| Vegan Health News | September 8 2005 |
Diabetes epidemic hits NSW (Cow's milk implicated)
VIRUSES and early introduction of milk in diets are partly to blame for NSW rates of insulin-dependant diabetes in children rivalling the world's worst levels.
Research has revealed in the 12 years to 2002 there were 3260 new cases of type 1 diabetes in NSW children under 15, an increase of 2.8 per cent a year.
The "very high" incidence of the condition puts NSW on par with Finland, Canada, Norway, Aberdeen in Scotland and Western Australia.
Annual rates in Finland were 350 times those in China, according to the research published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia.
Those in NSW were around 200 times China's rates.
Paediatric endocrinologist Maria Craig and colleagues from the Children's Hospital at Westmead believe the increase is more likely to be related to environmental factors than changes in the genetic susceptibility in the population.
They speculate a range of environmental triggers were to blame - viruses, the early introduction of cow's milk in the diet and higher rates of insulin resistance related to overweight and obesity.
Viruses have been associated with the onset of juvenile diabetes and reduced maternal immunity to viruses have been suggested as a cause of the rising incidence.
"In many of the populations with the highest incidence of type 1 diabetes, childhood obesity is also on the rise and the prevalence of weight problems is increasing in children at onset of type 1 diabetes," the researchers wrote.
They said prospective studies in Australia investigating the role of cow's milk protein and viruses as early triggers of autoimmunity may provide insights into the effect of environmental factors on diabetes incidence.
The authors said the increase was only significant in the first half of the 1990s, plateauing between 1997 and 2002. But they believed the recent plateau represented a temporary variation.
"The ongoing collection of epidemiological data in NSW will demonstrate whether the recently observed plateau is short-term," the researchers wrote.
Reference: Daily Telegraph.
