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A very large number of publications focus on the potential health effects of breastfeeding and many of these on the effect on the infant's immune function and on the risk of developing immune related diseases. Collections of abstracts from the most recent publications on long and short term effects of breastfeeding are given in periodical bibliographies, where abstracts are categorized into main topics. These bibliographies are available on the home page of the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation ( www.isrhml.org ). Two recent reviews from our group provide overviews on the effect of breastfeeding on current and future health [ 1 ] [ 2 ]. These reviews also include the effects on the immune system and immune related diseases. These papers provide a more complete list of references than those given below. Traditionally, effects on immune related diseases have been considered to be effects on allergy, atopic diseases, asthma, inflammatory bowel diseases and some auto immune diseases such as type 1 diabetes. With a more wide definition of immune related diseases, infectious diseases and cancers could also be included. More recently there has been focus on low grade inflammation as part of the aetiology of obesity and cardiovascular diseases, but the effects of breastfeeding on these diseases, as well as the effects on cancer are not covered here.
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Kim F. Michaelsen (2008) studied this question.
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