elf, I got curious about what you posted, about hormones being destroyed in the stomach. Sounds reasonable. So I sent Robert Cohen an e-mail last night to inquire about the question of hormones surviving digestion and getting into the human system. He replied by e-mail that it would be too time-consuming to answer by e-mail, and asked if he could call me on the phone (!). So I sent him my phone number, and he called this morning.
One thing he said was that in nature, mammal milk serves a special function, and that is to make babies grow. Human mother's milk makes human babies grow, right? So there's obviously a special mechanism in place to assure that growth hormones in milk survive digestion by the baby, whatever the species.
The gist of what he told me about cow's milk was that the most powerful growth hormone in milk, called IGF-I, does indeed survive human digestion. This is because fat and casein molecules in cow's milk attach themselves to the milk's IGF-I molecules and protect them from our stomach acid. Some of the IGF-I is destroyed during digestion, but there's a LOT of that stuff in milk, so a good amount survives. It's often seen in nature that more of a certain thing is produced than is needed, for similar reasons. Male human sperm cells is one example, alligator and sea turtle babies are others. Cow's milk also has a buffering agent which neutralizes stomach acid. Drinking milk can change our empty-stomach pH from its normal 1.8 to a nearly-neutral 6.0 in short order.
Below are some quotes gathered from some of Mr. Cohen's NotMilk newsletters:
quote:
There are hundreds of millions of different proteins in nature and only one hormone that is identical between any two species. That powerful growth hormone is IGF-I. IGF-I survives digestion and has been identified as a key factor in the growth of every human cancer.
There are four thousand animals in the animal kingdom and millions of different proteins. Each protein is different, save one. There is a miracle of nature at work here...a cosmic coincidence that is so improbable as to approach the unthinkable. IGF-I in humans and cows is identical. A protein hormone containing seventy amino acids...a perfect match, picking the same amino acid seventy times in a row. Our most powerful growth hormone is identical to a cow's most powerful growth hormone. IGF-I, both in humans and bovines, contains 70 amino acids in the same exact order and gene sequence. A coincidence, the odds of which are astronomical.
A study published in the May 9, 1998 issue of the British medical journal, Lancet, revealed the absolute correlation of high levels of this powerful hormone in the bodies of women with breast cancer. IGF-I has made front page news in every newspaper in America as a result of that paper. Many months earlier, a similar study found IGF-I levels elevated in males with prostate cancer. The prostate cancer study was published in the journal Science in January of 1998. Many scientists call our most powerful growth hormone the key factor in the growth and proliferation of cancer. What these scientists do not realize is that IGF-I is identical in humans and cows. One 12-ounce glass of milk doubles the amount of free IGF-I in the human body.
:::
Does drinking milk increase levels of IGF-I in the human bloodstream? Two studies have confirmed that worst fear for milk drinkers.
The first, performed by Robert Heaney and published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association in October of 1999 (vol. 99, no. 10), determined:
"Serum IGF-I levels increased significantly in milk drinkers, an increase of about 10% above baseline but was unchanged in the control group."
A more recent European study published in the September, 2004 issue of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Volume 58,9:1211-6) found that blood levels of IGF-I increased by a factor of 19% in a group of milk-drinking children and was unchanged in the control group.
Summary: IGF-I has been identified as a key factor in the growth of cancer. IGF-I is identical in human and cow. Drinking milk increases IGF-I levels.
