Should I quit low-fat to avoid Parkinson’s?
Aconfession: I’m a skimmed milk drinker. I gave up full fat milk years ago when I realised I didn’t need all that animal fat in my diet and all the goodness I was after, such as calcium, still existed in the lower fat versions.
So am I, as the latest research would suggest, a candidate for Parkinson’s disease? I doubt it. So many factors other than skimmed milk are at play. Let’s keep a sense of perspective. According to a new study those who drink skimmed or semi-skimmed milk and eat low-fat dairy products like yoghurt and cheese (that’s me) are over a third more likely to develop Parkinson’s than people who only do so once a week. Harvard researchers tracked 130,000 people for 25 years to get these figures.
Harvard researcher Katherine Hughes said: “Our study is the largest analysis of dairy and Parkinson’s to date. Such dairy products, which are widely consumed, could potentially be a modifiable risk factor for the disease.”
Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological condition that destroys cells in the brain which control movement. In the UK around 127,000 people have Parkinson’s disease.
Experts suspect all dairy products have the potential to raise the risk of Parkinson’s because they’re thought to reduce levels of protective chemicals in the body called urates.
The saturated fat in full-fat dairy helps to prevent urates from being lost from the body.
Of the 77,864 people in the Harvard study who consumed less than one serving a day of low-fat dairy, 483 people, or 0.6%, developed Parkinson’s.
Among those who ate more than three servings a day, the risk increased to 1%. Experts stressed that although the relative increased risk was significant, very few people would actually develop Parkinson’s.
But Dr Anne Mullen, director of nutrition at The Dairy Council, said: “We must remember that the factors that cause Parkinson’s disease are not clearly understood, but they are believed to have genetic and environmental components.”
Claire Bale, from Parkinson’s UK, said: “It’s really important to point out that the risk of developing Parkinson’s was still very low, around one in 100, even in those who consumed lots of dairy, so there is no reason for people to make changes to their diet based on this research.
“If we can understand more about how and why dietary factors influence Parkinson’s, it could reveal exciting opportunities for developing urgently needed treatments for the condition.”