More than 40% of all cancers in Britain are linked to....(amongst other things)...breastfeeding

[Cucumberscarecrow]

Obviously this is complete rubbish but it's printed in today's Metro and therefore read by the masses and believed by quite a few of them.

I can't find the article on the online version but have scanned in* a copy of the offending page so you can share my absolute horror to see breastfeeding sitting alongside tobacco, alcohol, and inactivity in a list of vices.

*Apologies for poor quality scan.

Just read this myself and have posted a pic on a breastfeeding Facebook group. I guess they might mean not breastfeeding as it decreases the mother's risk. Very unhelpful presentation if so. I'm going to email them [email protected]

Thanks for the pro-active response. I'll email too.

Really badly presented. Do they explain that breastfeeding helps to prevent breast cancer in the article?

I don't understand. They've listed BF among the things that increase the risk? Why?

(BFing as i type!)

Better not show that to dh. He has a scientific background and that's exactly the sort of daftness which would enrage him.

I'm trying to be rational and think it is a typo, but that has made me panic a bit. I don't need to worry that there is now some link of increasing my chances, or worse my babies chances of cancer, is there? Sorry I can be a very anxious person at times.

No Fireside. The accompanying article doesn't mention breastfeeding at all.

As far as I know, the only link between breastfeeding and cancer is a positive one: a reduced risk of breast cancer for extended breastfeeding.

It makes me so sad to think of all the uninformed people who will mentally file away this untruth about breastfeeding being linked to cancer.

No tmae. It's complete rubbish. Rest assured that you are doing a wonderful thing for your babies and for you.

They mean not breast feeding tmae. It's just really shit presentation.

tmae NO don't panic.

Breastfeeding is known to reduce the chances of women contracting certain cancers. This is because of the effect it has on hormones. So if you can breastfeed and do so for years you will lower your chance. Not breastfeeding doesn't INCREASE the risk though - it just remains what it is for you in the first place. Other factors such as genetics may take precedence too. So yes breastfeeding is good for you and good for baby but not breastfeeding is not risk-laden iyswim. This article is incredibly BAD journalism. Ignore.

That is truly shocking. I will email too.

Sorry about the provocative title thread. I didn't mean to alarm people but did want to draw attention to the article.

I have also tweeted @cr_uk in the hope they will help given they are given as the source.

Link on bf and breast cancer http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/about-cancer/cancer-questions/how-is-breast-feeding-related-to-breast-cancer but it reduces the risk of several.

Too many givens and too many spaces! www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/about-cancer/cancer-questions/how-is-breast-feeding-related-to-breast-cancer

Great idea.

What an appallingly presented article. Yanbu.

FYI breast feeding for any amount of time lowers your risk, but the longer the better.

Just being pregnant (and the changes caused by pregnancy to breast tissue), lowers your risk a bit, even if you never BF.

Bf lowers the risk.

But, sure i read something that prolonged bf may increase the risk of inflammatory bc.

I read this in passing so no idea on the quality of evidence, if any, behind it.

This kind of reasearch has been around for decade though?

I wish you could buy human milk so ppl unable to breast could still give the same milk.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to breastfeed at a relatively young age to get the cancer preventing benefits?

I can't remember where I heard that but I remember being pissed because of my family history it would have been a factor in my own family planning.

I wish you could buy human milk so ppl unable to breast could still give the same milk.

It's not so much that being fed breast milk prevents cancer, although it may do for all I know and it obviously has many other benefits to a child's health, it's the fact that breast feeding helps to prevent cancer in the woman who is breastfeeding.

I have also emailed.

missjersey some hospitals have milk banks where breastfeeding women can donate their milk which is then given to premature and sick babies.

Its pregnancy over the age of 35 that increases the risk of breast cancer, rather than breastfeeding.

Thank you for the reassurance, I was failing at doing it for myself! It is so bad, there will be other anxious people who read this and panic like I did, but at least I've been able to talk about it straight away on here and have people let me know not to worry. I'd be stewing all day at work thinking about this if I'd read it on my commute if I was back at work.

Well, not sure where my risk lies then. Had both children well over 35 [one in 40s]. So, the fact I breastfed both for approx 10 months each counts for bugger all re my breast cancer risk plus age of pregnancies increases risk? Great...