A recent meta-analysis of 18 studies suggests that children who consume breast milk have a lower risk of childhood leukemia compared to those who don't.
Childhood leukemia is not common; nevertheless, it is the second-biggest killer of children, after accidents. That being said, it's increasing in extent by 0.9% every year, according to records on Time.
Efrat Amitay, PhD of the University of Haifa's School of Public Health in Israel says, "We still don't know what causes childhood leukemia."
"There have been all kinds of hypotheses about it, and one of the things that emerged in the research is breastfeeding," Amitay added.
The new investigation by JAMA Pediatrics found that breastfeeding a child for six months or longer was linked with a 19% lower risk for childhood leukemia, as opposed to children who had not at all been breastfed or been breastfed less time. Another analyses showed that children who are ever breastfed had an 11% lower risk for childhood leukemia compared to thos who were never breastfed.
Its surprising that science knows so little about how breast milk actually works despite it being a food source so widely accessible to infants.
Amitay says, "There's still a lot to learn about the biology of it."
The study further states that breast milk is a live substance full of immune-promoting and anti-inflammatory compounds that help to develop the immune system as well as a healthy microbiome. Baby formula too changes gut microbes, but not for the better. Breast fed babies have more natural killer cells, a type of immune cell that destroys cancer cells as compared to children fed with formula, research shows.
Britain's NHS recommends breastfeeding as the healthiest option for feeding babies up to the age of six months, Herald noted.
"When you talk about breast milk, it's more accessible and less controversial than embryonic stem cells," she says. "It's still all very, very at the beginning, but I think it's very exciting, too," Amitay says.
The study was published in JAMA Pediatrics on Monday, June 1 and it is unbiased and confers no judgment.
