According to a new report, exposure early in life to cow's milk may increase the lifetime risk of developing type 1 diabetes in some children.

• Dr. Johanna Paronen from University of Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues studied infants considered to be at high risk, since they had relatives with the disease.

• The children were fed either a regular cow's milk-based formula or a hydrolyzed casein-based formula after breast-feeding until the age of 6 to 8 months.

• At 3 months of age, infants fed cow's milk formula had a significantly higher immune response to cow insulin than infants who received the other formula or were breast-fed. No differences in reactivity were seen between the groups to human insulin.

"Our observations raise the issue of whether oral exposure to foreign insulin plays a role in the autoimmune process leading to type 1 diabetes," Paronen and colleagues write. It could be that in some predisposed children, early exposure to cow's milk could trigger an immune reaction to insulin, they conclude.

Diabetes October, 2000;49:1657-1665.

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT: Further confirmation of the milk/type 1 diabetes connection. The initial observation was published in NEJM more than a decade ago. However, Dr. Classen of Classen Immunotherapies has compiled some very convincing evidence that suggest 80% of all type one diabetes is associated with immunizations. I hope to have the abstracts of his 2nd International Vaccine Conference presentation on the site shortly.

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