Cow's Milk and Type 1 Diabetes

In this study, infants were weaned to a cow's milk based formula. Antibodies to a variety of components in cows milk were tested for at age 3 months and 18 months. These children were then followed for the next 7 years. The authors concluded:

"An enhanced humoral immune response to various CM proteins in infancy is seen in a subgroup of those children who later progress to T1D (type 1 diabetes). Accordingly, a dysregulated immune response to oral antigens is an early event in the pathogenesis of T1D."

This means that when the immune system reacted to cow's milk early, it eventually reacted to the pancreas and caused type 1 diabetes.

Again, many of you are having your infants avoid any form of cow's milk until after age 1. This is the formal recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics. But we need to think about these results intelligently and ask some questions.

If an infant is exposed to cows milk too early, he may initiate an aberrant immune response. This is fair enough. An obvious follow up question is; if a child is born with or develops a less than ideal immune system, will he mount an immune response to cow's milk later in life.... even if he isn't exposed until age 2 or age 3?

We don't know the answer yet but here's what we do know.
1. Many infants are born with poor immune function. When we eventually do a series on prenatal care, I'll elaborate.

2. Many kids have poor immune function. 75% of Amercians have low vitamin D levels. Kids are no exception. Vitamin D modulates the immune response. That would mean that at least 75% of kids have a less than ideal immune system. It may be overly aggressive to say "immune compromised" as that usually implies some sort of active disease process. But let's call it what it is... an immune system running on fumes.

3. Kids are already sicker than ever with asthma rates, autism rates, obesity rates on the rise. The constant intake of sugary snacks and junk foods only makes things worse.

Given THAT kind of immune system, does later exposure of cow's milk also lead to an immune response? Perhaps it won't lead to type 1 diabetes in all kids, but does an angry immune system cause other problems besides type 1 diabetes?

Milk and Infants

This article should be required reading for every mother getting ready to feed milk to her infant. Here are some of the highlights.

1. "The feeding of cow's milk has adverse effects on iron nutrition in infants and young children."

2. "... occult intestinal blood loss, which occurs in about 40% of normal infants during feeding of cow's milk."

3. " Calcium and casein both inhibit the absorption of dietary nonheme iron."

4. "The feeding of cow's milk to infants is undesirable because of cow's milk's propensity to lead to iron deficiency and because it unduly increases the risk of severe dehydration."

Some of you are thinking, "Duh! Everyone knows you don't start kids on cow's milk until after their first birthday!"

Isn't it nice to know that after age 1, it magically turns into something incredibly healthy for you. Or do we just learn to tolerate it?

Milk Proteins

Many experts have expressed the sentiment that human milk is perfectly designed for humans while cow's milk is perfectly designed for cows. The image of an infant suckling from his mother is quite endearing but can you imagine the sight of an infant fighting off baby calves to suckle off a cow?

If we're honest with ourselves, there's probably a certain visceral sense that it is absurd. But that's exactly what we are promoting when we advocate the use of milk as an absolutely necessary part of human development.

I grew up on milk. I loved milk. I enjoy cheese even more so it breaks my heart to know that milk and dairy products are actually dangerous to us. This is an uncomfortable truth but one that I am convinced plays a role in the degenerating health of many Americans.

To be clear, non-organic milk has another layer of problems compared to organic varieties. But before we discuss contaminants in non-organic milk, let's just look at clean, organic milk. The problem is not chemical contaminants, but the very nature of milk itself.

I'll encourage you to take a look at this article:
Polymorphism of bovine beta-casein and its potential effect on human health. J Appl Genet 2007; 48(3): 189-198.

I'll summarize the major points of the paper.
1. Milk proteins consist of whey and caseins. There are many varieties of casein.
2. Within the beta-casein family, there are also many varieties; 2 of which are A1 and A2.
3. Upon digestion, A1 proteins yield a lot more of a product called, beta-casomorphin 7 (BCM 7)
4. BCM 7 is bad.

"BCM-7 has also been suggested as a possible cause of sudden infant death syndrome. In addition, neurological disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia, seem to be associated with milk consumption and a higher level of BCM-7."

"This bioactive peptide (BCM 7) exhibits a strong opioid activity and has been shown to stimulate human lymphocyte T proliferation in vitro."

This tells us that some of the breakdown products of milk can cause problems with your brain and promote activity of the immune system.

In fairness, this paper alone doesn't tell us whether that immune activity is acceptable or dangerous. But given the correlation between certain disorders and BCM 7.... and the inappropriate activation of the immune system in some of those disorders, it may be a safe jump to say that this is not a desirable activation.

This is still a matter of intense debate as evidenced here. In February 2009, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) rejected claims that milk may be hazardous to your health. But they did acknowledge that BCM 7 acts as an opioid and influences gut function.

For some people, the EFSA report is enough "proof" that milk is safe. How about you? Another way of stating their conclusions (my paraphrase) is that "there is only a 'little bit' of evidence that milk is not safe. We may uncover more evidence as research continues but in the mean time... keep drinking milk."

We'll keep digging into the evidence as we continue this series.

Dairy- New Perspectives

I recently came across a commentary in the May 2009 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. You can read part of the argument here but I'll highlight the key points... taken directly from the article.

1. Osteoporotic bone fracture rates are highest in countries that consume the most dairy.

2. Most studies of fracture risk provide little or no evidence that milk or dairy products benefit bone.

3. Accumulating evidence shows that consuming milk or dairy products may contribute to the risk of prostate and ovarian cancers, autoimmune diseases, and some childhood ailments.

4. Bones are better served by... focusing efforts on increasing fruit and vegetable intakes, limiting animal protein, exercising regularly, getting adequate sunshine or supplemental vitamin D, and getting approximately 500 mg Ca/d from plant sources.

The article was specifically talking about dairy use while on a vegetarian diet. The counterpoint authors conclude, "Therefore, dairy products should not be recommended in a healthy vegetarian diet."

So if milk doesn't strengthen bones as we've all been lead to believe, then why do we consume so much of it?