Breastfeeding only protects non-smoking mothers against cancer, researchers say

Aug 15, 2013 20:16 GMT  ·  By

According to a new paper published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, women who breastfeed their kids for at least 6 months are less likely to get breast cancer.

Researchers at the University of Granada in Spain reached this conclusion after looking into the health records of 504 patients between the ages of 19 and 91.

These women had all been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer between the years 2004 and 2009.

By the looks of it, the women who had had children and who had breastfed them for at least 6 months were diagnosed with said medical condition at a later age, EurekAlert reports.

More precisely, they got cancer some 10 years later than the women who had breastfed for less than 6 months and those who had never had children.

In their paper, the researchers also stress the fact that women who smoke still have high chances of getting cancer, regardless of how much time they spend breastfeeding their children.

“The results suggest that for nonsmokers, breastfeeding for more than six months not only provides children with numerous health benefits, but it also may protect mothers from breast cancer,” Dr. González-Jiménez argued.