Study: Milk intake linked to reduced risk for gallstones

Key takeaways:

• Milk intake reduced the risk for cholelithiasis, or gallstone disease, in both men and women.
• Researchers concluded that drinking milk could be a low-cost, effective method for preventing it.

Varying frequencies of milk intake were linked to decreased risk for cholelithiasis in men and women, a recent study in BMC Public Health found.

According to Feng Jia, from the First Hospital of Jilin University in China, and colleagues, cholelithiasis — also known as gallstone disease — is one of the most prevalent digestive system diseases and has several risk factors, including female sex, obesity and overnutrition.

“Some researchers believe diet is closely related to cholelithiasis incidence,” Jia and colleagues wrote. “Dietary habits represent one of the more modifiable risk factors.”

They pointed out that prior studies examining associations between risk for cholelithiasis and the intake of milk — a “common, accessible and nutritious food” — have been limited.

Thus, the researchers analyzed 2017 to 2020 National Center for Health Statistics data from 7,147 men and 7,575 women to establish potential links.

They found that the prevalence of cholelithiasis was:

• 10.96% in the total study population;
• 15.18% in women; and
• 6.48% in men

Cholelithiasis prevalence varied among age groups regardless of gender, however, with a lower prevalence in adults aged 18 to 65 years vs. those aged 65 years and older.

Compared with infrequent milk intake, milk intake of once or more a week was linked to reduced risk for cholelithiasis in women (OR = 0.74; 95% CI, 0.61-0.9) after adjusting for several covariates.

Meanwhile, ORs for cholelithiasis among men with daily milk intake ranged from 0.69 (95% CI, 0.58-0.83) to 0.82 (95% CI, 0.7-0.97) after adjusting for covariates.

As for why milk reduced cholelithiasis incidence, Jia and colleagues suggested that the substantial amount of minerals, proteins and fats found in milk “may regulate bile composition, increase bile acid secretion, reduce bile saturation and lithogenicity, thereby inhibiting stone formation.”

They concluded that although surgery remains the main treatment for cholelithiasis, “the prevention of the disease is more significant in the long run through a simple, low-cost and feasible method of dietary modification.”

However, “more studies are needed in the future to verify our findings and to understand the pathogenesis of cholelithiasis formation through diet and in order to better achieve prevention,” the researchers wrote.