Milk Homogenization and Heart Disease

One widely held popular theory singles out homogenization as a cause of the current epidemic of heart disease. The hypothesis was developed by Kurt A. Oster, MD and studied from the early 1960s until the mid 1980s. In studying and comparing the structure and biochemistry of healthy and diseased arterial tissue, Oster investigated plasmalogen, an essential fatty component of many cell membranes in widely scattered tissues throughout the human body. Plasmalogen makes up a substantial part of the membranes surrounding heart muscle cells and the cells that make up the walls of arteries. It is also present in the myelin sheath surrounding nerve fibers and in a few other tissues. But it is not found in other parts of the human anatomy.