Category: Asthma

Several days ago I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts by Naturopathic physician Dr. Stephen Cabral.  The topic of the day happened to be about all of the repellent things (like pus and bacterial cells) found in milk. The timing was fortuitous.  Since dairy was the “mother” of all inflammation for me, I figured I would give you a breakdown of what he said and draw the connection between dairy and chronic health issues.

By the way, if you’ve never listened to Dr. Cabral, I would recommend giving him 10 minutes of your time, at least once.  He’s a very smart guy.

I suppose there are ways to soften what I’m about to tell you, but I’m a firm believer in telling it like it is.  So if you don’t like where I’m going with this, or if you’re the squeamish kind, this may be a good jumping off point for you.

THE MOMMA AND HER BABY:

Before I get into Cabral’s podcast, I’ll give you a brief background on the Cow herself. On most modern U.S. Dairy farms when a Holstein (most dairy cows are of this variety) delivers a calf, her baby is allowed to stay with her for up to 14 days. Though the calf is usually removed within three days.  As the mother/calf bond intensifies over time, delayed separation can cause extreme stress on both cow and calf. (1) Because her milk is  for human consumption and not for her baby, the calf is either given a commercial formula, or milk that has been deemed unfit for human consumption.

All animals (humans included) bond with their babies, it is intrinsic to their survival. It is not uncommon to hear a momma cow bellow when her baby is taken from her. Noted psychiatrist and author Dr. Oliver Sacks, discussed a visit that he and Temple Grandin once made to a dairy farm: “When we arrived, we heard many cows bellowing, causing a very loud and unnerving sound.”  Temple commented, “They must have separated the calves from the cows this morning,” and indeed, that was exactly the case. (2)

Female calves are reared to follow in their mother’s footsteps, but male calves are either put in small “veal” crates or they’re culled.  Most veal slaughter comes from dairy calves, (3) and culled is a benign way of saying they are not deemed useful and they’re killed.

Dairy cows are milked even during their pregnancy.  In the United States, the typical dairy cow is milked for 10 months a year, which is only possible because she is impregnated by artificial insemination while still secreting milk from her previous pregnancy. This process increases the estrogen in their milk upwards of 60%.

Studies have shown that elevated estrogen rates are linked to early onset of puberty, and higher rates of hormone dependent IgF1 cancers like breast cancer, ovarian cancer and prostate cancer in men.  (4)

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT:

We’ve all heard the saying, “You Are What You Eat.” But guess what, You Are Also What You Eat “Eats”.  This information is directly from Dr. Cabral’s podcast.

• USDA allows 1.5 million white blood cells per ml of milk sold (cows get mastitis infection from constantly having to produce milk.)
• Cows are given antibiotics to combat the mastitis infection.
• Now we have the cow’s foreign white blood cells (immune cells) in our body and our own immune system is stimulated to turn on. There is an average of 322 million cell counts of pus in one cup of milk.
• Cows are given steroids, estrogen, rBGH (Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormones) to increase milk production so they grow larger to produce more meat. Dairy stock is often used for both milk and meat production.
• Increase in Type 1 Diabetes and other autoimmune diseases like MS, due to the size of a cow’s protein (casein) molecule.  Our body’s immune system doesn’t recognize the cow’s proteins and it begins to fight them off thinking they are intruders.

Cows are ruminants and should be eating greens like grass, clover, alfalfa, etc. Instead, they are fed GMO corn, which they were never meant to eat. They feed them corn and soy because it is the cheapest form of “calories” on the planet. Often however, this results in the cows becoming sick. Their rates of liver infections, chronic acidosis, and E. coli production increase dramatically. As a matter of prevention, dairy farmers throw antibiotics directly into their cow feed.

Cows are given over 85 different drugs, but the regulating committee that tests the milk only requires testing of  four. Studies have shown that 38% of all milk is contaminated with residues of antibiotics and sulfa-based drugs. (5)

A 20 year longitudinal study of women who drank 3 glasses of milk per day, were shown to have twice the mortality rate as women who drank only one glass of milk per day. (6)

Dairy has been shown to increase acne, ear infections and constipation. (Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Crohn’s disease are also linked to dairy consumption)  Dairy is also the number one allergen for infants and children in the world, (7) likely because of their immature immune system.

There are so many alternatives to cow’s milk.  You can get 50% more calcium in a nut-based or plant-based milk.  There are so many options available on the market today. “Ripple” milk at Target is my favorite, and the kids love Silk Original Soy milk.

Dr. Cabral recommends removing all dairy products from your diet for at least 21 days to see the positive health effects.   We removed dairy from our son’s diet and all signs of his hyperactivity disappeared.  My chronic inflammation resolved within 3 weeks and my cholesterol dropped 40 points in six months.

I don’t miss milk, but I sometimes miss cheese. Even though I can make a delectable chocolate cheesecake out of whipped nut cream, and a spicy cashew cheese “Rotel” dip that is out of this world… I’m not gonna lie, the smell of cheese pizza still gets me.  But I know what will happen to me if I eat it, and it’s not worth it. It’s not worth if for me, for my kids, and definitely not worth it for the cows.

Next time on “All Shook Up,” Healing the Gut

Before I get into this post, I’d like to clarify that food by itself is not something that is either “good” or “bad.” That’s subjective. However, some food is better for you than other food. That’s science. Though the title of this post might seem like a moral valuation, it’s used as a play on words from the dairy industry’s “Milk does a body good” campaign. I will always include links to any information I’ve provided. I want you to be able to trace the data back to its source and decide for yourself. Ultimately, my goal with this blog is to inform… Nothing more.

It took a few weeks for the dust to settle after I got my IgG test results. I stopped all dairy products, and within three weeks, all of my sinus issues had resolved, and my reflux had vastly improved. I wondered why milk, in particular, had caused such an inflammatory sh*t storm in my body. I vaguely remember my mom telling me that I had a difficult time with my baby formula as an infant. I also had horrible colic. So I called her. She laughed and said. “Yes, you used to vomit baby formula like a fire hose.” It seems milk has always given me issues. As a teenager, it gave me severe stomach cramps and ice cream. When Jason, my son, was a baby, he suffered from severe gastrointestinal issues once I quit nursing. We removed dairy and gave him hemp milk. It tasted good, and he needed its high fat/protein content. Eventually, we re-introduced cow milk, but when he got to Elementary school, we took him off of it once more because he had symptoms of ADHD. (There is a large body of evidence linking ADHD and autism to the cow milk protein “casein”). Once he was free of dairy and gluten, his physical and behavioral symptoms disappeared.

Thinking about all of this, I felt like I was on to something. I sat down with a chopped salad and homemade vegan ranch dressing and Googled milk allergy. According to Google, a cow milk allergy is “an abnormal immune system response to milk and milk products.” Aside from milk being one of the “Big 8” allergens, it is by most accounts the most significant allergen. For the next few weeks, I spent hours and days reading about cow’s milk. I realized something that gave me great pause: Did you know that humans are the only animals in nature who “voluntarily” drink the mother’s milk of another animal? Think about that for a minute… Yes, mother’s milk. We are the only animals that drink mother’s milk as an adult.

Via bizaroo.com

When asked, “Are Humans The Only Animal To Drink Milk From Other Species?” Oliver Craig, a specialist in bi-molecular archaeology from The University of York, replied, “All juvenile animals can drink milk, and that’s because they have the enzyme lactase to digest the milk sugars. But the genome that makes the enzyme gets switched off when they get to a certain age, so as adults, they can’t drink it.” They CAN’T drink it. So was my response to cow’s milk abnormal?

Dr. Michael Klaper, M.D., described milk as “The lactation secretions of a large bovine animal that just had a baby.” Yep. “Humans do not need baby cow growth food in any way.” He said that milk’s proteins, lipids, hormones, and IGF growth factors are meant to grow an 80-pound calf (birth weight) into a 600-pound cow (weaned weight @ 9 months.). Milk is the primary source of nutrition for the infant mammal before they can digest other types of food. Honestly, I had never thought about milk this way. Until then, all I knew about milk was that it was essential to drink a tall cold glass with my Toll House cookies, and my Cocoa Pebbles cereal turned it into chocolate milk! Oh yeah, and it had a lot of calcium.

The problem with humans drinking cow’s milk begins with the essential proteins. The two proteins contained in milk are casein and whey. Human milk contains these in a ratio of 40:60 respectively; in cow’s milk, the proportion of casein to whey proteins is 80:20.

THE PROTEIN

­The protein content of cow milk is double that of human breast milk. And guess what? Excess protein in the body causes amino acids to convert into glucose, typically stored as fat. Growing calves need more protein to enable them to grow quickly. On the other hand, human infants need less protein and more fat as their energies are expended primarily in the development of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves.” (1)  A baby cow doubles its birth weight every 40 days. On the other hand, baby humans double their birth weight every 180 days. In the first year of life, a baby cow grows 180 times faster than a baby human. The casein protein in cow’s milk is double that in human milk. (2) Casein is also very difficult to digest. It is a sticky protein, and baby cows come with a particular enzyme in their stomachs called rennet, designed especially to break down casein. Humans do not have rennet, so casein is very hard for us to digest. (3)

Casein has been linked to various diseases and allergies, including  Diabetes (type 1), ADHD, and Autism. Only one study I found showed no causal relation between casein (and gluten) to autism. The study, however, did not include kids with gastrointestinal issues. Yet, (this is important) according to Autism Speaks, an autism advocacy organization, Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders are among the most common medical conditions associated with autism.

Okay, fine. So cow milk proteins cause problems for some people. If you’re not one of those people and you don’t drink milk in excess, no big deal, right? Uh, not-so-fast. Dr. T. Colin Campbell and his colleagues examined, in the most comprehensive study ever conducted on nutrition and disease, the relationship between nutrition and Type 1 Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, and other autoimmune diseases. “Of those diseases studied concerning nutrition, the consumption of animal-based food (especially cow’s milk) is associated with greater disease risk.”

And this, my friend, is where things get weird, like really weird. With food allergies, autoimmune diseases, obesity, and cancer rates on the rise, I wondered what in the world was going on. We’ve been drinking milk for thousands of years (13), so why suddenly are we getting sick? I began watching documentaries about the food industry and modern-day agribusiness. What I discovered made me sick, then angry, then scared.

Next on “All Shook Up,” Part 2: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT

 

 

 

It took about a week to get the results of my blood test.   My nutritionist’s office was kind enough to email me the results even though I wouldn’t meet with Dr. Olivia for a few more days. I wasn’t so much worried about the possibility of removing foods from my diet.  I was worried that I would have no allergies, and that I would be a slave to pain and pills for the rest of my life.

Before I go over my results, I want to give you the quick and dirty about the actual test itself. An “IgG” food sensitivity test, measures IgG4 immunoglobulin reactions. Bear with me here.  In the body, IgG antibodies attach themselves to food antigens and create an antibody-antigen complex. (Deep breath…) These “complexes” are normally removed by special cells in the body they call macrophages.  However, if there too many of these complexes, and the “reactive” foods are still being eaten, the macrophages can’t get rid of them fast enough.  The food antigen/antibody complexes accumulate and are deposited in our body tissues. Once they’re in our tissues, these complexes release inflammation causing chemicals, which play a role in numerous autoimmune diseases and conditions. (Think of diseases or conditions that end in “-itis.”) Such as:

• Asthma
• Arthritis
• Colitis
• Sinusitis
• Migraines
• Ear Infections
• Eczema
• Lupus
• Urticaria
• And many, many more….

This test is different from an IgE blood test you might get from allergists.  IgE skin or blood tests look for histamine reactions, (think mold, cats, pollen, and peanut allergies) which can be life threatening.

My particular IgG blood test examined my body’s inflammatory reaction to 95 different foods.  Each food tested, has a “Mean Antigen Score,” with a reference range of low, moderate and avoided levels.   As you can see Dairy and Eggs were the big ones. In fact, Dr. Olivia told me not to even look at a cow.  I was surprised to find that “wheat” wasn’t in the “avoid” category.  However, Dr. Olivia reminded me that I hadn’t eaten wheat in nearly a year. Otherwise, she said I would have likely tested higher than I did for dairy.   (Side note: I also tested, highly allergic to wheat on an IgE skin test.)

The results were a lot to absorb.  The mean “avoid” score for dairy was 450 points.  I was in 2000’s. The funny thing is I never really ate much dairy, but I’m so allergic that it doesn’t take much.  There would be no more Gruyère or Montamoré, and no more scrambled eggs or Sunday morning frittatas.  Oh yeah, I am also allergic to Almonds, Pineapple, Quinoa (WTH?), and Kidney Beans.   Remember what I said about wanting a food allergy?  Well, I was lying to myself. Or at least that’s what I told myself in the beginning.  However, my reflux had gotten so bad, most nights I slept in my husband’s recliner just to get to sleep. I was taking two Prilosec a day and it was only getting worse.  I had developed what they called Acid Rebound, a vicious cycle between the acid blocker and the body (whose natural response to no acid, is to produce more acid). So I took a deep breath and marched forward.

I met with Dr. Olivia a few days later to go over the results.   She was amazing.  Her candor was appreciated and her prognosis was hopeful. Her feelings toward traditional medicine were very much the same as mine, however, she was much more compassionate toward their plight.  “Nutrition is only a requirement in less than 2% of U.S. Medical schools,” she said. “They just don’t know any better.”   She shared a personal story about a local cardiologist who called her office wanting to schedule a lunch date with her. She agreed and met him a week later. The cardiologist explained to her that he had 5 patients who were not only healing, but healing at a much faster pace than all of his other patients. It was enough of an anomaly for him to investigate. After tirelessly pouring over their medical files, he realized the common factor among these 5 patients was in fact, Dr. Olivia Joseph. He had confided that in his 10 years of medical training to become a cardiologist, he had only taken one course in nutrition, and that was an elective, not a requirement.  He asked her to speak to some of his colleagues about her treatment protocols.  She is now teaching continuing education courses for this group of heart doctors.

On my way out she hugged me and said, “Don’t be surprised if your doctors or allergists think you’re crazy for meeting with me,”  They don’t give a lot of credence to what we do.” She was right.  My allergist all but called her a quack.  Physicians in the US are only allowed to diagnose and prescribe based on what the American Medical Association, (AMA) the big pharmaceutical companies and the insurance companies tell them they can.  (I will write an entire blog about that in the future.) Not only that, the average primary care doctor spends approximately 15 minutes with each patient, and guess what? Nutrition is not a part of the conversation.

I left her office and headed straight to Whole Foods. It had been a while, but I was back, back to the happy, hippie health food store of my youth.  I spent two hours wandering through the aisles.  I also spent the first year of Avery’s college fund. Nonetheless, I came home with a bounty of organic fruits and vegetables, a liquid iron supplement, and a bottle of Vitamin D 5000.  I also bought my first container of non-dairy milk.

Within 11 days, I had lost 9 lbs and my energy levels soared.  I learned that this was the amount of inflammation I was carrying around in my body tissue.   Within 4 months, I was down 24 pounds and all of my joint pain was gone. Within 6 months, the reflux was gone. People told me that I was glowing from the inside out.  I went from hiding behind Kevin in pictures, to standing in front of him. (((Tears)))    I also spent the next several months reading everything I could get my hands on about nutrition and chronic disease.  When I gave up those foods, I gained more than my health back.  I gained my life back.

A person’s weight isn’t everything, but it is a good predictor of health.  When looking over my most recent blood work, my primary doctor said I had the blood of a healthy 18 year old. I will be 45 in 3 months.  I am currently down 32 pounds from one year ago. My BMI is and my blood pressure went from 125/78 to 116/58.  My bad cholesterol is down 50 points and my good cholesterol is up 40 points.   Still no joint pain or reflux (unless I drink too much alcohol).  I take a good whole food multi-vitamin plus Vitamin D every day.  I am no longer tired during the day and sleep like a baby at night. We have one body, and one life, and is up to us to do the best for both.

 

Next up on All Shook Up: “Milk Does No-Body Good.”