A study on metabolism of women with gestational diabetes after giving birth was carried out by an interdisciplinary team of scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München. Along with partners at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), they were able to show that breastfeeding for more than three months brings about long-term metabolic changes. The research findings have been published in the journal Diabetologia.

Four percent of all pregnant women in Germany develop gestational diabetes before the birth of their child. Although their blood sugar levels initially return to normal after delivery, half of these mothers, develops type 2 diabetes within the next ten years. While it has been shown that lactation can lower this risk by 40 percent, the reasons for this are not yet understood.

In an earlier study, researchers led by Professor Anette-Gabriele Ziegler, Director of the Institute of Diabetes Research (IDF) at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, showed that breastfeeding for more than three months postpartum has an upto 15 years protective effect. In their most recent study, they examined whether the metabolism could be responsible for this.

The participants of the study, about 200 in number, received a standardized glucose solution and gave a fasting blood sample beforehand, and during the test. The scientists then compared the samples on the basis of 156 different, known metabolites. "We observed that the metabolites in women who had breastfed for more than three months differed significantly from those who had had shorter lactation periods," first-author Dr. Daniela Much from the IDF reports. "Longer periods of lactation are linked to a change in the production of phospholipids and to lower concentrations of branched-chain amino acids in the mothers' blood plasma.

"On average, women with gestational diabetes breastfeed less often and for shorter duration than non-diabetic mothers," Hummel, Dr. Sandra Hummel, head of the Gestational Diabetes working group at the IDF, who led the study says. "The aim is now to develop strategies that will improve the breastfeeding behaviors of mothers with gestational diabetes."

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