Cortisol in Human Milk Predicts Child BMI

Publication Date

12-2016

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Keywords

Breastfeeding, Cortisol, Childhood obesity, Body mass index (BMI)

Abstract

Objective

Breastfeeding has been linked to lower rates of childhood obesity. Human milk contains cortisol, known to regulate glucose storage and metabolism. The aim of this study was to to test the hypothesis that early exposure to cortisol in human breast milk helps to modulate infant body mass index (BMI) trajectories over the first 2 years of life.

Methods

Growth curve modeling was used to examine whether infant exposure to cortisol in human milk at 3 months predicted changes in child body mass index percentile (BMIP) at 6, 12, and 24 months of age in 51 breastfeeding mother–child pairs.

Results

Infants exposed to higher milk cortisol levels at 3 months were less likely to exhibit BMIP gains over the first 2 years of life, compared with infants exposed to lower milk cortisol. By age 2, infants exposed to higher milk cortisol levels had lower BMIPs than infants exposed to lower milk cortisol. Milk cortisol was a stronger predictor of BMIP change in girls than boys.

Conclusions

Cortisol exposure through human milk may help to program metabolic functioning and childhood obesity risk. Further, because infant formula contains only trace amounts of glucocorticoids, these findings suggest that cortisol in milk is a novel biological pathway through which breastfeeding may protect against later obesity.

Copyright Date

11-28-2016

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by The Obesity Society. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:

Hahn-Holbrook, J., Le, T. B., Chung, A., Davis, E. P., & Glynn, L. M. (2016). Cortisol in human milk predicts child BMI. Obesity, 24(12), 2471-2474. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.21682

Rights Holder

The Obesity Society

Provenance

Received from CHORUS

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

4 pgs

File Size

134 KB

Publication Title

Obesity

Volume

24

Issue

12

First Page

2471

Last Page

2474

ISSN

1930-739X

PubMed ID

27891832

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