Breastfeeding may help prevent Heart Disease

Disease Prevention
Breastfeeding may help prevent Heart Disease, Hodgkins and Crohn's Diseases, Diabetes and Arthritis

Human milk apparently actively influences the immune system of your child by several different mechanisms. Some features of this improved immune response for children who have been breastfed for a prolonged period may last for a life time. We don't know all of the reasons breastmilk provides this protection, but we can measure the results.

Cardiopulmonary (Heart Related)
Infants fed by bottle are at increased risk (during feeding) of cardiopulmonary disturbances, including prolonged airway closure and obstructed respiratory breaths due to repeated swallowing.
Source: Koenig JS, Davies AM, Thach BT. Coordination of breathing, sucking and swallowing during bottle feedings in human infants. J Appl Physiol 69: 1623-1629, 1990.

Pre-term infants have shown decreased oxygen saturation accompanied by apnea (absent airflow for >20 sec). Term infants can experience oxygen saturation below 90% when bottlefeeding. Nine of 50 healthy-term infants in one study experienced bradycardia during bottlefeeding. Six of these episodes were preceded by apnea, three showed hypopnea (marked reduction in ventilation) and one had central apnea (no respiratory efforts)
Source: Matthew O. Breathing patterns of pre-term infants during bottlefeeding: role of milk flow. J Pediatr 119:960-965, 1991.
Matthew O, Clark ML, Ponske MH. Apnea, bradycardia, and cyanosis during oral feeding in term neonates. J Pediatr 106:857, 1985.

Crohn's Disease
In this study, lack of breastfeeding was a risk factor associated with later development of Crohn's disease.
Source: Koletzko, S., "Role of Infant Feeding Practices in Development of Crohn's Disease in Childhood". Br Med J, 1989

Hodgkin's Disease
There is a statistically significant protective effect against Hodgkin's disease among children who are breastfed at least eight months compared with children who were breastfed no more than two months.
Source: Schwartzbaum, J. "An Exploratory Study of Environmental and Medical Factors Potentially Related to Childhood Cancer." Medical & Pediatric Oncology, 1991; 19 (2):115-21.

Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA)
Preliminary data from researchers at the University of North Carolina and Duke University comparing 54 children with JRA and a control group without JRA of similar age and race indicates that children who were breastfed were only 40% as likely to develop JRA.
Source: "Mother's Milk: An Ounce of Prevention?" Arthritis Today May-June 1994

Diabetes Mellitus
Children who developed IDDM in New South Wales, Australia were matched with healthy children (ratio 1:2) of the same sex and age for comparison. Those who were exclusively breastfed during their first three months of life had a 34% lower risk of developing diabetes than those who were not breastfed. Children given cow's milk-based formula in their first three months were 52% more likely to develop IDDM than those not given cow's milk formula
Sources: Diabetes Care 1994;17:1381-1389, 1488-1490.
Borch-Johnson, K., et al., Relation between breastfeeding and incidence of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Lancet 1984; 2(8411).
Mayer EJ, et al. Reduced risk of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus among breastfed children. Diabetes 37:1625-1632, 1988 [Formula feeding accounts for as much as 26% of insulin depended diabetes mellitis in children.]