Breastfeeding has been linked to a range of benefits for both baby and mother - from improving child's intelligence, helping prevent ADHD to protecting moms from developing high blood pressure later on in life - and now a new study says mothers have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
The research, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease on Monday, suggests that the link may be to do with certain biological effects of breastfeeding. The study found that the longer the mother breastfed, the lower her overall risk was of developing Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks.
Previous studies have established that breastfeeding can reduce a mother's risk of other diseases but until now little has been done to examine the impact of breastfeeding duration on Alzheimer's risk.
Dr Molly Fox, from the department of biological anthropology at the University of Cambridge, led the study.
She said: "Alzheimer's is the world's most common cognitive disorder and it already affects 35.6 million people. In the future, we expect it to spread most in low and middle-income countries.
"So it is vital that we develop low-cost, large-scale strategies to protect people against this devastating disease."
The findings may point towards new directions for fighting the global Alzheimer's epidemic - especially in developing countries where cheap, preventative measures are desperately needed.
More broadly, the study opens up new lines of enquiry in understanding what makes someone susceptible to Alzheimer's in the first place. It may also act as an incentive for women to breastfeed, rather than bottle-feed - something which is already known to have wider health benefits for both mother and child.
