Posted by Alex Heigl on July 6, 2011
Multiple sclerosis relapses cannot be staved off by breast-feeding. Researchers working at the University of Florence found no support for prior studies connecting breast-feeding with lower disease activity for women with MS. Rather, they found that women who were more sick tended not to breast-feed, leading to the conclusion that the prior findings were skewed: breast-feeding mothers had fewer relapses because they were healthier. “Breast-feeding should not be encouraged as a protective factor without an accurate evaluation of the specific patient characteristics,” Dr. Emilio Portaccio, lead author and neurologist in the university’s department of neurology, told HealthDay News.
Portaccio noted that the findings suggest that nursing may not be possible for women “with high disease activity.” MS, a progressive autoimmune disorder characterized by deterioration in physical coordination, affects about 400,000 people in the United States. Women are twice as likely to be affected as men, and symptoms can vary wildly for one person to another, according to the National Sclerosis Society. However, the disease can go into remission, occasionally for long periods of time. Flare-ups during pregnancy are rare, though Portaccio said that the reason why is not fully understood.
Dr. Fred Lublin, a neurologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, told HealthDay News that the findings are “in line with what one might expect.” Healthier women tend to breast-feed, he said. The study “did not resolve the issue of breast-feeding,” Lublin continued. “These studies are all observational and it’s hard to draw a conclusion of cause and effect from an observational study.”
Multiple sclerosis relapses cannot be staved off by breast-feeding. Researchers working at the University of Florence found no support for prior studies connecting breast-feeding with lower disease activity for women with MS. Rather, they found that women who were more sick tended not to breast-feed, leading to the conclusion that the prior findings were skewed: breast-feeding mothers had fewer relapses because they were healthier. “Breast-feeding should not be encouraged as a protective factor without an accurate evaluation of the specific patient characteristics,” Dr. Emilio Portaccio, lead author and neurologist in the university’s department of neurology, told HealthDay News.
Portaccio noted that the findings suggest that nursing may not be possible for women “with high disease activity.” MS, a progressive autoimmune disorder characterized by deterioration in physical coordination, affects about 400,000 people in the United States. Women are twice as likely to be affected as men, and symptoms can vary wildly for one person to another, according to the National Sclerosis Society. However, the disease can go into remission, occasionally for long periods of time. Flare-ups during pregnancy are rare, though Portaccio said that the reason why is not fully understood.
Dr. Fred Lublin, a neurologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, told HealthDay News that the findings are “in line with what one might expect.” Healthier women tend to breast-feed, he said. The study “did not resolve the issue of breast-feeding,” Lublin continued. “These studies are all observational and it’s hard to draw a conclusion of cause and effect from an observational study.”
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