Rense.com



Cow's Milk May Be Increasing Childhood Diabetes
By Suzanne Rostler
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000614/hl/diabetes_milk_1.html
6-15-00
 
 
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Consuming large quantities of cow's milk during childhood may increase the risk of developing type 1 diabetes in children who are already genetically susceptible to the disorder, results of a study suggest.
 
The team of Finnish researchers found that children who had a sibling with diabetes were more than five times as likely to develop the autoimmune disorder if they drank more than half a liter (about three glasses) of cow's milk a day, compared with children who drank less milk.
 
The study findings, published in the June issue of Diabetes, add to an ongoing debate over the role of cow's milk in the onset of type 1 diabetes.
 
``Our study is the first prospective study to suggest that cow's milk consumption during childhood is related to development of clinical diabetes in siblings of children with diabetes,'' lead author Dr. Suvi M. Virtanen with the University of Tampere, Finland, told Reuters Health.
 
However, more studies are needed to assess the possible interaction between genetic disease susceptibility and dietary exposures in the development of the disease, Virtanen added.
 
While it is not clear which component of cow's milk may increase risk of diabetes, researchers suspect that one of several proteins may be to blame, Virtanen explained. Similarly, it is not known how cow's milk increases the risk of type 1 diabetes, although Virtanen suspects that it may ``program the immune system in a direction favoring an immune attack against insulin producing cells.''
 
Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children or in adults younger than 30. The disorder is caused by an abnormal immune reaction that destroys the cells of the pancreas that produce insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. People with type 1 diabetes usually take life-long insulin injections to regulate their blood sugar.
 
The investigators looked at children who consumed cow's milk in the first year of life and followed up when children were age 3 to 19. Some children had a sibling with type 1 diabetes and were examined for a genetic predisposition to the disorder.
 
Results show that children who developed diabetes were more likely to have consumed at least three glasses of milk daily before entering the study. The number of diabetics and nondiabetics who had breast-fed for at least 2 months or had received some cow's milk before 2 months of age did not differ, researchers found.
 
A greater number of children who developed diabetes were genetically susceptible to the disease. Seventy-nine percent of these children carried a particular genetic variation associated with diabetes while only 30% of those who did not develop diabetes were found to have this variation.
 
SOURCE: Diabetes 2000;49:912-917.



 
 
MainPage
http://www.rense.com
 
 
 
This Site Served by TheHostPros