Breast Feeding Moms Have Less Arthritis

MALMO, Sweden (UPI) -- Swedish researchers found women who breast
feed more
than 13 months were half as likely to get rheumatoid arthritis.

Those who had breast fed for one to 12 months were 25 percent less
likely to
get the disease.

The study, published online ahead of print in the Annals of the
Rheumatic
Diseases, also found taking oral contraceptives -- suspected to
protect
against the disease because they contain hormones that are raised in
pregnancy -- did not have the same effect. Similarly, being pregnant -
- but
not breast feeding -- did not seem to have a protective effect
either.

The authors said that it was difficult to say whether there was a
connection
between higher rates of breast feeding and a corresponding fall in the
number of women affected by rheumatoid arthritis, but that the
results of
the study provided yet another reason why women should breast feed.