milk or more people will stop drinking milk because of Bozos like you
[Cohen]. <<

COMMENT:

Indeed. If you go to medline, you find that not only did Elwood do his
own epidemiological study of dairy consumption, but also a
meta-analysis of 10 other pretty good studies. Result--- a small but
statistically significant suggestion that there is something in milk
which prevents stroke. An example of this kind of finding is from the
Honolulu Heart Program, which found the protective effect of milk (non
milk drinkings had twice the stroke risk), but not other calcium foods,
suggesting that whatever is in milk which protects against stroke, if
anything, it's NOT the calcium. We don't KNOW what it is. Geez,
wouldn't it be politically incorrect if it turned out to be the dairy
fat.  Shades of Woody Allen and Sleeper.

You know, when the French found that drinking a lot of red wine and
eating French cheese didn't automatically make you drop over dead,
nobody in particular accused them of being shills for the Bordeaux and
Brie industries.  Though there was at least as much justification for
the suspicion. Rather, they went ahead and looked at a number of
studies to see if the effects were replicable and robust, and it turned
out that they were. So they scratched their heads. This is the
beginning of knowledge, of wisdom. You admit that what the principle
you thought was generally true, didn't predict a particular real
result. So maybe your worldview needs to be more complex.

Once upon a time, everybody knew for sure alcohol was bad for people.
And certainly cheese. And milk, well--- forgetabout it.

But reality just isn't that easy. Sorry.

Eur J Clin Nutr. 2004 May;58(5):718-24.

Milk drinking, ischaemic heart disease and ischaemic stroke II.
Evidence from
cohort studies.

Elwood PC, Pickering JE, Hughes J, Fehily AM, Ness AR.

Department of Epidemiology, Statistics and Public Health, University of
Wales
College of Medicine, Cardiff, UK. pelwood@doctors.org.uk

OBJECTIVE: Milk consumption is considered a risk factor for vascular
disease on
the basis of relevant biological mechanisms and data from ecological
studies.
The aim was to identify published prospective studies of milk drinking
and
vascular disease, and conduct an overview. DESIGN: The literature was
searched
for cohort studies, in which an estimate of the consumption of milk, or
the
intake of calcium from dairy sources, has been related to incident
vascular
disease. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Ischaemic heart disease and ischaemic
stroke.
RESULTS: In total, 10 studies were identified. Their results show a
high degree
of consistency in the reported risk for heart disease and stroke, all
but one
study suggesting a relative risk of less than one in subjects with the
highest
intakes of milk. A pooled estimate of relative odds in these subjects,
relative
to the risk in subjects with the lowest consumption, is 0.87 (95% CI
0.74-1.03)
for ischaemic heart disease and 0.83 (0.77-0.90) for ischaemic stroke.
The odds
ratio for any vascular event is 0.84 (0.78-0.90). CONCLUSIONS: Cohort
studies
provide no convincing evidence that milk is harmful. While there still
could be
residual confounding from unidentified factors, the studies, taken
together,
suggest that milk drinking may be associated with a small but
worthwhile
reduction in heart disease and stroke risk. SPONSORSHIP: The University
of Wales
College of Medicine and Bristol University. Current support is from the
Food
Standards Agency.

Publication Types:
   Meta-Analysis
   Review
   Review, Tutorial

PMID: 15116074 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

==========================================

Stroke. 1996 May;27(5):813-8.

Effect of dietary calcium and milk consumption on risk of
thromboembolic stroke
in older middle-aged men. The Honolulu Heart Program.

Abbott RD, Curb JD, Rodriguez BL, Sharp DS, Burchfiel CM, Yano K.

Division of Biostatistics, University of Virginia School of Medicine,
Charlottesville 22908, USA.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Evidence suggests that dietary calcium is
protective
against hypertension. This report examines whether the effect has an
influence
on thromboembolic stroke. METHODS: Since 1965, the Honolulu Heart
Program has
followed a cohort of men in a study of cardiovascular disease. This
report
examines the effect of baseline dietary calcium and milk intake on
stroke risk
in 22 years of follow-up in 3150 older middle-aged men (55 to 68
years).
RESULTS: Men who were nondrinkers of milk experienced stroke at twice
the rate
(P < .05) of men who consumed 16 oz/d or more (7.9 versus 3.7 per 100,
respectively). While the rate of stroke decreased with increasing milk
intake (P
< .05), the decline in stroke risk with increased consumption was
modest for
those who consumed under 16 oz/d. Intake of dietary calcium was also
associated
with a reduced risk of stroke (P < .01), although its association was
confounded
with milk consumption. Calcium intake from nondairy sources was not
related to
stroke, suggesting that other constituents or covariates related to
milk
consumption may be important. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that an
association
between milk consumption and a reduced risk of stroke in older
middle-aged men
cannot be explained by intake of dietary calcium. Since milk is often
part of a
diverse pattern of dietary intake, it is difficult to determine whether
milk
consumption has a direct role in reducing the risk of stroke. Data
suggest that
consumption of milk in older middle age is not harmful, and when
combined with a
balanced diet, weight control, and physical activity, reductions in the
risk of
stroke may occur.

PMID: 8623098 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]