Womens Wellness
Breastfeeding may help prevent cognitive decline: Study
A new study said that women over the age of 50 who had breastfed their babies performed better on cognitive tests compared to women who had never breastfed.
The study was led by researchers at UCLA Health.
The findings suggest that breastfeeding may have a positive impact on postmenopausal women’s cognitive performance and could have long-term benefits for the mother’s brain.
“While many studies have found that breastfeeding improves a child’s long-term health and well-being, our study is one of very few that has looked at the long-term health effects for women who had breastfed their babies,” said Molly Fox, PhD, lead author of the study and an Assistant Professor in the UCLA Department of Anthropology and the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences.
“Our findings, which show superior cognitive performance among women over 50 who had breastfed, suggest that breastfeeding may be ‘neuroprotective’ later in life,” Molly added.