Tit for tat tack v. chronic diseases
Breast-feeding is not only the best nutrition for babies, it offers them lifelong protection against diseases
By Dong de los reyes, Contributing Editor
Thanks to mom's mammary, breast-fed infants get not only better nutrition, growth, and development but a better fighting chance against chronic diseases into their adulthood. Some experts even claim that the just-right tenderness of mom's teats provide optimal shaping of the infant palate that leads to better language learning skills.
Early findings note that breast-fed infants have a leaner weight at around one year of age. Those formula-suckled had larger skin-fold thickness in later infancy that likely point to early signs of obesity.
Citing experts, pediatrician Juliet Sio-Aguilar said that in nine studies involving over 69,000 participants, it was noted that "breast-feeding actually does reduce the risk of obesity in childhood."
In 17 studies involving over 120,000 subjects, it was observed that "the duration of breast-feeding is inversely associated with the risk of overweight-the longer you have your breast-feeding, the more protective you are against overweight," pointed out Aguilar, a professor of pediatrics at University of the Philippines Manila.
Other studies point out that the protective effect of breast-feeding is even more pronounced in infants suckled solely on mom's milk: "Generally this would be up to about six months of age, at the very least. And the odds (against becoming obese) improve to 0.76."
How could breast-feeding ward off obesity? A very obvious reason is "there is a learned self-regulation of energy intake when one is breast-feeding. You sort of cannot force a child to feed more, unlike when a baby is on formula feeding-the caregiver tries to finish off whatever is in the bottle," she noted.
Metabolic programming very early in life is another reason-bovine milk has higher protein, sugar, and fat content than human milk.
Bottle-fed or formula-fed infants tend to have a higher protein intake that stimulates higher insulin secretion which, in turn, "stimulates fat deposition and early development of adipocytes or fat cells. On the other hand, there are protective factors in breast milk that can modulate epidermal-growth factor and tumor-necrosis factor. And these all ultimately inhibit adipocytes differentiation," she explained.
Combined studies involving 76,000 subjects that compare breast-fed and formula-fed infants show that for the former "there is indeed a lower risk for the development of type 2 diabetes in later life with an odds ratio of 0.61." Aguilar cited.
Added she: "Among [breast-fed] children and adults who did not develop diabetes, you will note that they had a lower mean preprandial-blood-glucose levels. These subjects also had a lower mean insulin concentration. And again, all these will support that breast-feeding will also be protective against type 2 diabetes."
A Finnish study on infants who were genetically at risk for insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) entailed monitoring the infants for three- to six-month intervals for the development of islet cell antibodies. Of the 2,949 subjects, 65 became seropositive at about four years of age while 390 continued to be seronegative.
The same study found that patients who "were exclusively breast-fed for at least four months had a lower risk of seroconversion. That is quite significant. Introduction of cow's milk earlier than four months actually increases the risk for seroconversion," Aguilar noted.
Aguilar pointed out that diabetes risk is actually related to early exposure to cow's milk-bovine albumin can serve as a trigger: "As the individual develops antibodies to the albumin, they actually react with the pancreatic beta-cell surface protein. Also, the beta-casein can actually target the humoral and cellular immune responses of IDDM patients.
"Antibodies to bovine beta-casein were actually elevated in those patients who had IDDM. This isn't so in those patients who were exclusively breast-fed for four months."
Breast-feeding can also counter allergic diseases that are brought about by complex interaction between environment (even food and air-borne irritants like dust, pollen, and adjuvant factors like tobacco smoke and infections) and genetic factors. And genetics count for more than 50 percent of allergies.
She pointed to findings in three studies indicating that for atopic dermatitis and asthma, exclusive breast-feeding for at least three months will actually be protective for the infant.
"Partial breast-feeding even at least beyond six months does already have a beneficial effect-the odds ratio at about two years is 0.69. Even with partial breast-feeding (for at least beyond six months), there has been a reduction in the risk of multiple allergic diseases," she noted.
The immunological components in mother's milk can alter the susceptibility to infection. Also, growth factors in breast milk can actually facilitate the maturation of certain organs including the lungs, she explained.
As the early onset of atopic dermatitis indicates asthma in later childhood, early control by means of breast-feeding will likely delay development of asthma.
Breast-feeding's impact is disease prevention:
More importantly, breast-feeding nurtures an enduring bond between mother and child. M
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