Breast-feeding reduces risk of celiac disease

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-11-21T220522Z_01_ARM179452_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-BREAST-FEEDING-CELIAC-DISEASE-DC.XML&archived=False

Breast-feeding reduces risk of celiac disease
Mon Nov 21, 2005 10:05 PM GMT


By David Douglas

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - It appears that breast-feeding lowers the
risk of developing celiac disease, a common gastrointestinal problem
caused by intolerance to a grain protein called gluten, according to a
report in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

As lead investigator Dr. Tony Akobeng told Reuters Health,
"breast-feeding at the time of solid food introduction significantly
reduces the risk of celiac disease." Moreover, "the longer a baby is
breast-fed, the more likely (the child) will not develop symptoms of
celiac disease."

Akobeng of Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University
Hospitals in the UK and colleagues came to this conclusion after a
review of six studies, involving more than 1,100 individuals with
celiac disease and almost 3500 comparison subjects.

With the exception of one small study involving just 8 cases and 73
controls, all of the others found an association between increasing
duration of breast-feeding and a decreased risk of celiac disease.

Compared with infants who were not breast-fed at the time of gluten
introduction, breast-fed infants were 52-percent less likely to develop
celiac disease.

It is not known how this protection is achieved, according to the
investigators. It may simply be that breast-feeding during weaning
leads to less gluten exposure. Breast-feeding could also reduce
intestinal infection that might reduce the risk of celiac disease in
susceptible infants.

The researchers also note that it is not clear whether breast-feeding
"delays the onset of symptoms or provides a permanent protection
against the disease."

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Imagine that, good nutrition prevents disease.

TC

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