Study Increased risk of death from milk

Three glasses of milk daily increase the risk of death

01/11/2014

A new study by Swedish scientists caused a stir. The regular drinking of cow milk can harm women more advanced than good, the conclusion was a study. What's more, if you drink too much milk, you increase your risk of dying. The reason: the oxidative effect of galactose.

Can drinking milk be unhealthy? So far, physicians and scientists believed that the high content of calcium, phosphate and vitamin D could prevent diseases such as osteoporosis. According to a Swedish long-term study published by the British Medical Journal at the University of Uppsala, the common cliché, "Dairy Consumption Strengthens Bone", does not work. Apparently, "the opposite is the case". So would have e.g. "Women who consume a lot of milk have had fractures more often and life expectancy has been lower for both men and women than for those with lower levels of consumption".

Lactose could promote inflammation
As a possible cause, the researchers see the lactose contained in the milk, which could cause inflammation, emphasizing that it was not detected. Since their assumptions are only statistically justified, they refrain from specific nutritional recommendations currently. „Our findings may call into question the validity of recommendations that high milk intake can prevent broken bones in old age“, write Karl Michaëlsson from the University of Uppsala and his colleagues.

The findings are based on two gender-specific long-term studies on the diet and lifestyle of men and women. Bone strengthening, as previously thought, could not be detected in either group. In women, the proportion of fractures even increased with increasing milk consumption. In addition, life expectancy declined in both men and women „Science currently“ further reported. For dairy products, however, such developments could not be detected. Here the risk of breakage decreased and life expectancy increased.

This leads researchers to suggest that "lactose could be responsible for the increased risk of breakage and declining life expectancy, because lactose is barely contained in dairy products, while milk is the food with the highest lactose content".

From lactose, galactose is produced in the metabolic process, which has been proven in animal experiments to be responsible for chronic inflammation, nerve damage, damage to the immune system and also causes it to age faster. However, it is not proven that this is the case with humans. For example, people may "because of the common assumption that milk helps prevent osteoporosis, for example, drink a lot of milk because they have an increased risk of osteoporosis". Michaelsson: „Given that the phenomena of the study may also be due to a reversal of cause and effect, a cautious interpretation of the results is recommended.“ (Jp)