Fwd: [Childbearingyears_news] The_Pancreas_-_Under_Attack_by_Cow-Milk

[Guest guest]

WOW. Very long but very informative. Gets better

towards the end so don't get fed up and quit reading:)

-Allison

 

>> The Pancreas - Under Attack by Cow-Milk

>

> Most likely you will never know you have a

> pancreas, yet without it

> you would become very sick, and likely die. So this

> little organ is working

> 24/7 for you, most of the time without a single

> complaint. Anatomically,

> the pancreas is about six inches long and two inches

> wide, weighs about 3

> ounces, and is situated in the posterior, upper left

> part of your abdomen.

> In the butcher shop this organ is sold as sweetbread

> (from a cow). Based on

> its functions, the pancreas would best be thought of

> as two separate organs:

> the organ that makes digestive juices (the exocrine

> pancreas) and the one

> that makes hormones for the whole body (endocrine

> pancreas).

>

> The " exocrine pancreas " produces enzymes

> (delivered through a duct to

> the first part of the small intestine) that digest

> proteins, fats and

> carbohydrates, so they can be absorbed through the

> intestine. The

> " endocrine pancreas " produces hormones, like

> insulin, which regulate the use

> and storage of the body's main energy sources,

> glucose (sugar) and fats.

> These hormones (delivered through the blood stream)

> are produced in very

> specific clumps of cells (islets). The

> insulin-producing cells are called

> beta cells.

>

> Type 1 (Childhood) Diabetes - The

> Milk-Drinkers Disease

>

> Type 1 diabetes is often referred to as

> childhood type diabetes,

> because this has historically been the most common

> kind of diabetes in

> children, and also as insulin dependent diabetes

> mellitus (IDDM), because

> patients must take daily injections of insulin for

> the rest of their lives.

> However, this relatively common disease is not

> restricted to children and

> many times appears for the first time in adulthood.

> Over 1.6 million

> Americans have type 1 diabetes. A more common form

> of diabetes is called

> type 2 (adult onset and non-insulin dependent).

> This type 2 form is due to

> the high-fat Western diet and resulting obesity, and

> occurs at least nine

> times more frequently than type 1.

>

> The evidence incriminating cow-milk

> consumption in the cause of type 1

> diabetes is sufficient to cause the American Academy

> of Pediatrics to issue

> this warning, " Early exposure of infants to cow's

> milk protein may be an

> important factor in the initiation of the beta cell

> destructive process in

> some individuals. " and " The avoidance of cow's milk

> protein for the first

> several months of life may reduce the later

> development of IDDM or delay its

> onset in susceptible people. " (The American Academy

> of Pediatrics Work

> Group on Cow's Milk Protein and Diabetes Mellitus -

> 1994).

>

> The Milk-Invader and Molecular Mimicry

>

> The problems all begin because of the natural

> condition of the

> intestine of a very young infant. Proteins produced

> by mother, and found in

> human mother's breast milk, serve to promote an

> infant's health and immunity

> from disease. During the first few months of life

> the intestinal wall of an

> infant is quite permeable in order to allow the

> passage of these intact

> proteins into the infant's body. Unfortunately,

> serious health problems can

> develop when foreign proteins are allowed into the

> infant's permeable

> intestinal tract. Cow-milk proteins are unique in

> that they are usually the

> first foreign proteins entering an infant's gut and

> body, because most baby

> formulas are usually cow-milk based.

>

> Once the cow-milk proteins are absorbed into

> the bloodstream, our

> immune system recognizes them as invaders, which as

> far as our bodies are

> concerned, could be the foreign protein of a virus's

> coat or a bacteria cell

> wall. The immune system responds with an

> appropriate defense - antibodies

> are made against the foreign protein, and immune

> cells, called T-cells, are

> directed to find and destroy these trespassers.

>

> Unfortunately, in an effort to do the right

> thing, some people's

> immune systems become slightly confused and attack

> not only the foreign

> cow-milk proteins, but also the insulin-producing

> beta cells of the

> pancreas. The reason this happens in only some

> people, and not everyone, is

> unknown. One explanation has to do with the

> difference in the permeability

> of intestinal walls. Some intestines allow proteins

> into the body more

> easily, because of injuries caused by viruses,

> environmental chemicals,

> medications (NSAID, like Motrin and Advil), and the

> unhealthy, high-fat,

> high cholesterol diet. This condition is sometimes

> called a " leaky gut. " A

> very " leaky gut " will indiscriminately allow the

> influx of foreign proteins

> into the body.

>

> Once the cow-milk protein is in the blood then

> a phenomenon, known as

> " molecular mimicry, " occurs. Foreign proteins, like

> cow-milk, stimulate the

> production of antibodies directed against small

> segments of their proteins -

> specific sequences of amino acids. Unfortunately,

> these same sequences of

> amino acids are also found on the body's own tissues

> (a copy or mimic of the

> foreign protein segment). In the case of type 1

> diabetes, a segment of 17

> amino acids has been identified on the cow-milk

> protein that is identical to

> a segment on the surface of the insulin-producing

> beta cells of the

> pancreas.1 Antibodies appropriately produced to

> attack and destroy the

> cow-milk protein find the beta cells first -- they

> attach to the cell

> surfaces, activating T-cells, which then attack and

> destroy these

> insulin-producing cells. Once these cells are

> destroyed, the pancreas can

> no longer produce sufficient amounts of insulin for

> the body's needs.

>

> The Handicap of Diabetes

>

> Even though the process of beta cell

> destruction may take three to

> five years on the average, the onset of the disease

> usually appears to be

> sudden and is often catastrophic. The apparently

> well child (or adult)

> becomes very ill with symptoms of excessive thirst,

> urination, and fatigue -

> many times followed by coma, and sometimes death.

> The lifesaving treatment

> is very specific: replacement of insulin by daily

> injections.

>

> Once the beta cells are destroyed they will

> not grow back, therefore

> the disease is permanent and the patient will always

> require insulin (unless

> some future technology changes this). Insulin

> replacement therapy is far

> from perfect and does not correct all of the

> underlying metabolic problems.

> A patient living with a damaged pancreas has an

> increased risk for premature

> development of serious complications, such as kidney

> failure, blindness,

> heart attacks, osteoporosis, and cancer. As you

> will recall, these are also

> the problems faced by people without diabetes who

> are on the Western diet.

> But the threats to a diabetic's health are much

> greater.

>

> Diabetics are metabolically handicapped

> people, hampered in their

> ability to defend and repair themselves from outside

> injuries, like an

> infection or an unhealthy diet (the high-fat,

> high-cholesterol Western

> diet). Therefore, to help counteract this

> disadvantage, people with this

> disease must be cared for with vigilance - and that

> means very careful

> control of their blood sugars with insulin

> injections, a wholesome

> lifestyle, and most-importantly, a health-supporting

> diet. This is a diet

> of starches with vegetables and fruits - the less

> meat, dairy, processed

> foods and vegetable oil the better. By this effort,

> the type 1 diabetic has

> the best chance to avoid premature death and serious

> complications. In

> fact, the only people I have met with long-standing

> diabetes who still have

> all their parts working after 40 years of disease,

> have been those following

> a low-fat nearly vegetarian diet - the best example

> are those few fortunate

> people following the Kempner Rice Diet from Duke

> University - sometimes for

> 50 years.

>

> Inherited by an Education

>

> There is some inherited tendency to develop

> type 1 diabetes, but it is

> only a tendency, and actually most people (90%) who

> develop this disease do

> not have close relatives with it. In about 30% of

> identical twins, both get

> diabetes. To bring out this genetic tendency

> requires an environmental

> toxin. Infectious agents, like viruses, have been

> suspected to cause type 1

> diabetes. More likely, when an infection like a

> virus is involved, it acts

> as a nonspecific stress, late in the process of

> disease development, that

> increases the body's needs for insulin and

> precipitates a rise in blood

> sugar earlier than would have occurred otherwise.

> Rather than through

> genetic inheritance or a transmitted virus, the past

> 20 years of accumulated

> evidence has shown the tendency to run in families

> is largely fostered by

> mother and father teaching sons and daughters to

> consume dairy products.

> Since the cow-protein is the culprit activating the

> immune reaction, low-fat

> dairy products would cause at least as much harm as

> the full-fat versions.

>

> Evidence Incriminating Cow-Milk:

>

> 1) Population Studies (Epidemiology):

>

> When populations of people who are

> genetically similar

> have a different incidence of disease then something

> in the environment must

> be suspected as the cause. The strongest contact we

> have with our

> environment is our food. This environmental

> relationship is further

> confirmed when people migrate from an area of low

> incidence to high

> incidence, and increase their risk of developing

> disease. This migration

> phenomena has been seen, for example, when Samoan

> children move to New

> Zealand and when Asians move to England.2

>

> There is a strong correlation

> between total cow-milk

> consumption and type 1 diabetes, worldwide.3 For

> example, Finland, a high

> milk-consuming population, has 36 times more type 1

> diabetes than does a

> country of low consumption, like Japan.4 A similar

> relationship has been

> found within a single country, for example, between

> 9 regions of Italy -

> regions consuming the most milk have the most

> diabetes.5

>

> Type 1 diabetes is one of the

> fastest growing diseases in

> the world. There has been a rapid increase (greater

> than 10-fold) in type 1

> diabetes in European countries in the past few

> decades, especially in

> children under five years.6 This rise clearly

> points to an environmental,

> rather than a genetic cause. This rise has been

> paralleled by an increase

> in fluid milk intake.

>

> There are notable exceptions to

> this strong positive

> correlation between cow-milk consumption and type 1

> diabetes - but there is

> also a scientific explanation for the

> discrepancies.7,8 Examples of this

> apparent inconsistency are seen in Iceland, New

> Zealand, and the Maasai

> people of Tanzania, Africa. In these populations

> there is high milk

> consumption and low diabetes. The explanation is:

> cow-milks from different

> herds have important differences in their proteins.

> The cow-milk found in

> populations with a low incidence of type 1 diabetes

> has a much lower

> fraction of A1 and B beta?caseins (instead they have

> the A2 variant). The

> A1 and B forms of beta?caseins are believed to be

> the proteins that cause

> the body to respond by destroying the

> insulin-producing cells of the

> pancreas. When these variants of cow-milk are taken

> into consideration then

> the correlation of cow-milk consumption and type 1

> diabetes becomes evident.

> It is estimated that 80% of dairy cows have this A1

> and or B variant. One

> reason this may be so frequently found is because

> cows have been selectively

> bred this way to increase the protein content of the

> cow-milk (a quality

> desired by dairy producers).9

>

> 2) Case Studies:

>

> Studies comparing populations of

> people with type 1

> diabetes with healthy individuals indicate the risk

> of developing type 1

> diabetes is 5.4 times greater in high milk consumers

> (3 or more glasses a

> day) compared to those who drink less milk (less

> than 3 glasses a day).10

>

> 3) Milk-induced Changes in the Immune System:

>

> Children newly diagnosed with type

> 1 diabetes have been

> found to have increased levels of antibodies

> directed to several different

> cow-milk proteins.11-13

>

> Antibodies against cow-milk

> protein (specifically bovine

> serum albumin and an ABBOS peptide of 17 amino

> acids) were found to react

> with a similar-looking sequence of amino acids on

> the beta cells of the

> pancreas in 100% of children newly diagnosed with

> type 1 diabetes.1

>

> Antibodies to insulin often appear

> in children who develop

> type 1 diabetes. This is caused by exposure of an

> infant (before the age of

> three months) to cow's insulin (bovine insulin)

> found in the milk the child

> drinks.14 These antibodies to cow-milk also attack

> human insulin and may

> be the trigger for the autoimmune response that

> causes diabetes.

>

> Immune cells, known as T-cells,

> have been found to

> proliferate in response to cow-milk proteins in

> newly diagnosed type 1

> diabetic children.9 These T-cells, once activated

> by cow-milk, then

> attack the beta cells of the pancreas and destroy

> them. Molecular mimicry

> appears to be involved.

>

> Avoidance of cow-milk through

> exclusive breast feeding

> prevents the development of antibodies to cow-milk

> protein (beta casein).15

> Only bottle-fed infants show reactions to cow-milk

> proteins. Increased

> levels of antibodies to these cow-milk proteins are

> found in children with

> type 1 diabetes.

>

> Please note: A nursing mother

> consuming cow-milk can pass

> the proteins to her infant through her breast

> milk.16 Whether this kind of

> cow-milk protein consumption is a cause of type 1

> diabetes is not known, but

> it would be prudent for a nursing mother to avoid

> cow-milk in her diet.17

>

> 4) Animal studies:

>

> Experimental animals (mice and

> rats) fed cow-milk have

> been found to develop diabetes.18-20 It is

> important to note that soy

> protein and wheat protein have also caused

> experimental animals to develop

> diabetes.21 This is another reason breast feeding

> exclusively is the right

> choice and why soy-based infant formulas are not an

> acceptable substitute

> for cow-milk based formulas (see next month's

> newsletter for even more

> compelling reasons to use soy with caution). For

> maximum benefit for the

> young child, feed mother's breast milk exclusively

> for six months and then

> as a decreasing part of the diet until the child is

> two years of age. (For a

> comprehensive discussion of the importance of breast

> feeding read The

> McDougall Program for Women).

>

> Sensible Action: Cow-milk Avoidance:

>

> The dairy industry makes attempts to argue

> against their products

> causing type 1 diabetes. (You can view their very

> selective use of the

> scientific literature to defend the safety of their

> products here:

>

http://www.nationaldairycouncil.org/lvl04/nutrilib/relresearch/diabetes_6.ht

> ml)

>

> These arguments don't fool the American

> Academy of Pediatrics and

> hundreds of top scientists worldwide, and they don't

> fool me. I would

> suggest you take the less risky road for your

> family. Since cow-milk is

> ideal for baby cows and was never intended for human

> children, act naturally

> and avoid a potential tragedy. With the same action

> you will be reducing

> the risk of constipation, arthritis, ear infections,

> asthma, bed-wetting,

> eczema, lactose intolerance, and obesity, as well as

> future cancers, strokes

> and heart disease. There is no human nutritional

> requirement for cow-milk.

> It is deficient in dietary fiber, essential fats,

> niacin, vitamin C, and

> iron, and overloaded with calories, saturated fat,

> environmental chemicals,

> and disease pathogens (bacteria and viruses).

>

> The dairy industry's main selling point is

> calcium; however a thorough

> review by researchers at the Department of

> Nutritional Sciences, University

> of Alabama, of 57 studies on cow-milk and bone

> health came to this

> conclusion: " In fact, of the studies providing

> strong evidence, only 29%

> showed favorable effects and 14% showed unfavorable

> effects on bone status.

> These values suggest that there is little risk of

> harm to the skeletal

> system if recommendations to the general population

> to consume dairy foods

> are heeded. However, these values do not provide a

> solid body of evidence

> to support this recommendation. " 22 By the way, most

> of the studies reviewed

> here were paid for by the dairy industry - and they

> still failed to show

> their products met the manufacturer's multimillion

> dollar advertising claims

> . No one has ever become ill or died from a lack

> of cow-milk. Without a

> doubt, the opposite is true for billions of people.

>

> Pancreatic Cancer

>

> Pancreatic cancer is the fifth leading cause

> of cancer death in the

> United States. Because of the deep location of the

> pancreas inside the

> abdomen, diagnosis of the disease is difficult, and

> as a result it is nearly

> always fatal in a matter of months - 90% have died

> within 12 months of

> diagnosis. Even with the best that modern medicine

> has to offer,

> approximately 25,000 people die from this disease

> yearly. Therefore, if you

> want to effectively win the war on cancer of the

> pancreas you must do so by

> prevention.

>

> The only well-established causative factor is

> cigarette smoking.

> However, diet, I believe, is the most likely cause

> of most cases. This is

> disease of developed countries - where the rich

> Western diet is consumed.

> There are data that show a diet high in fruits and

> vegetables is associated

> with a lower risk of pancreatic cancer.23,24

> Obesity, alcohol, coffee,

> saturated fat, animal protein, high-fat dairy

> products, and low physical

> activity increase the risk. There is also an

> association with chronic

> pancreatitis and diabetes - both are diseases of the

> Western diet (discussed

> above and below).

>

> Prevention is the key to dealing with

> pancreatic cancer. But what can

> be done for those less fortunate patients already

> with pancreatic cancer? A

> case control study demonstrated that patients with

> metastatic pancreatic

> cancer who ate a diet of fruits and vegetables (a

> macrobiotic diet) lived

> longer (17 months versus six months) and enjoyed an

> improved quality of

> life.25 This study from researchers at Tulane

> University showed half of

> those on the macrobiotic diet were alive after one

> year, compared to only

> 10% on the regular diet. The researchers concluded

> that the macrobiotic

> approach may be an effective treatment, writing

> " This exploratory analysis

> suggests that a strict macrobiotic diet is more

> likely to be effective in

> the long-term management of cancer than are diets

> that provide a variety of

> other foods. "

>

> Pancreatitis

>

> Pancreatitis is an inflammatory condition of

> the pancreas that is very

> painful and at times deadly. The mortality rate of

> acute pancreatitis is

> about 10%. Chronic forms of pancreatitis can

> devastate a person's life over

> many years. Patients suffer abdominal pain and

> malnutrition, and have a

> higher risk of pancreatic cancer. Chronic alcohol

> abuse and an unhealthy

> diet are known to cause acute and chronic

> pancreatitis.26 A high protein

> ketogenic diet has been reported to cause

> pancreatitis that killed a

> child.27 (The Atkins diet is a high protein,

> ketogenic diet). Diets high

> in sugar and fat will cause the level of blood fats,

> known as triglycerides,

> to rise in some people. The elevated triglycerides

> seem to interfere with

> the circulation of the pancreas and cause severe

> inflammation, known as

> pancreatitis. A low-fat, complex carbohydrate diet

> and alcohol avoidance is

> the foundation to preventing further attacks.

>

> References:

>

> 1. Karjalainen J. A bovine albumin peptide

> as a possible trigger of

> insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. N Engl J Med.

> 1992 Jul 30;327(5):302-7.

>

> 2. Verge C. Environmental factors in

> childhood IDDM. A

> population-based, case-control study. Diabetes

> Care. 1994

> Dec;17(12):1381-9.

>

> 3. Dahl-Jorgensen K. Relationship between

> cows' milk consumption and

> incidence of IDDM in childhood. Diabetes Care.

> 1991 Nov;14(11):1081-3.

>

> 4. LaPorte R. Geographic differences in the

> risk of

> insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus: the importance

> of registries. Diabetes

> Care. 1985 Sep-Oct;8 Suppl 1:101-7.

>

> 5. Fava D. Relationship between dairy

> product consumption and

> incidence of IDDM in childhood in Italy. Diabetes

> Care. 1994

> Dec;17(12):1488-90.

>

> 6. Patterson C. Is childhood-onset type I

> diabetes a wealth-related

> disease? An ecological analysis of European

> incidence rates. Diabetologia.

> 2001 Oct;44 Suppl 3:B9-16.

>

> 7. Elliott R. Type I (insulin-dependent)

> diabetes mellitus and cow

> milk: casein variant consumption. Diabetologia.

> 1999 Mar;42(3):292-6.

>

> 8. Thorsdottir I. Different beta-casein

> fractions in Icelandic

> versus Scandinavian cow's milk may influence

> diabetogenicity of cow's milk

> in infancy and explain low incidence of

> insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

> in Iceland. Pediatrics. 2000 Oct;106(4):719-24.

>

> 9. Cavallo M. Cell-mediated immune response

> to beta casein in

> recent-onset insulin-dependent diabetes:

> implications for disease

> pathogenesis. Lancet. 1996 Oct 5;348(9032):926-8.

>

> 10. Virtanen S. Cow's milk consumption,

> HLA-DQB1 genotype, and type

> 1 diabetes: a nested case-control study of siblings

> of children with

> diabetes. Childhood diabetes in Finland study group.

> Diabetes. 2000

> Jun;49(6):912-7.

>

> 11. Savilahti E. Children with newly

> diagnosed insulin dependent

> diabetes mellitus have increased levels of cow's

> milk antibodies. Diabetes

> Res. 1988 Mar;7(3):137-40.

>

> 12. Dahlqvist G. An increased level of

> antibodies to

> beta-lactoglobulin is a risk determinant for

> early-onset type 1

> (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus independent of

> islet cell antibodies

> and early introduction of cow's milk. Diabetologia.

> 1992 Oct;35(10):980-4.

>

> 13. Saukkonen T. IgA bovine serum albumin

> antibodies are increased

> in newly diagnosed patients with insulin-dependent

> diabetes mellitus, but

> the increase is not an independent risk factor for

> diabetes. Acta Paediatr.

> 1995 Nov;84(11):1258-61.

>

> 14. Vaarala O. Cow's milk formula feeding

> induces primary

> immunization to insulin in infants at genetic risk

> for type 1 diabetes.

> Diabetes. 1999 Jul;48(7):1389-94.

>

> 15. Monetini L. Bovine beta-casein

> antibodies in breast- and

> bottle-fed infants: their relevance in Type 1

> diabetes. Diabetes Metab Res

> Rev. 2001 Jan-Feb;17(1):51-4.

>

> 16. Jakobsson I. Dietary bovine

> beta-lactoglobulin is transferred

> to human milk. Acta Paediatr Scand. 1985

> May;74(3):342-5.

>

> 17. Murch S. Diabetes and cows' milk.

> Lancet. 1996 Dec

> 14;348(9042):1656.

>

> 18. Elliott R. Dietary prevention of

> diabetes in the non-obese

> diabetic mouse. Diabetologia. 1988 Jan;31(1):62-4.

>

> 19. Karges W. Immunological aspects of

> nutritional diabetes

> prevention in NOD mice: a pilot study for the cow's

> milk-based IDDM

> prevention trial. Diabetes. 1997 Apr;46(4):557-64.

>

> 20. Scott F. Potential mechanisms by which

> certain foods promote or

> inhibit the development of spontaneous diabetes in

> BB rats: dose, timing,

> early effect on islet area, and switch in infiltrate

> from Th1 to Th2 cells.

> Diabetes. 1997 Apr;46(4):589-98.

>

> 21. Akerblom H. Putative environmental

> factors in Type 1 diabetes.

> Diabetes Metab Rev. 1998 Mar;14(1):31-67.

>

> 22. Weinsier R. Dairy foods and bone health:

> examination of the

> evidence. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Sep;72(3):681-9.

>

> 23. Stolzenberg-Solomon R. Prospective study

> of diet and pancreatic

> cancer in male smokers. Am J Epidemiol. 2002 May

> 1;155(9):783-92.

>

> 24. Potter D. Pancreas cancer--we know about

> smoking, but do we know

> anything else? Am J Epidemiol. 2002 May

> 1;155(9):793-5.

>

> 25. Carter J. Hypothesis: dietary management

> may improve survival

> from nutritionally linked cancers based on analysis

> of representative cases.

> J Am Coll Nutr. 1993 Jun;12(3):209-26.

>

> 26. Athyros V. Long-term follow-up of

> patients with acute

> hypertriglyceridemia-induced pancreatitis. J Clin

> Gastroenterol. 2002

> Apr;34(4):472-5.

>

> 27. Stewart W. Acute pancreatitis causing

> death in a child on the

> ketogenic diet. J Child Neurol. 2001 Sep;16(9):682.

>

>

>

> 2002 John McDougall

>

>

>

> [Non-text portions of this message have been

> removed]

>

>

 

 

 

 

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