Cortisol in Human Milk Predicts Child BMI
Publication Date
11-28-2016
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.
Publication Statement
Copyright held by author or publisher. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Recommended Citation
Hahn-Holbrook, J., Le, T. B., Chung, A., Davis, E. P., & Glynn, L. M. (2016). Cortisol in human milk predicts child BMI. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 24(12), 2471-2474. DOI: 10.1002/oby.21682.