Breastfeeding 'can cut RA risk'

Women can cut their chance of rheumatoid arthritis in half by breastfeeding their children for more than a year, research suggested.

Experts found that breastfeeding offered women protection against the disease, reducing their risk by as much as 54%.

The Swedish study compared 136 women with rheumatoid arthritis with 544 women of a similar age who were free from the disease.

Those who breastfed for 13 months or more were 54% less likely to get it as women who had never breastfed. Even women who breastfed for between one to 12 months were 26% less likely to suffer.

The same research also looked at the role of the contraceptive pill, which has been shown in some studies to cut risk of rheumatoid arthritis.

It has been thought the Pill could offer a protective effect because it contains hormones that are also elevated in pregnancy. But the latest research found that women on the Pill did not have less chance of developing the disease.

The experts, writing ahead of print in the journal, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, noted that women have more than a twofold higher incidence of rheumatoid arthritis than men.

"This difference may partly be explained by hormonal factors," they wrote. "A number of studies have shown that use of oral contraceptives (OCs), which contain hormones that are also raised during pregnancy, may protect against rheumatoid arthritis, and be associated with milder disease and less frequent hospital referrals, but some studies have failed to show any protective effect of OC use."

Official figures from the Infant Feeding Survey published in May last year showed that most women are failing to follow Government advice to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months.

While 76% of UK mothers start out breastfeeding - a rise of 7% since 2000 - most resort to formula within weeks. Fewer than half of mothers are still breastfeeding by the time their child is six weeks old, and only a quarter do so at six months.

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