Reuters Health Thursday, November 1, 2007 By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Breast-feeding seems to protect children from asthma later in life, but only when the mother does not have the respiratory disorder herself, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. They found that breast-feeding for more than four months helped improve lung function in children whose mothers did not have asthma. 報告指出健康的媽媽若持續餵母乳超過４個月，將有益於嬰兒的肺功能。 But breast-fed children whose mothers had asthma did not benefit and actually showed a significant drop in lung function later in life. 但是若媽媽有氣喘前科則不僅無益且會對嬰兒的肺功能發展有害。 That does not mean women with asthma should stop breast-feeding. 然而這並非表示有氣喘的媽媽們應該停止餵母乳。 The researchers cautioned that the study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, was preliminary and the findings needed more study. 研究人員表示，這份報告僅是初步發現還需要更多資料加以佐證。 Breast milk is almost always considered best for infants. It can be digested easily and supplies antibodies that can protect babies from bacterial and viral infections, including many of the respiratory tract. Dr. Theresa Guilbert of the University of Wisconsin-Madison wanted to see if longer breast-feeding -- lasting four months or more -- improved lung function in children. She and colleagues at the Arizona Respiratory Center analyzed data from the Children's Respiratory Study in Tucson, which followed 1,246 healthy infants through adolescence. Of those, 697 had lung function tests from the ages of 11 to 16 that evaluated air flow and lung volume. For the most part, breast-fed children with non-asthmatic mothers had better lung volume and no decrease in air flow. 最主要的發現是，吃母乳長大的小孩，若媽媽沒有氣喘病史，有較好的肺容量，呼吸 氣流量也正常。 But children of mothers with asthma who were breast-fed four months or more did not show any improvement. In fact, these children had a significant reduction in airflow. 而有氣喘病史的媽媽的小孩，若被餵食母乳４個月或更久，不但沒有幫助，反而在呼吸 的氣流量部份會明顯較少。 The reason, Guilbert suggested, may be altered lung growth. 原因可能指向是不健全的肺臟發展。 Guilbert believes breast milk may contain certain factors that promote lung development, factors that may be impaired in mothers with asthma. "These findings suggest that growth factors in milk have the potential to modify lung development, which might account for some of the protective effect of breast-feeding," she wrote. Researchers found a similar effect in mice born to non-asthmatic mothers who were breast-fed by mothers with asthma. These mice developed airway inflammation. 老鼠實驗也有相似的發現，吃母乳的老鼠，若老鼠媽媽有氣喘，會導致氣道炎。 "It is important to emphasize that the clinical significance of these findings is unknown," Guilbert wrote. "Further study is needed to confirm our findings and to determine a biological basis for the relationships observed." （研究還不算完整，所以還有待未來更多的臨床案例加以佐證才較具有可信度） （版上的文章真得讓人受益良多啊，希望大家不會介意這篇是外國的報導 XD) -- An English Club in Kaohsiung http://aeclub.b.forumable.net --

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