Study Rebuts Milk, Diabetes Link

Earlier reports that drinking cow’s milk may trigger the onset of juvenile diabetes in susceptible people may be wrong, Florida researchers report today.

Last year, Canadian researchers said most people who develop the disease, also known as insulin-dependent or Type 1 diabetes, have antibodies against a milk protein in their blood. This protein strongly resembles a protein found in the pancreas. Researchers theorized that some people’s bodies produce antibodies against the protein, and that these antibodies mistakenly attack the pancreas protein, producing the disease.

The researchers, led by Mark Atkinson of the University of Florida, report in the New England Journal of Medicine, however, that the same antibodies against the milk protein are also found in people who do not have diabetes, suggesting that exposure to milk does not cause the disease.

“If Atkinson’s work is confirmed by others, we in the diabetes world will breathe a sigh of relief,” said Kenneth Farber, executive director of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation in New York City.