The breastfeeding mothers have a reason to cheer, as a new study has found that the breastfeeding reduces the risk of mother's ovarian cancer to nearly two-thirds
Ovarian cancer is described as the 'silent killer' because its symptoms are nonspecific and most the times the disease remains undiagnosed until it reaches in advanced stages.
Researchers in Australian conducted a study on 493 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer and compared them with 472 healthy volunteers of similar age. Every woman was asked how many children they had and for how long they breastfed them, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports.
The results described that those who breastfed a child for at least 13 months were 63 percent less chances of developing a tumour than those who breastfed for less than seven months, says the Daily Mail.
Mothers with three children and having breastfed for a total of 31 months or more, were found to cut the likelihood of developing ovarian tumors by 91 percent. This was compared to those feeding naturally for a total of less than 10 months.
More than 6,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year, and the illness is responsible for about five per cent of cancer deaths in women.
Breastfeeding is considered helpful as it delays ovulation, when eggs are released and the ovaries comes in contact with high levels of oestrogen-rich fluid. Some researchers are of the opinion that a higher number of ovulations raise the risk of formation of mutant cells that can trigger the disease.
--with inputs from IANS
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