母乳喂养长期以来一直与新妈妈的健康益处有关，包括较低的心脏病危险因素（如高血压和2型糖尿病）的风险。现在，一个新的研究于2022年1月发表在美国心脏协会杂志表明，即使短暂的母乳喂养也可以提供对心脏病的长期保护。
该分析包括来自八项研究的数据，总共有119万妇女，她们平均第一次分娩了24.6岁。这些妇女平均有2.3个出生，其中82％的人说她们为婴儿母乳喂养。
Researchers followed these women for about a decade, starting when they were 51.3 years old on average to see whether a history of breastfeeding was associated with better heart health outcomes.
Compared with women who didn’t breastfeed, those who did were 14 percent less likely to have coronary heart disease (clogged arteries that can lead to heart attacks) and 12 percent less likely to have a stroke. Breastfeeding was also associated with a 17 percent lower risk of dying from events like heart attacks and中风.
While the analysis wasn’t designed to examine why breastfeeding might have heart benefits, there are several possible explanations for this connection, says senior study author医学博士彼得·威利特, a professor of clinical epidemiology at the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria.
Willeit博士说：“例如，母乳喂养可以促进分娩后更快的体重减轻。”“这可能是有益的，众所周知，体重升高是心血管疾病的危险因素。”
除此之外，母乳喂养还可能降低代谢障碍的风险高胆固醇和type 2 diabetes, which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, Willeit says.
Breastfeeding for a total of up to 12 months over a lifetime was associated with better heart outcomes, but researchers didn’t have enough long-term data on how longer cumulative durations of breastfeeding might benefit women. Researchers also lacked data on individual participants that might have helped them make more accurate assessments of how different durations of breastfeeding impact cardiovascular outcomes.
与较低脂肪沉积有关的母乳喂养
“母乳喂养对女性心脏代谢健康的有益影响非常有力，”埃里卡·甘德森（Erica Gunderson），博士，加利福尼亚州奥克兰市Kaiser Permanente北加州研究部的高级研究科学家。
“Studies have shown that breastfeeding is associated with more favorable metabolic profiles but also with lower maternal fat deposits in the heart, liver, and belly many years post-delivery, which may potentially exert long-term cardiovascular health benefits,” Dr. Gunderson says.
In a研究于2021年6月发表T他临床内分泌与代谢杂志, breastfeeding was associated with significantly lower volumes of two types of body fat that are linked to heart problems: visceral fat, which packs in around the midsection, and pericardial fat, which collects on the outside of the heart.
其他study published in January 2019 in theJournal of Hepatology检查了至少有一个孩子的844名妇女的数据。研究发现，与母乳喂养的人相比，那些母乳喂养超过六个月的人患有脂肪肝脏的风险一半，而母乳喂养的人则不到一个月或根本没有母乳喂养婴儿。
同样，study published in the内科年鉴专注于1,000多个拥有所谓的母亲gestational diabetes，一种代谢性疾病的一种形式，在怀孕期间发展并增加了生命后期2型糖尿病的风险。独家母乳喂养的妇女患2型糖尿病的可能性是那些根本没有母乳喂养的糖尿病。
An分析于2019年10月发布JAMA网络开放examined the link between breastfeeding and type 2 diabetes in about 206,000 women and the connection between breastfeeding and high blood pressure in about 255,000 women. In this analysis, women who breastfed for 12 months or longer were 30 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes and 13 percent less likely to develop high blood pressure as women who had shorter durations of breastfeeding.
Post-Pregnancy Heart Health Regardless of Breastfeeding Status
Willeit说，尽管母乳喂养具有心脏健康的益处，但仍有很多不母乳喂养的女性仍然可以帮助您最大程度地减少患心血管疾病的形成或死亡的风险。
Prevention can start even before pregnancy. Preconception, women can focus on maintaining a healthy weight; eating lots of fruits, vegetables, and fiber; getting regular exercise, even if it’s just a daily 20-minute walk; reducing alcohol consumption; and not smoking, according to the美国心脏协会（AHA）.
All this can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease whether or not women breastfeed their babies. And all of this advice still holds true during pregnancy, according to the啊哈.
Gunderson说，在到期日期之前，准妈妈也应该尝试接受母乳喂养教育，并探索如果他们想母乳喂养，他们可能需要什么支持。这可能意味着购买或租用泵来表达牛奶或寻找哺乳顾问，以帮助解决一旦婴儿到达的护理问题，这些问题可能会出现。
Gunderson说，对于患有母乳喂养问题的高风险的女性，包括肥胖，糖尿病或高血压的女性尤为重要。
Gunderson说：“女性的母乳喂养支持增加，尤其是那些在分娩后立即怀孕并发症的女性，可能会在改善心脏代谢健康和减少心血管疾病后期的长期风险方面具有长期益处。”
