Originally published August 15 2005
New research links milk and ovarian cancer
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
New evidence out of the Karolinksa Institute in Sweden shows that milk drinkers have a high chance of developing ovarian cancer, but the research is not as simple as it sounds.
This led researchers at the Karolinksa Institute in Sweden to analyze the results of three prospective cohort studies and 18 case-control studies, in an effort to gain better understanding of the relationship.
The investigations, published in the International Journal of Cancer, involved three prospective cohort studies and 18-case control studies, all of which offered data on the association between intakes of milk, yogurt, cheese or lactose and incidence or mortality from epithelial ovarian cancer.
The prospective cohort studies suggested that high intakes of milk may increase the risk of ovarian cancer, and a 10g per day increase in lactose intake (equivalent to one glass of milk) led to a 13 percent increase in risk.
Since the two studies included in the meta-analysis that did so indicated that the milk and lactose association occurred only with serous ovarian cancer, the researchers recommend that "future studies should consider specific subtypes of ovarian cancer, and the interrelationship between intakes of dairy foods and lactose, genetic polymorphisms, and ovarian cancer risk."
One of these was a 13-year, observational study of 64,084 women carried out by the same scientists at the Karolinska Institute and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
In this instance, they wrote that "continued research is warranted to further elucidate the association and mechanisms."
As to the differences between the results for cohort and case control studies, these may be due to changes in dietary practice following diagnosis of cancer, selection bias or recall bias.
Moreover the two types of study do not assess dietary intake at the same time point: for cohort studies the assessment could take place at any time before the illness occurs -- in some cases even decades before; in case control studies, on the other hand, diet is assessed at or close to the time of diagnosis.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml