News - Hypertension Week of Nov. 23, 2003/ Vol. 2 No. 47

Study: Breast Feeding May Not Be Significant Link to Low Blood Pressure

Breast feeding as an infant may not be as helpful in keeping blood pressure low later in life as has been believed, according to researchers reporting in the November 22 issue of the British Medical Journal.

A research team led by Christopher Owen, an epidemiologist at St George's Hospital Medical School in London, reviewed 24 studies to determine whether breast feeding in infancy was associated with lower blood pressure at different ages compared with bottle feeding formula milk.

The researchers said studies that found statistically significant differences in blood pressure later in life between those who were breast-fed as infants and those who were not tended to have small numbers of participants, which could have distorted the results.

Larger studies showed little difference in the blood pressure of the two groups, suggesting that any effect of breast feeding on blood pressure is, at most, modest and of limited clinical or public health importance, according to Owen and his colleagues.

Nevertheless, the researchers said breast feeding should be encouraged on the basis of other short and long term benefits, including improved neural and psychological development, potential protection against obesity and allergic disease, and lower blood cholesterol levels in later life.

Other sources: British Medical Journal, Volume 327, pp 1189-92