The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Saturday 18 August 2012

Exclusive breast-feeding during the first months after birth is associated with lower asthma rates during childhood

This paper was published in the Journal of Pediatrics 2001 Aug;139(2):261-6
 
Study title and authors:
Breast-feeding and the risk of bronchial asthma in childhood: a systematic review with meta-analysis of prospective studies.
Gdalevich M, Mimouni D, Mimouni M.
Department of General Pediatrics, Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel, Petah Tiqvah, Israel.
 
This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11487754

This paper was a review of 12 studies, the objective of which was to evaluate the association of exclusive breast-feeding during the first 3 months after birth on the development of childhood asthma.

The study found:
(a) Children that were exclusively breast-feeding during the first 3 months after birth had a 30% reduced risk of asthma.
(b) Children with a family history of atopy (atopy is a term that refers to allergic conditions which tend to cluster in families, including hay fever (allergic rhinitis), asthma, eczema, and other specific and non-specific allergic states) that were exclusively breast-feeding during the first 3 months after birth had a 48% reduced risk of asthma.

Exclusive breast-feeding during the first months after birth is associated with lower asthma rates during childhood, especially if there is a family history of atopy.