Cow's Milk Triggers Type 1?

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Cow's Milk May Increase Child's Risk Of Type 1 Diabetes

June 14, 2000 - 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.