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Research report
Milk, dairy products, and coronary heart disease
  1. A Tavani1,
  2. S Gallus1,
  3. E Negri1,
  4. C La Vecchia2
  1. 1Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri”, Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milan, Italy
  2. 2Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
  1. Correspondence to:
 Dr A Tavani;
 tavani{at}marionegri.it

https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.56.6.471

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    Milk has been considered a risk factor for atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease (CHD) because of its content in cholesterol, saturated fatty acids, and possibly lactose. However, epidemiological data are scanty and inconclusive. A Scottish prospective study found a relative risk of 0.92 for CHD in men with higher milk intake, and the preliminary analyses of the Caerphilly study found a protective association.1 No significant relation with CHD was found in other prospective studies, including the British Regional Heart study conducted in men (relative risk, RR, 0.88 for drinkers compared with non-drinkers),2 a British study on vegetarians (increased risk in high milk consumers and reduced in moderate consumers),3 and the Iowa study in postmenopausal women (RR 0.94 for the highest tertile of intake compared with the lowest),4 although absolute numbers of events were limited. An Italian case-control study of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in women found …

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    Footnotes

    • Funding: partly supported by the Italian Ministry of Health (Programmi Speciali).

    • Conflicts of interest: none.