From:

Cunningham, Allan S. 1995
        Breastfeeding: Adaptive Behavior for Child Health and Longevity.  In
Patricia Stuart-Macadam and Katherine A. Dettwyler, editors "Breastfeeding:
Biocultural Perspectives."  New York: Aldine de Gruyter.  pp. 243-264.

p. 253  "Coronary Artery Disease.  Several strands of evidence suggest that
infant feeding is relevant to the prevention of coronary artery disease.
        Osborn studied the coronary arteries of young people who had died
suddenly and traumatically.  He combined the post-mortem examinations with
medical histories, and found a graded increase in coronary abnormalities
according to feeding method in infancy (Table 2) (Osborn, 1968).
        Kawasaki disease is another type of vasculitis which is a precursor to
adult coronary disease and is associated with lack of breastfeeding in
infancy (Kato, Inoue, Kawasaki, Fujiwara, Watanabe and Toshima, 1992;
Kawasaki, Kosaki, Okawa, Shigematsu and Yanagawa, 1974).
        Fall and colleagues have found that one antecedent to ischemic heart
disease in adults is exclusive bottle-feeding in infancy (Fall, Barker,
Osmond, Winter, Clark and Hales, 1992).
        Finally, there is evidence that the method of infant feeding has a
long-term effect in programming lipid metabolism, since plasma cholesterol
levels are lower in young adults who were breastfed (Marmot, Page, Atkins
and Douglas, 1980).

References
Fall, C.H., D.J. Barker, C. Osmond, P.D. Winter, P.M. Clark, and C.N. Hales
1992  Relation of infant feeding to adult serum cholesterol concentration
and death from ischaemic heart disease.  British Medical Journal 304:801-805.

Kato, H., O. Inoue, T. Kawasaki, H. Fujiwara, T. Watanabe, and H. Toshima
1992  Adult coronary artery disease due to childhood Kawasaki disease.
Lancet 340:1127-1129.

Kawasaki, T., F. Kosaki, S. Okawa, I. Shigematsu, and H. Yanagawa
1974  A new infantile acute febrile mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome (MLNS)
prevailing in Japan.  Pediatrics 54:271-281.

Marmot, M.G., C.M. Page, E. Atkins, and J.W.B. Douglas
1980  Effect of breastfeeding on plasma cholesterol and weight in young
adults.  Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 34:164-167.

Osborn, G.R.
1968  Stages in development of coronary disease observed from 1500 young
subjects.  Relationship of hypotension and infant feeding to aetiology.
Colloque international sur le role de la paroi arterielle dan
l'atherogenese, pp. 93-129.  Paris.


Brought to you by Kathy Dettwyler, with a little help from Sue Ann Kendall!

Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University
Co-editor of "Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives"