The paper they reference is on-line at http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2802%2909454-0/fulltext, and, as you can see, the reduction the study found in risk actually equated to 4.3% of initial risk for every twelve months of breastfeeding. So, if that relationship is causative, 16 months of breastfeeding would reduce a woman’s risk by around one in twenty – and, while that’s all to the good, it is not going to come remotely close to the kind of drop in the national statistics that this article was claiming. I’m still baffled as to how they’ve made such a crashing error, but made it they seem to have done.

By the way, for those looking to reduce their risk of breast cancer, I found another and more promising way – regular exercise, in addition to its many other health benefits, appears to cut the risk by about 25 – 30% (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18487249). So, best way to reduce breast cancer risk and financial toll on the health care system may well be to make time for regular exercise!

~ birthgoddess on twitter!