As people grow older, their bodies usually undergo very many changes that may affect their quality of life or prevent them from functioning optimally.
Whereas most of these changes occur naturally and cannot be controlled, human beings have the ability to minimise their impact in later life, through measures that they take during their younger years.
A good example is how physical activity during one’s youthful years leads to better muscle strength, flexibility, posture and bone strength in old age.
As people grow older, their bodies usually undergo very many changes that may affect their quality of life or prevent them from functioning optimally.
Whereas most of these changes occur naturally and cannot be controlled, human beings have the ability to minimise their impact in later life, through measures that they take during their younger years.
A good example is how physical activity during one’s youthful years leads to better muscle strength, flexibility, posture and bone strength in old age.
With regards to brain functioning, the jury is still out. But sufficient sleep, social interactions and exercises are recommended to reduce or delay cognitive declines which can lead to conditions such as dementia, memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease.
Aside from these recommendations, new research findings indicate that breastfeeding can offer protection against declines in brain function among women.
This is yet another study that continues to offer evidence on the significance of breastfeeding which is highly promoted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the improved well-being of children as well as the mother.
A new study published in the Evolution, Medicine and Public Health Journal found that women over the age of 50 who had breastfed their babies performed better in cognitive tests compared to those that had never done so.
The study, which was conducted by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) suggests therefore that breastfeeding may have long-term benefits for mothers’ brains, with positive impacts on brain performance after menopause.
According to the researchers, brain health is critical for the well-being of aging adults.
They note that its deterioration increases the chances of older people suffering from more debilitating cognitive disorders like dementia which is characterised by memory challenges, personality changes and impaired reasoning.
Based on the researchers, past studies have looked at the impact of breastfeeding on the risk of developing health conditions like breast cancer. However only a few have assessed its link to the long-term brain health of women.
“And of those that have, there has been conflicting evidence as to whether breastfeeding might be linked to better cognitive performance among post-menopausal women,” they state.
“While many studies have found that breastfeeding improves a child’s long-term health and well-being, our study is one of the very few that has looked at the long-term health effects for women who had breastfed their babies,” noted Dr Molly Fox, the lead author of the study and assistant professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioural Sciences.
During this new study, the scientists analysed data collected from 115 women who chose to participate in the research willingly. Out of them, 64 were identified as depressed and 51 as non-depressed.
All participants completed a comprehensive battery of psychological tests that measured their learning, memory, executive functioning and processing speed.
They also answered a questionnaire about their reproductive life-history, which included questions about the age they began menstruating, number of complete and incomplete pregnancies, the length of time they breastfed for each child and their age of menopause.
Findings of the study revealed that about 65 percent of non-depressed women reported having breastfed their babies, compared to 44 percent of the depressed women.
Results from the cognitive tests also showed that mothers who had breastfed their babies, regardless of whether they were depressed or not, performed better in all four of the cognitive tests measured.
In addition, the study also found that longer time spent breastfeeding was associated with better cognitive performance. Indeed, women who had breastfed the longest, had the highest cognitive test scores.
Based on the recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO), women are encouraged to exclusively breastfeeding their children during their first six months of life.
Thereafter, they are required to introduce complementary foods while still breastfeeding the child until the age of two. Due to preferences and other challenges, some women usually stop breastfeeding after the initial six months or way before that.
The findings of this new study are therefore expected to motivate many mothers to breastfeed their children for longer periods.
“Future studies will be needed to explore the relationship between women’s history of breastfeeding and cognitive performance in larger, more geographically diverse groups of women,” said Dr Fox.
He stated: “It is important to better understand the health implications of breastfeeding for women, given that women today breastfeed less frequently and for shorter time periods than was practiced historically.”
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