It seems we can now add milk to the list of things that can cause an overdose. A new article cites a case report from 2012 that describes how a 54-year-old man found himself in the hospital after drinking an excessive amount of cow’s milk within a few days. The excessive consumption of milk caused the man to spend several days in the intensive care unit while the “milky” blood was being treated.
It is reported that the patient came to Maasstad Hospital in Rotterdam, Netherlands with a series of complaints. Besides shortness of breath and profuse sweating, she felt extremely thirsty and was passing a lot of urine. Two days before he was admitted to the hospital, the patient was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes by his GP, but metformin treatment did not improve his symptoms.
His heart rate was fast, his blood pressure was high, and his glucose levels were even higher (compared to the normal range). When blood samples were taken, doctors noticed more problems: His blood looked like milk. Before long, an unexpected explanation was found.
“His disease history revealed that the patient had been drinking about 22 liters of whole milk per day for the past two days to quench his thirst,” his doctors wrote in the case report. According to the nutritional value of milk, that means 1,540 grams of protein, 1,980 grams of sugar and 1,496 grams of fat in just two days.
The patient was transferred to intensive care because of the significant risk of developing acute pancreatitis, given his extremely high glucose levels and triglycerides (a type of fat in your blood). Here, she was treated with plasma exchange and short-acting insulin, and the onset of (incredibly painful and often life-threatening) pancreatitis was successfully prevented. After being monitored for a while, his blood returned to acceptable levels and he was discharged with insulin, metformin, and possibly “lifestyle interventions” that included being told not to drink that much milk.
“Drinking milk is generally considered healthy,” the team says, “but this case report showed that drinking too much milk can have serious effects. “As far as we know, a triglyceride level this high is one of the highest ever reported.”
The article was published in the International Journal of Clinical Medicine.
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