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There is a hidden health threat that lurks in milk around the world, a new study has suggested. Drinking milk, even the skimmed variety increases the risk of heart attack. Scientists from Uppsala University in Sweden say lactose in milk triggers inflammation and cell damage, which ages your heart faster and puts extra strain on it.

However, the research says the risk only appears to affect women. Men do not have the same effect since they are able to digest the sugar better.

According to experts, at least 101,000 people were involved in the study, published in the journal BMC Medicine. Of these nearly 60,000 were women and around 40,000 were men.

Scientists made the participants fill out a questionnaire about their lifestyle and diet was followed up 33 years later. Specifically, those who consumed the equivalent of a large latte in milk daily for the entirety of the study were at a 5 per cent higher risk of coronary heart diseases – including heart failure, heart attacks, and stroke.

The study also found that the more milk women drank, the more their heart was at risk. Women who drank 600 ml of milk daily spiked their risk by 12 per cent and by 21 per cent when they drank 800ml. Researchers said the findings were similar for whole, medium-fat, and low-fat milk.

“A healthy diet is essential for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Our analysis supports an association between milk intake higher than 300 ml per day and higher rates of ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction [heart attack] specifically, in women, but not in men,” Professor Karl Michaelsson, the study author wrote in the journal BMC Medicine.

According to experts, milk can be replaced with fermented milk products like yogurt, which has less lactose because the fermentation process breaks down some of the milk's lactose. Yogurt is packed with calcium and is an excellent source of protein, which is vital for your bone and muscle health. According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation, calcium is a major building block of our skeleton.

If you do not get enough calcium, it can cause bones to become weaker over time, increasing the risk of osteoporosis and causing bones to become brittle and more likely to break. Studies also say the intake of saturated fat from whole milk products increases HDL or good cholesterol, which protects your heart. Other studies have found yogurt intake to reduce the overall incidence of heart disease.

Furthermore, yogurt also reduces high blood pressure levels – a major risk factor for heart disease. The effects seem to be most prominent in those already diagnosed with high blood pressure.

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