that women who breastfeed have fewer menstrual cycles throughout their lives, and therefore less exposure to estrogen, which has been shown to fuel some types of breast cancers. Another theory: Breastfeeding makes breast cells more resistant to mutations that can cause cancer.

Thanks dear Eman Khafaji for your valuable response.

Breastfeeding women do not ovulate so often, as a result of which the risk of breast cancer is lowered, because less ovulation leads to less exposure to estrogen, which is the major cause of breast cancer in women. Breastfeeding also sheds breast tissues, helping to get rid of any cells with potential DNA damage in breasts.

I agree with both Eman Khafaji and Arvind Singh

Thank you very much Dear Eman Khafaji and Arvind Singh for your sincere and wonderful comments.

I greatly appreciate your valuable response.

Best regards,

Thanks for your interest.

Could we please have a brief summary of the evidence for a statistical link not due to confounding, and, if the case, that this is causal?

It is very well known that the health of babies who are breast fed are healthier than those who are not.

Confounded or not this represents a truth.

In addition this represents an economy for the family and society. Colostrum is just one of the mechanisms which is related to the powerful immune system stimulation but the healing of nurturing and touch would also be related to the phenomenon.

Again many scientists in particular do not want to believe in less understood mechanisms.

Indeed the idea natural mother milk would be better designed than an artificial substitute is not that wild of a thought. The substitute is just a mimics the one designed for the purpose. Nutrition would be added to the immune mechanism.

The projection by people is real a placebo or nocebo effect can often be more powerful that human designed drugs for pain relief for example.

Maybe these effects should be exploited and not denigrated.

Why should we not be believing and using belief to get better results in our lives?

It may not be popular to be a positive thinker but it undoubtedly makes people healthier and happier.

When we limit ourselves to only those mechanisms we completely understand we create quite a strait jacket which limits our true human potential. . If we limit our opportunities to all that we completely understand we are limiting our possibilities significantly.

Denial skepticism is many ways are the self fulfilling projection. We can easily prove to ourselves falsely of everything that cannot be done. Then they are those who do regardless of naysayers. .

Positive attitude and thinking actually work whether we understand fully of not.

"It is very well known that the health of babies who are breast fed are healthier than those who are not. Confounded or not this represents a truth."

This is a good example of why confounding is relevant. In developed countries a century ago and in some countries today non-breastfed infants have greatly increased morbidity and mortality. However I know of no evidence that where breastfeeding is implemented efficiently there is any health advantage for breastfed babies, nor that the content of infant feeds makes any material difference. The underlying problem is simply formulated as supine feeding, which leads to serious infections, as, for example, can occur with supine breastfeeding in bed at night, or with propped bottles.

I assume the question refers to breast cancer in mothers, and am awaiting evidence here for this.

Dear Dr Paul Reed Hepperly your comments are welcome.

Heinig, J,, and K. Davey. 1996. Health Advantages of breast feeding. Nutr. Res. Rev. 9:89-110.

Human milk contains a variety of hormones which trigger human infant development

Long chain fatty acids give consistent small improvements in cognitive development

Immunological substances decrease diverse infant diseases

Breast feeding significantly reduce sudden infant death syndrome

Lucas, A., et. al. 1992. Breast milk IQ in children born pre term. Lancet 339(8788):261-264.

The advantage of breast fed babies is 8.3 points in IQ assessments. This is attributed to human milk being superior for neurodevelopment.

Dear Paul Reed,

Thanks a lot for your elegant answers.

With my best regards!

Learning from this discussion, thank you

"Lucas, A., et. al. 1992. Breast milk IQ in children born pre term. Lancet 339(8788):261-264.

The advantage of breast fed babies is 8.3 points in IQ assessments. This is attributed to human milk being superior for neurodevelopment."

I asked for references to show that breast milk per se was relevant. I could not find evidence from the Lucas study that the mechanism of feeding was the same in the different groups. In any case, where is the replication of this study in the last 27 years?

Following

Skepticism is fine yet it also can be used undercut wisdom. Well before our current age the ability of land animals to better nurture their young gave them supremacy over the reptilian world. The ability to protect young and create optimized nutrition was related to mammals being more successful than the dinosaur kingdom. Part of this is the ability to nurture a bigger more effective brain with more adaptive capacity. This is not something which needs to be proved it is proved in the practice. The idea of not accepting these benefits and suggesting that formula is equivalent is a convenient is a disasterous detour from successful human evolution. One would have to question the economics of this idea which suggests formula can equal breast milk and perhaps institutional approaches can substitute for family and community centered societies. The use of convenience as self promoted system has an issue that it is potentially an undercurrent that erodes in proven biology and sociological systems which have worked over the eons.

Thank you very much to everyone who shared his sincere and wonderful opinion.

With my best regards

Does breastfeeding reduce the mother's risk of breast cancer or does not breastfeeding increase the risk? The biological norm is lactation thus an calculation of difference is for the intervention or non-biological norm (not breastfeeding).

Zhou, Y. et al. 2015. Association between breast feeding and breast cancer risk: evidence from meta analys. Breastfeeding Med. 10(3)

When studies featured longer periods of breast feeding the relation was to reduce breast cancer risk. This suggests the conflicting studies featured short breast feeding periods. The mechanism suggested in the change of hormonal responses related to breast feeding. This meta analysis had safeguards for confounding and bias.

Thanks dear Paul Reed Hepperly

Your comments are welcome.

Beast regards.

Sikandar

Learning

It's natural way !!!

Most women who breastfeed experience hormonal changes during lactation that delay their menstrual periods. This reduces a woman's lifetime exposure to hormones like estrogen, which can promote breast cancer cell growth.

I would like to chime in on the healing capacity of human touch and intimacy. This produces a cascade of positive biochemistry. In modern society there is deemphasize on the healing touch that calms the soul.

In modern society one of the biggest issues is loneliness. I believe the healing nature of touch and the value of a supportive feeding environment cannot be under estimated in helping generate health. The importance of early environment and nutrition is hard to over estimate. While formula feeding might seen modern does a soybean based formula have any real ability to compare to the mother. In addition the vast majority of soybeans will come from fields treated with glyphosate herbicide which have been shown to have residues capable of interfering with developmental processes. In fact the issues of diverse digestive neurological and immunological diseases have been epidemic since the advent of genetically modified food crops. Practically all the soybean maize and cotton are utilizing both GMO technology and allied herbicides which build up as environmental residues. Much of the water which might be employed to make formula from dry ingredients is potentially sources of contamination issues. Finally for dubious products a very high price is found in the marketplace. I think just in about any way the breast is the best. Everything modern and technological is not always a better deal.

several possible explanations for how breast-feeding lowers breast cancer risk. One reason is that lactation delays when women start menstruating again after giving birth. This reduces lifetime exposure to hormones such as estrogen, which are linked to increased risk of breast cancer.

Another way in which breast-feeding may lower breast cancer risk is that, after lactation, the breast sheds a lot of tissue during which it may also get rid of cells with damaged DNA, which can give rise to cancer.

lactation may change the expression of genes in breast cells in a way that exerts a "lasting impact" on the risk of cancer development.

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/amp/318788

You probably know that breastfeeding can give your baby a healthy start. But that’s not the only health benefit. It also can lower your breast cancer risk.

“Research shows mothers who breastfeed lower their risk of pre- and post-menopausal breast cancer. And, breastfeeding longer than the recommended six months can provide additional protection,” says Lindsey Wohlford, wellness dietitian.

Most women who breastfeed experience hormonal changes during lactation that delay their menstrual periods. This reduces a woman’s lifetime exposure to hormones like estrogen, which can promote breast cancer cell growth.

You may check this link for more information:

https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/breastfeeding-breast-cancer-prevention.h19-1589046.html

Yes, i think there is a linkage

during breastfeeding, you shed breast tissue. “This shedding can help remove cells with potential DNA damage, thus helping to reduce your chances of developing breast cancer.