Parkinson’s Risk Rises If You Drink This

Got milk? If you consume a large amount of low-fat dairy products, you might want to reconsider. Perhaps on your next trip to the store, it would be a better idea to buy whole milk for your coffee and Cheerios. A new study has linked low-fat dairy consumption to an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease later in life.

The Study

Researchers at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health tracked the health and dairy consumption of over 120,000 men and women over the course of 25 years. They found that people who consumed 3 or more servings of low-fat dairy products each day were 34% more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease later in life.

Time to Change?

Don’t throw away your milk just yet, though. Even for participants who consumed large quantities of dairy, the risk remained low --- about 1% would go on to develop Parkinson’s disease. While low-fat milk was the highest risk factor identified in this study, no link was found between full-fat dairy products and Parkinson’s disease.

And researchers aren’t sure whether the dairy products themselves are the culprit. It could be other factors linked to dairy consumption, like pesticides, hormones, additives, or even interactions with your normal gut bacteria and the low-fat dairy that could be contributing to the risk. Either way, it's certainly a connection worth knowing about.