Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 May 1;165(9):998-1006.
doi: 10.1093/aje/kwk089. Epub 2007 Jan 31.

Consumption of dairy products and risk of Parkinson's disease

Honglei Chen  1 , Eilis O'Reilly, Marjorie L McCullough, Carmen Rodriguez, Michael A Schwarzschild, Eugenia E Calle, Michael J Thun, Alberto Ascherio
Affiliations

Consumption of dairy products and risk of Parkinson's disease

Honglei Chen et al. Am J Epidemiol. .

Abstract

The authors prospectively investigated the association between intake of dairy products and risk of Parkinson's disease among 57,689 men and 73,175 women from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort. A total of 250 men and 138 women with Parkinson's disease were identified during follow-up (1992-2001). Dairy product consumption was positively associated with risk of Parkinson's disease: Compared with the lowest intake quintile, the corresponding relative risks for quintiles 2-5 were 1.4, 1.4, 1.4, and 1.6 (95 percent confidence interval (CI): 1.1, 2.2; p for trend = 0.05). A higher risk among dairy product consumers was found in both men and women, although the association in women appeared nonlinear. Meta-analysis of all prospective studies confirmed a moderately elevated risk of Parkinson's disease among persons with high dairy product consumption: For extreme intake categories, relative risks were 1.6 (95 percent CI: 1.3, 2.0) for both sexes, 1.8 for men (95 percent CI: 1.4, 2.4), and 1.3 for women (95 percent CI: 0.8, 2.1). These data suggest that dairy consumption may increase the risk of Parkinson's disease, particularly in men. More studies are needed to further examine these findings and to explore underlying mechanisms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: The authors have reported no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure
Figure
A meta-analysis of all prospective studies on dairy / milk consumption and risk of Parkinson’s disease in men and women, comparing the highest intake category with the lowest. Relative risk (RR) and 95 percent confidence interval (CI) are provided. Squares indicate individual RR in each study. The size of the square is proportional to the percent weight of individual study in the meta-analysis; horizontal line represents the 95 percent CI. The pooled RR and 95 percent CI are indicated by the shaded diamond. HPFS: Health Professionals Follow-up Study (men only) NHS: Nurses’ Health Study (women only) CPS-II N: Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort HAAS: Honolulu Asian Aging Study (men only) * p=0.000
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Hellenbrand W, Boeing H, Robra BP, et al. Diet and Parkinson's disease. II: A possible role for the past intake of specific nutrients. Results from a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire in a case-control study. Neurology. 1996;47:644–650. - PubMed
    1. Anderson C, Checkoway H, Franklin GM, et al. Dietary Factors in Parkinson's Disease: The role of Food Groups and Specific Foods. Movement Disorders. 1999;14:21–27. - PubMed
    1. Johnson CC, Gorell JM, Rybicki BA, et al. Adult nutrient intake as a risk factor for Parkinson's disease. Int J Epidemiol. 1999;28:1102–1109. - PubMed
    1. Scheider WL, Hershey LA, Vena JE, et al. Dietary antioxidants and other dietary factors in the etiology of Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord. 1997;12:190–196. - PubMed
    1. Chen H, Zhang SM, Hernan MA, et al. Diet and Parkinson's disease: A potential role of dairy products in men. Ann Neurol. 2002;52:793–801. - PubMed

Publication types