News

4th March 2004

Breast milk cuts blood pressure

Every mother knows that breast milk helps to give their baby the best start in life but new research published today claims that it can also help in the long term.

The study, published in the medical journal Circulation by Bristol University, says that babies who were breast fed as infants will have lower blood pressure as adults than those babies who were bottlefed.

More research needs to be done into the claims but if true, it means that breastfed babies will have a lower risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease as adults.

Some experts are sceptical about the findings but lead researcher Dr Richard Martin says that the findings were significant as they followed such a large study group. The new study focused on 4,763 children from birth to the age of seven.

The findings showed that babies who were breastfed had on average a systolic blood pressure reading 0.8mmHg lower than bottlefed babies. The diastolic reading was on average 0.6mmHg lower.

Systolic blood pressure is the reading when the heart is contracting and diastolic is the reading when it's relaxed.

Although the difference is quite small, Dr Martin says that a 1 per cent reduction in systolic blood pressure across the population would prevent 2,000 premature deaths a year in the UK. "If breast-feeding rose from sixty to ninety per cent approximately 3,000 deaths a year may be prevented among 35 to 64-year-olds."

The research showed that the longer a baby was breastfed, the better the effect on the systolic blood pressure, although time made no difference to the diastolic pressure.

The National Childbirth Trust is a strong supporter of breast-feeding. A spokeswoman said "Breast-feeding is justified because it is the natural way of feeding a baby."

• Find out all you need to know in our Complete guide to breastfeeding
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