Duration of breast feeding and adult arterial distensibility

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7314.689

BMJ 2001;323:689 ( 22 September )

Letters

Duration of breast feeding and adult arterial distensibility

Humans are primates, designed to breast feed for years not months

Explanation of findings and context before publication might have been helpful

Dose-response, cause and effect relation between breast feeding and heart disease seems unlikely

Authors did not discuss data from prospective studies

Does this study herald the return of national dried milk?

Breast feeding: distension or distortion?

Statistical analysis was unclear

Authors' reply

Summary of rapid responses

Humans are primates, designed to breast feed for years not months

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ With respect to the article by Leeson et al on duration of breast feeding and arterial distensibility in early adultlife, of course the duration of breast feeding matters $---$ the longerthe better.¹

Humans are animals, mammals, and primates. Research on correlates of weaning age in non-human primates, such as adult bodysize, length of gestation, timing of permanent tooth eruption,timing of sexual maturity, and growth rates during childhood,predict that modern humans should be breast fed for between twoand a half and seven years.²3 Humans have slightly longer durationsof all stages of the life span than our nearest relatives, chimpanzees.We have slightly longer gestation, later dental eruption, latersexual maturity, and therefore would expect slightly later agesof weaning. Chimpanzees breast feed for four to five years. Aroundthe world, many children are breast fed for two and a half toseven . . . [Full text of this article]

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Duration of breast feeding and arterial distensibility in early adult life: population based study: C P M Leeson, M Kattenhorn, J E Deanfield, and A Lucas
BMJ 2001 322: 643-647. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]