Regular milk consumption reduces the risk of stroke and ischemic of hearth disease events, according to a result of a representative population cohort study published in the may issue of the jounal of Epidemiology and Community health.
Concern about an adverse effect of milk consumption on vascular disease risk has been raised by two findings. Firstly the drinking of milk raises cholesterol level. secondly, ecological studies show a positive relation between the average per capita milk production in a number of countries and hearth disease mortality in the same countries.
The Caerphilly cohort is a representative population sample of men in south walesage 45 to 59 years when first seen in 1979-1983. A representative 3:10 subsample of the men in the cohort was asked to weigh and record their food intake for seven days. of those approached, 665 men (87%) returned satisfactory seven-day diet diaries, from which total milk consumption was determined. During the following 20 years, the investigator collected detail of all deaths, ischemic stroke, and vascular events diagnosted by standard criteria.
Compared with patient with lower intake milk, the men whose milk consumption was the median or higher(a pint or more) had adjusted relative odds of 0.52%(95% convidence Interval (CI), 0.27-0.99) for an ischemic stroke and a 0.88%(95%CI, 0.56-1.40) for an ischemic hearth disease event. Both group has similar rates of death from all causes.
These result give convincing evidence of an increased risk of vascular disease from molk drinking. The subject who drank more thab the median amount of milk drinking had a reduced risk of an ischaemic stroke, and possinly a reduced risk of an ischaemic heart disease event. These conclusions are in agreement with the results of a previously reported overview of 10 large, long term cohort studies based on food frequency intake records.