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AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES
CHART 9.5: ASSOCIATION OF COW'S MILK CONSUMPTION
AND MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
200
100(^0) • •
- 0
•••
100
Milk Consumption (kg/inhabitants/year)200197be due to the presence of a virus in the milk. These more recent studies
also suggest that saturated fat alone probably was not fully responsible
for Swank's results. The consumption of meat high in saturated fat, like
milk, was also associated with MS in these multi-country studies,54
while the consumption of fish, containing more omega-3 fat, was as-
sociated with low rates of disease. S5
The association of cow's milk with MS, shown in Chart 9.5, may be
impressive, but it does not constitute proof. For example, where do
genes and viruses come into play? Each of these, in theory, might ac-
count for the unusual geographic distribution of this disease.
In the case of viruses, no definite conclusions are yet possible. A
variety of different virus types have been suggested and a variety of ef-
fects on the immune system may be involved. However, nothing very
convincing has been proven. Some of the evidence is based on finding
more viral antibodies in MS patients than in controls, some is based on
sporadic outbreaks of MS among isolated communities, and some is
based on finding virus-like genes among MS cases. 13 , 19. 56
With regard to genes, we can begin to puzzle out their association
with MS by asking the usual question: what happens to people who
migrate from one population to another, keeping their genes the same