or more compared with those who were breast fed for less than four months or exclusively bottle fed.

At this stage, our findings should not influence current advice on the importance of breast feeding, stress the authors. Even if prolonged breast feeding were confirmed to have disadvantages, these would need to be carefully weighed against the advantages. Further work is needed to explore the optimal duration of breast feeding in relation to cardiovascular health in later life, they conclude.

Although the superiority of breast feeding remains unchallenged, it may eventually become necessary to reappraise the view that breast feeding is currently recommended for "as long as is mutually desired" writes Ian Booth, Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, in an accompanying editorial. "Independent corroboration in different populations is required before the potential impact of these observations can be assessed," he says.

Contacts:

[Paper]: C P M Leeson, Research Fellow, Medical Research Council Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, Institute of Child Health, London, UK Email: cpm_leeson@hotmail.com

[Editorial]: Ian Booth, Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Birmingham, UK Email: i.w.booth@bham.ac.uk

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