Breast-feeding, childbearing cut breast cancer risk

[Gauracandra 1]

Breast-feeding, childbearing cut breast cancer risk <BR> <BR>Major study may explain puzzling hike in cancer cases <P>MSNBC NEWS SERVICES <BR> <BR> July 18 — The number of children women have and the length of time they breast-feed them are the most important factors influencing their chance of developing breast cancer — even more important than genetic factors, major new research shows. <P> THE LANDMARK STUDY, published this week in The Lancet medical journal, found that if women in the industrialized world breast-fed each of their children six months longer, they could reduce their chance of breast cancer by 5 percent, even if they have a strong family history of the disease.<P> Experts said the findings help explain the discrepancy between low rates of breast cancer in developing countries and the rising number of cases in wealthier nations.<P> “In the developed world there have been enormous changes over the last 100 years in childbearing patterns and this illustrates that those changes can explain a great deal of the increase in breast cancer rates,” said Eugina Calle, director of analytic epidemiology at the American Cancer Society.<P> The study involved 200 researchers across the globe examining more than 47 studies that investigated a total of 150,000 women worldwide. The analysis of the pooled information was conducted by epidemiologists at Oxford University in England.<BR> <BR>NEW EVIDENCE FOR OLD IDEA<BR> The idea that childbearing is linked to breast cancer dates to 1743, when an Italian researcher called the disease an occupational hazard of nuns, attributing their relatively high rate of breast cancer to their childlessness.<P> Breast cancer rates really started to climb at the end of the 19th century, and by the 1950s, it was well established that the number of children a woman had was a major factor in breast cancer. <P> In 1970, a study found that the age at which a woman had her first child was key, but that neither the number of children she had nor her breast-feeding habits mattered.<P> “Since that time, almost every study on breast cancer has confirmed that finding on age at first birth, but there’s been a lot of confusion about whether the number of children and breast-feeding had an effect on breast cancer,” said the new study’s leader, Valerie Beral, head of the Oxford epidemiology unit.<P> Confusion has remained, particularly about the role of breast-feeding, because individual studies have been too small to provide answers, she said.<BR> <BR>STUDY DETAILS<BR> The Oxford group started by looking at 20,000 women who had only one child and who had never breast-fed, and compared them with women who did not breast-feed but continued to have children. <P> “The risks go down the more children you have. Even if they’d never breast-fed, the risk of breast cancer went down by 7 percent for every additional child,” Beral said.<P> The researchers also found that, regardless of the number of children, the risk of breast cancer dropped by 4.3 percent for every year the women breast-fed.<P> “What we have shown is that prolonging breast-feeding and having more children pushes down breast cancer rates,” Beral said.<P> The magnitude of protection was the same in all women, regardless of other characteristics, such as ethnic origin, drinking habits and age at menopause.<P> In the developed world, women have on average two or three children and breast-feed each for about two or three months.<P> And 50 percent of mothers in the United States, about 25 percent in Europe and about 10 percent in Scandinavia choose not to breast-feed.<P> A century ago — before oral contraception, infant formula, improved infant survival and career opportunities for women — Western women used to have six or seven children and breast-feed each for about two years — a pattern still dominant in many parts of the developing world.<BR> <BR>BREAST CANCER DIVIDE<BR> Today, women in the industrialized world have a 6.3 percent chance of getting breast cancer by age 70, compared with a 2.7 percent chance for their counterparts in poor countries.<P> Part of the reason is that women in poor countries have children earlier, at about 18 or 19, compared with 23 or 24 in the developed world.<P> But that couldn’t explain all the difference in the breast cancer rates. <BR> <BR> “People have been struggling to fill that gap. Things like diet, alcohol ... all these things have come up in an attempt to explain the difference,” Beral said. “But, it’s prolonging breast-feeding and having lots of children that really pushes breast cancer rates down.<P> “There are obviously other determinants, but they are much smaller. Those two factors account for much of the difference in breast cancer rates between developed and developing countries,” Beral said.<P> Beral calculated that if western reproductive and breast-feeding habits mimicked those in poor countries, a woman’s breast cancer risk by the age of 70 would fall from 6.3 per 100 women to about 2.7.<P> The researchers also calculated what would happen to breast cancer risk if women still had only two or three children but breast-fed each for six months longer than the norm of two or three months. That would translate to a maximum breast-feeding time of nine months per baby.<BR> They found that the chances of breast cancer would decrease from 6.3 percent to 6 percent, a 5 percent drop.<P> The National Childbirth Trust, which promotes breast-feeding, said the research clearly shows the benefits for mothers as well as children.<P> “We hope that this important finding — that the longer women breast-feed, the more they are protected from breast cancer — will encourage more women to consider breast-feeding their baby,” said Belinda Phipps, the chief executive of the trust.<P> The scientists are not sure how childbirth and breast-feeding reduce breast cancer risk but they believe the findings could pave the way for better prevention and treatment methods.

[Tarun 6]

Better Prevention & Treatment Methods? R u serious? Okay then:

We need some volunteers to prime those pumps & man those engines, so the rest can go with the flow.

U get my drift? Protect all women from breast cancer ki jaya!

[Pratyatosa Dasa 0]

In 1970, a study found that the age at which a woman had her first child was key, but that neither the number of children she had nor her breast-feeding habits mattered.

Srila Prabhupada said that for a girl to have the best possible health and for her to maximize her beauty, she should have a child as young as possible.

 

[Guest guest]

All disease is Karmic in nature.

We hear of the hundred year old people who

drink gin and whiskey like water,

smoke like chimneys ,and are not sick a day in their life.

 

this is reality.

[Tarun 6]

Sivaji: we hear of 100 yr old people but is all we hear true? Unmotivated?

If u owned a tobacco or alcohol company u might pay someone to say something false so u could sell more.

Pratyatosji: Yes, SP said women should marry before puberty & have a child right after puberty.

Nowadays in Holland many parents go to school twice daily to drop off & pick up their kids.

Fellow students ask: Ïs that your Grandpa? Your Grandma? Very nice.

Actually it's the students' Pa & Ma picking him or her up, but because pa &/or ma had their kids so late, Pa & Ma look old enough to be their own kids grandparents.

 

[Pratyatosa Dasa 0]

Originally posted by shiva:

 

All disease is Karmic in nature. We hear of the hundred year old people who drink gin and whiskey like water, smoke like chimneys, and are not sick a day in their life.

Srila Prabhupada says that you must drink wine in order to properly digest meat. The French know this, therefore there is a French lady who lived to be 122.

 

The longest living people, however, are certain yogis in India who have never eaten meat, never consummed alcohol, and who are celibate:

 

"Still there are yogis who are seven hundred years old, three hundred years old, four hundred years. You see just like young man. Still in India you'll find such yogis." (Lecture, Tokyo, 04/23/1972)

 

[Tarun 6]

At one Prayag Kumbha-melA one such yogI told PrabhupAd he was 800 yrs old, though looking only 16. Surcharged breastmilk?