Aside from being cheaper, more convenient, healthier and better for mother and child, breast feeding may help prevent premature babies from developing high blood pressure later in life, doctors said on Friday.

New research published in The Lancet medical journal by doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London provides more evidence that milk from the breast is best.

"We have demonstrated that whether you are fed human milk or formula makes a difference as to blood pressure which is an important cardiovascular risk factor," Professor Alan Lucas said in a telephone interview.

The researchers followed up premature babies who had been randomly selected after birth to receive breast milk for the first month of their lives or formula.

"Thirteen to 16 years later, the group who were fed breast milk had a significantly lower blood pressure. There is enough of a difference to have significant public health implications in terms of strokes and coronary risk," Lucas added.

High blood pressure is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the number one killer in most industrialised countries.

Teenagers who had been fed breast milk as babies had blood pressure readings about four millimetres lower than the teenagers fed formula.

BREAST MILK CHOCK FULL OF GOOD THINGS

But the researchers found no blood pressure differences among teenagers who as babies had been fed either a standard formula or a special formula high in proteins, minerals and vitamins.

"Because there is no difference in blood pressure (in teenagers given those two formulas) none of those things will be likely to have accounted for the differences in later blood pressure. What we are looking for, in terms of what caused this, is something in breast milk that isn't one of those nutrient factors," Lucas added.

Breast milk is full of special nutrients, hormones, enzymes, growth factors and antibodies that are passed from the mother to the child. Research has shown breast feeding reduces infections, respiratory illness and diarrhoea in the child and cuts the risk of breast cancer and after-birth bleeding in the mother.

Lucas and his colleagues believe the ingredient in breast milk that causes the blood pressure difference is a non-nutrient factor.

Breast feeding is particularly recommended in developing countries where the risk of death is higher for infants not given mother's milk during the first three to four months of life.

Susan Roberts, of the US Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center in Boston, said more studies are needed to determine if the effects of baby formulas on blood pressure translate into a significantly increased risk of heart disease.

"Blood pressure is only one of the factors influencing cardiovascular disease and information is needed on the long-term effect of formula on other known risk factors, such as blood lipids and body fatness," she said in a commentary on the research.

(From ChinaDaily)