Magic of breast milk – shielding infants with genetic predisposition for asthma

 

According to a study presented at European Respiratory Society's International Congress, breast feeding reduces the later risks of asthma in infants born with a defective chromosome (17q21). The researchers conducted the study with an aim to find out whether breast feeding have a modifying effect on this specific gene related to asthma. The study reported that, in breast-fed infants born with defective gene there was 27 % decrease in the relative risk of developing respiratory symptoms in than those who were not breastfed. “The study sheds light on how this interaction can be modified by breastfeeding. This is the first time that we were able to show the effect of the 17q21 variants on respiratory symptoms during the 1st year of life, depending on breastfeeding status”, commented Dr Gorlanova from the University Children's Hospital Basel (UKBB), and the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.