Dairy a Risk Factor for Parkinson's?

[Simran]

Dairy intake may increase risk of Parkinson's disease in men, according to investigators. Men of European ancestry with a genetic marker predicting dairy consumption had significantly greater risk of Parkinson's disease than individuals without the marker, suggesting a causal relationship between dairy intake and Parkinson's disease, lead author Cloé Domenighetti, MSc, a PhD student at UVSQ, Université Paris Sud, and colleagues reported.

[Gagan]

@simran The investigators evaluated this link by comparing 9,823 cases of Parkinson's disease with 8,376 controls, all individuals of European ancestry from the Courage-Parkinson's disease consortium, comprising 23 studies. Data were analyzed by two-sample Mendelian randomization, a technique that uses genotype to predict behavior, thereby replacing conventional methods of capturing behavior, such as questionnaires. In this case, the investigators screened all participants for rs4988235, a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) upstream of the lactase gene that is well documented to predict dairy intake among individuals of European ancestry.