Breastmilk is really amazing. You may think I am bit biased, because of course, I am a Lactation Consultant. Certainly I think breastmilk is amazing. However, I learn new things all the time that breastmilk is capable of. It’s not only that I am learning new things, science is continually learning new things that breastmilk can do for the health and wellbeing of mothers and babies.
Most recently, I was reading that scientists now suspect that breastmilk is responsible for lengthening telomeres. I had no idea what a telomere is, so I did a little research of my own. I will try not to get overly scientific here, but I will break it down. This is some good stuff.
First – what is a telomere? A telomere is the name given to the protective cap at the end of the DNA strands in the body. DNA makes up our cells. Our cells duplicate throughout our lifetime, and as the cells duplicate, the telomere at the end becomes shorter and shorter. When the telomere becomes too short, the cells die. Basically, longer telomere = longer cell life. Telomeres will shorten naturally, but lifestyle can increase the chances of them shortening faster. Things like smoking, obesity, stress…all that stuff we know causes negative reactions in our bodies anyway. Now new research is showing that breastfeeding can actually lengthen the life of telomeres, which means a longer cell life as well.
One question is whether it is actually the breastmilk, or the behaviors that breastmilk encourages that makes the difference. For example, researchers are suggesting that the positive attachment, which accompanies breastfeeding, reduces stress, and therefore protects telomeres.
This is fairly new research, and more research is sure to be done on this, but it’s a pretty positive outcome so far.
Read more about this cool stuff here.
