Time - Man of the Year/Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso/moy/081092/08109915.000

Text File | 1993-04-08 | 2KB | 41 lines

                                                                                THE WEEK, Page 20

HEALTH & SCIENCE

Does Cow's Milk Cause Diabetes?


It may act as a trigger in some genetically sensitive people


    In a sense, scientists already know what causes juvenile-
onset diabetes, a disease that afflicts about 1.5 million
Americans. For some reason, the body's immune system attacks and
destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Without
insulin, the body is unable to process sugar into energy. Even
with daily insulin shots, diabetics run a high risk of blindness,
kidney failure and heart disease. But why does the immune system
go on the attack?

    A report in the New England Journal of Medicine says the
culprit may be cow's milk, and the process a bizarre case of
mistaken identity. Doctors at the Hospital for Sick Children in
Toronto found that the diabetics had a much higher than normal
level of antibodies to a protein in cow's milk called bovine
serum albumin; their bodies have targeted the protein as an
invader to be destroyed. By a terrible coincidence, a section
of this milk protein is almost identical to a protein on the
surface of insulin-producing cells. When these people are
sensitized to milk, the theory goes, they are also sensitized
to their own cells, leading to the cells' destruction.

    The link has not been proved yet, and the researchers know
that genetics also plays a crucial role. So too may other
environmental factors, including chemicals. But if the cow's
milk connection is established -- and it will take five to 10
years of research -- eliminating milk from infants' diets might
dramatically cut the incidence of this severest form of
diabetes.