Researchers reported that breast-feeding could offer mothers long-term protection against a condition which is related to diabetes and heart disease.

Scientists found that the duration of breast-feeding by women had a direct impact on lowering the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of risk factors such as high blood pressure and high triglycerides associated with obesity.

"Pregnancy may have some adverse effects on some of these cardiovascular risk factors," lead author Erica Gunderson says, "and lactation (breast-feeding) may offset some of these effects."

The findings of the study by Gunderson were based on 704 women in an ongoing, government-funded study of heart-disease risk factors. When the women began the study in 1985-1986 they were ages 18-30 and had never given birth and testing made it sure that they didn't have metabolic syndrome.

All of them went ahead to deliver at least one child, and only 16% had more than two children. In women who did not have gestational diabetes breast-feeding cut the metabolic syndrome risk by 39%-59%.

Beast-feeding is related to quick loss of pregnancy weight but Gunderson says that breast-feeding might also minimize the accumulation of belly fat which is linked to type
2 diabetes risk.