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Breastfeeding Can Cut Cardiovascular Risk Breastfeeding can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stoke later in life and could prevent hundreds of ____1_____ of deaths each year, researchers said on Friday. Babies who are breastfed have fewer childhood infections and allergies and are less ____2____ to obesity. British scientists have now shown that breastfeeding and slow growth in the first weeks and months of life has a protective effect ____3___ cardiovascular disease. Diets that promote more rapid growth put babies at risk many years later in ____4____ of raising their blood pressure, raising their cholesterol and increasing their tendency to diabetes and obesitythe _____5____ main risk factors for stroke and heart attack, said Professor Alan Lucas of the Institute of Child Health in London. Our evidence suggests that the reason why breast-fed babies do better is because they grow more ____6____ in the early weeks. Lucas said the effects of breastfeeding on blood pressure and cholesterol later in life are greater than _____7_____ adults can do to control the risk factors for cardiovascular disease, other than taking drugs. An estimated 17 million people die of _____8_____ disease, particularly heart attack and strokes, each year, according to the World Health Organisation. Lucas and his colleagues compared the health of 216 teenagers ____9___ as babies had either been breastfed or given different nutritional baby formulas1. They reported their _____10____ in The Lancet medical journal. | 
