17th November 2003

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Drinking milk can reduce the risk of both heart attacks and strokes, according to research findings presented at the University of Ulster.

Evidence from ten large, long-term community-based studies in different countries show that people who drink a lot of milk have a 20% less chance of experiencing a vascular disease trauma than those people who drink little or no milk.

Professor Peter Elwood, who has worked in epidemiological medical research for around 40 years, will present details of the studies and explore their strengths and weaknesses. He will also examine the possibility that other factors may have influenced the results.

Professor Elwood, who began his research career at Queen’s University and now works at a Medical Research Council Unit in Cardiff, will be delivering the annual Dairy Council Lecture at the Coleraine campus of the University of Ulster tonight.

His presentation will cover the wide-ranging relationships between drinking cows milk, health and disease in his presentation. Much of the evidence comes from the work of his own research unit.

Among the topics covered will be:

•The benefits of milk to young children. In the 1970s Professor Elwood’s team conducted trials to evaluate the effect of the withdrawal of free school milk throughout the UK in the previous decade. The trials showed that some of the differences in heights of children of different social classes would be reduced if school milk was re-introduced. In spite of the findings the policy of withdrawing milk from schools was not reversed.

•The effects of milk on cardiovascular health. Most people accept that drinking milk can lead to increased cholesterol level. But blood pressure levels are lower in people who drink a lot of milk. Professor Elwood will explore if these two facts balance each other out or not.

For the last 25 years his work has focused largely on heart disease and stroke. The most important discovery made by his team was that the risk of heart disease can be reduced by regular intake of low-dose aspirin. Much of his present work is on the relationships between diet and health.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk