A research and treatment center based in Charlotte, NC, The Neurological Institute and its staff of neurologists, physician assistants, and research coordinators provide care to patients experiencing a variety of neurological disorders. The Neurological Institute also completes research studies on such disorders as multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease that damages the central nervous system.
A study entitled Breastfeeding, Ovulatory Years, and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis recently appeared in the journal Neurology. According to the study, which was carried out by a group of researchers from Kaiser Permanente and the University of Bochum, women may have a reduced risk of developing MS when they breastfeed their children for 15 months or more.
To complete their study, researchers looked at the data of 397 mothers who were diagnosed with MS and 433 mothers of a similar age, income, education, and smoking history who were not diagnosed with MS. Breastfeeding duration was measured for both of these groups.
Women who breastfed for at least 15 months were 53 percent less likely to develop MS when compared to women who breastfed for zero to four months. The reason for this is not clear, but scientists believe it may be connected to women’s changing sex hormone levels during breastfeeding and pregnancy. They also believed that a lack of ovulation may play a role, but this was unsupported after an evaluation of ovulation duration, age, and number of pregnancies.
Not specifically designed to measure the effect of extended breastfeeding on MS risk, the study had other limitations, such as a lack of data for why women didn’t breastfeed or stopped breastfeeding early. However, researchers still believe that it opens up avenues for further research into the effect of breastfeeding on MS and other autoimmune disease prevalence.
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