Avoiding cow's milk may ward off diabetes

Results from a pilot study suggest that avoiding cow's milk in infancy may
help prevent Type 1 diabetes in children who are considered to be at high
risk of developing the disease.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body's immune system misbehaves and starts
destroying insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

Some scientists have hypothesized that consuming cow's milk at an early age
may trigger the onset of diabetes because certain milk proteins closely
resemble proteins in the pancreas.

So, 10 years ago, an international research team launched a pilot study to
see whether diabetes could be prevented by avoiding regular cow's milk, once
the child stopped breastfeeding. The study includes 230 Finnish infants
deemed to be genetically prone to diabetes because one or more family
members have the disease.

About half the babies were given conventional cow's-milk-based formula. The
others were fed a special formula typically given to babies who are allergic
to cow's milk. The milk is hydrolyzed so that various proteins are broken
down into amino acids.

The researchers, led by Mikael Knip of the University of Helsinki, have been
monitoring the children for the emergence of auto-antibodies, or immune
cells that mistakenly attack the body's own tissues.

This week, they published their results in The New England Journal of
Medicine, showing that children fed the special formula were less likely to
develop the auto-antibodies than kids given cow's milk.

However, it will still take some years before researchers know whether the
onset of diabetes has actually been prevented or simply delayed, said one of
the study's co-authors, Michael Dosch of the Hospital for Sick Children in
Toronto. A large international study of 2,000 children is already under way.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/paul-taylor/study-links-wandering
-thoughts-and-unhappiness/article1796514/

 

 


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