The relationship between milk and Parkinson’s disease

Is brain damage linked to milk consumption due to the pesticide heptachlor or the milk sugar galactose?

Parkinson’s disease He is A neurodegenerative disorder of the brain that affects millions of people. What causes this? Well, if you are He looks Among the lifestyle factors associated with Parkinson’s disease, dairy consumption is the strongest dietary factor associated with an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. In fact, dairy is the only food group consistently linked With a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. There are five large prospective studies certain Link. this Includes Two Harvard groups, the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, followed more than 100,000 people combined for decades in “the largest analysis of dairy products and Parkinson’s disease to date,” analyzing more than 1,000 newly diagnosed cases. All studies have found a link between dairy products and Parkinson’s disease, with most finding a significant link – about a 50% increase in overall risk in those who drink the most milk compared to those who drink the least, with an average p-The value is less than 0.00001, which means there is less than a 1 in 100,000 chance of getting a result that high at random. You can see this in the chart below and at 1:13 in my video, The role that milk may play in triggering Parkinson’s disease.

Okay, but why have a link at all? “Despite the clear link between milk consumption and Parkinson’s disease, there is no logical explanation.” That’s it One review. A year later, however, we… He owns Idea: “Milk consumption in middle age and neuronal density in the substantia nigra at death.” What does that mean? Parkinson’s disease is Cause Primarily due to the loss of a certain type of nerve cell in an important part of the brain, with symptoms first appearing once most of these nerve cells have died. So one study looked at the amount of milk people were eating drink When they were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, they then examined their brains at autopsies and counted how many important neurons they had left. In each quadrant, neuronal density was highest “in those who did not consume milk and lowest in those who consumed the most milk.” Even after removing Parkinson’s disease cases, those who drank two cups (473 ml) of milk a day had up to 40% fewer neurons in most quadrants of that critical area of ​​the brain. What is in milk that can erase brain cells? Among the people who drank the most milk, traces of heptachlor epoxide were found in 9 out of 10 brains. So, perhaps finding more common pesticide residues in the brains of those who drink the most milk may explain how milk could be a cause and effect linked to the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.

Now, this is not the only possible explanation. In one of my videos, I talked about how meat contains the neurotoxic protein alpha-synuclein. Well, dairy products may It contains Trace amounts as well, but we don’t have confirmation of that. Could milk sugar galactose be the missing link? Galactose is what the lactose in milk breaks down into once it enters the body. It’s also what’s used to induce senescence — to experimentally cause aging — in the brain. When you drink it, your brain picks up galactose within a few hours, and for doses above 100 mg/kg, it appears that galactose can cause pathological changes in brain cells, similar to those observed in Parkinson’s disease. “This amount can be reached and exceeded” by simply drinking 2 cups (473 ml) of milk (the main dietary source of galactose) each day. And of all your brain cells, those dopaminergic neurons — the ones you need to preserve to prevent Parkinson’s disease — may be the most vulnerable to damage from galactose because they are more vulnerable to oxidative stress.

Galactose may also be He explains Findings linking drinking milk with higher mortality rates. You might be thinking, “Well, saturated butterfat is only shortening people’s lives,” but the rising death rate as milk consumption rose was a big deal. Notice Regardless of the fat content of the milk. Skim milk may be fat-free, but it is not lactose-free.

Can’t you drink lactose-free milk, such as Lactaid? It has the lactase enzyme added to make the milk lactose-free. But it only breaks down the lactose into galactose in the can and not in your intestines, so you’re still eating the same amount of galactose. Perhaps it is not surprising that there is more milk intake in middle age linked to a greater rate of cognitive decline. Remember, researchers use galactose to cause brain aging in the laboratory. D-galactose, a metabolic derivative of lactose, has been widely used in animal models to “mimic cognitive aging” through oxidative stress. Compared with those who said they “almost never drink milk,” those who drank more than one cup (237 ml) per day appeared to be more likely to suffer a decline in global cognitive function.

Doctor’s note

Here’s the meat video I mentioned: The role that meat may play in triggering Parkinson’s disease.

You may remember that I explored this before Could lactose explain the link between milk and Parkinson’s disease?. Uric acid may also be a contender – see Parkinson’s disease and the uric acid sweet spot.

To learn more about Parkinson’s disease, see related posts below.