Benefit of breastfeeding

A study that looked at 1,600 women in Northern California diagnosed with breast cancer concludes that those who breastfed were 30 percent less likely to experience recurrence of the disease.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente also discovered that tumors were typically less aggressive in the women who had breastfed, and those women were 28 percent less likely to die from breast cancer than women who did not, according to SFGate.com. Women who breastfed for a six-month period or longer fared even better in terms of breast-cancer outcomes.

Previous research has found that breastfeeding delays the return of the mother’s menstrual cycle, which can reduce cancer risk; and it develops the ductal cells, which help protect the breast.