Vegan Health Articles52 Good Reasons to Abandon Milk and Dairy!
A Vegan Health Article from All-Creatures.org

These vegan health articles are presented to assist you in taking a pro-active part in your own health.

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From NotMilk.com

A is for ALLERGIES
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"In reality, cow's milk, especially processed cow's milk, has been linked to a variety of health problems, including: mucous production, hemoglobin loss, childhood diabetes, heart disease, atherosclerosis, arthritis, kidney stones, mood swings, depression, irritability, allergies..."

Townsend Medical Letter, May, 1995
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"Most formula fed infants developed symptoms of allergic rejection to cow milk proteins before one month of age. About 50-70% experienced rashes or other skin symptoms, 50-60 percent gastrointestinal symptoms, and 20-30 percent respiratory symptoms. The recommended therapy is to avoid cow's milk."

Pediatric-Allergy-Immunology, August, 1994, 5(5 Suppl.)
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B is for BREAST CANCER
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"Human Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) and bovine IGF-I are identical. Both contain 70 amino acids in the identical sequence."

SCIENCE, vol. 249. August 24, 1990.
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"IGF-I produces a 10-fold increase in RNA levels of cancer cells. IGF-I appears to be a critical component in cellular proliferation."

X.S. Li, Exp-Cell-Res., March, 1994, 211(1)
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C is for CROHN'S DISEASE
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"Mycobacterium paratuberculosis is capable of surviving commercial pasteurization."

Applied and Environmental Microbiology: 64(3), Mar 1998.
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"Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (bacteria not killed by pasteurization) RNA was found in 100% of Crohn's disease patients, compared with 0% of controls."

D. Mishina, Proceedings National Academy of Sciences USA :93: September, 1996
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D is for DIABETES
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"The National Dairy Board's Slogan, 'Milk. It does a body good,' sounds a little hollow these days."

Scientific American, October, 1992
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"These new studies, and more than 20 well-documented previous ones, have prompted one researcher to say the link between milk and juvenile diabetes is 'very solid'."

Diabetes Care 1994;17 (12)
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E is for EAR INFECTIONS
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"Milk allergies are very common in children... They are the leading cause of the chronic ear infections that plague up to 40% of all children under the age of six."

Julian Whitaker, M.D., "Health & Healing," October, 1998, Volume 8, No. 10
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"Cow‚s milk has become a point of controversy among doctors and nutritionists. There was a time when it was considered very desirable, but research has forced us to rethink this recommendation...dairy products contribute to a surprising number of health problems (including) chronic ear problems..."

Benjamin Spock, M.D., "Child Care," 7th Edition
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F is for FAT
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"Milk fat has been identified as a cholesterol-elevating fat because it contains cholesterol and is primarily saturated."

Journal of Dairy Science 1991;74 (11)
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"Preference for a diet high in animal fat could be a pathogenic factor, and milk and high fat dairy products contribute considerably to dietary fat intake."

J. Am Coll Nutr, 2000 Apr, 19:2 Suppl
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G is for GROWTH FACTOR
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"Levels of IGF increase in milk after cows are treated with rbGH."

National Institutes of Health Assessment of Bovine Somatotropin, December, 1990
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"The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system is widely involved in human carcinogenesis. A significant association between high circulating IGF-I concentrations and an increased risk of lung, colon, prostate and pre-menopausal breast cancer has recently been reported."

International J Cancer, 2000 Aug, 87:4
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H is for HEART DISEASE
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"Milk and milk products gave the highest correlation coefficient to heart disease, while sugar, animal proteins and animal fats came in second, third, and fourth, respectively."

A Survey of Mortality Rates and Food Consumption Statistics of 24 Countries, Medical Hypothesis 7:907-918, 1981
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"For ischemic heart disease, milk carbohydrates were found to have the highest statistical association for males aged 35+ and females aged 65+. In the case of coronary heart disease, non-fat milk was found to have the highest association for males aged 45+ and females aged 75+, while for females 65-74, milk carbohydrates and sugar had the highest associations."

Altern Med Rev, Aug, 3, 1998
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I is for IRON DEFICIENCY
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"Cow's milk can cause blood loss from the intestinal tract, which over time, reduces the body's iron stores. Blood loss may be a reaction to cow's milk proteins."

Journal of Pediatrics, 1990, 116
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"Cow's milk-induced intestinal bleeding is a well-recognized cause of rectal bleeding in infancy. In all cases, bleeding resolved completely after instituting a cow's milk-free diet."

J Pediatr Surg, 1999 Oct, 34:10
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J is for JUVENILE ILLNESSES
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"Chronic diarrhea is the most common gastrointestinal symptom of intolerance of cow's milk among children... cow's milk can also cause severe perianal lesions with pain on defecation and consequent constipation in young children. In young children, chronic
constipation can be a manifestation of intolerance to cow's milk."

New England J Med, 1998 Oct, 339:16
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"At least 50% of all children in the United States are allergic to milk, many undiagnosed. Dairy products are the leading cause of food allergy, often revealed by constipation, diarrhea, and fatigue. Many cases of asthma and sinus infections are reported to be relieved and even eliminated by cutting out dairy."

Natural Health, July, 1994, Frank Oski, M.D., Chief of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Medical School
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K is for KILLER BACTERIA
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"Milk from cows inoculated with listeria was pooled for 2 to 4 days and then heated at 162 degrees Fahrenheit for 16 seconds in a high-temperature, short-time pasteurization unit. Live listeria bacteria was then successfully isolated from the milk after heat treatment in 11 of 12 pasteurization trials."

Journal of Environmental Microbiology. July 1987, (53)
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"... curing alone may not be a sufficient pathogen control step to eliminate Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli O157:H7 from cheese."

J Food Prot, 1998 Oct, 61:10
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L is for LACTOSE INTOLERANCE
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"Overall, about 75 percent of the world's population, including 25 percent of those in the U.S., lose their lactase enzymes after weaning."

J. of the American Dietetic Assoc. 1996; 96
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"Lactose malabsorption and lactase deficiency are chronic organic pathologic conditions characterized by abdominal pain and distention, flatulence, and the passage of loose, watery stools. Once correct diagnosis is established, introduction of a lactose-free dietary regime relieves symptoms in most patients who remain largely unaware of the relationship between food intake and symptoms."

J Clin Gastroenterol, 1999 Apr, 28:3
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M is for MAD COW DISEASE
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"The destruction of milk from suspected cows was recommended in England to insure the public's safety... Experiments also indicate that temperatures reached during pasteurization of milk and household cooking does not kill the agent. In the United Kingdom on December 1, 1988, the government announced a ban on the sale of milk from infected cattle..."

Mad Cows and Milkgate, Virgil Hulse, M.D.
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"A 24-year-old vegetarian has been diagnosed with Cruetzfeld-Jacob disease. Scientists fear that milk and cheese may be the source of infection."

London Times, August 23, 1997 Michael Hornsby
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N is for NASAL CONGESTION
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"Allergy to cow's milk proteins has been defined as any adverse reaction mediated by immunological mechanisms to one or several of these proteins. Reactions to cow's milk have been classified according on their onset as immediate (< 45 min) or delayed-type (from 2 hours to days). In the challenge test, 10 hours after milk intake the patient presented serous rhinorrea, sneezing and nasal blockade."

J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol, 1998 Jul, 8:4
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"Symptoms of milk-protein allergy include cough, choking, gasping, nose colds, asthma, sneezing attacks..."

Annals of Allergy, 1951; 9
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O is for OSTEOPOROSIS
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"Osteoporosis is caused by a number of things, one of the most important being too much dietary protein."

SCIENCE 1986; 233
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"Consumption of dairy products, particularly at age 20 years, were associated with an increased risk of hip fractures...metabolism of dietary protein causes increased urinary excretion of calcium."

American Journal of Epidemiology 1994;139
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P is for PESTICIDES AND POLLUTION
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"A 1988 FDA survey of milk samples from grocery stores in 10 cities found that 73% of the samples contained pesticide residues."

Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 1991; 47
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"The level of dioxin in a single serving of the Ben & Jerry's World's Best Vanilla Ice Cream tested was almost 200 times greater than the 'virtually safe [daily] dose' determined by the Environmental Protection Agency." 

Steve Milloy, author of junkscience.com (Milloy tested samples of ice cream for dioxins. The only major newspaper to report the story was the Detroit Free Press). 11/8/99
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Q is for QUIXOTE SYNDROME
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"I have two Lasting impressions. One is that underestimating Robert Cohen's ability to damage the dairy industry is a big mistake. The other is a profound wish that the man was on our side."

American Dairy Farmer Magazine Oct., 1998, Editorial by Teresa VanWagner __________________________________

"The colorful NotMilk site delights in describing milk as a glass of 'pus with hormones and glue.' Its creator, Robert Cohen, who calls himself the Not Milk Man, keeps a list of diseases on the site that he believes are caused by milk."

New York Times Magazine Section, Sunday, December 24, 2000
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R is for RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS
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"Rheumatoid arthritis is more severe than osteoarthritis, is most common in the hands and feet, and is characterized by swelling of joints. Since this type of joint pain can be a symptom of a food allergy, dietary change sometimes has a profound effect. Dairy products, the most common food allergen, are one likely candidate as a contributing
causative factor."

Vegetarian and Vegan Nutrition by George Eisman, M.A., M.Sc., R.D.
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"In the case of the eight year old female subject, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis was a milk allergy. After avoiding dairy products, all pain was gone in three weeks."

Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1985, 78
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S is for SUDDEN INFANT DEATH
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"Hypersensitivity to milk is implicated as a cause of sudden death in infancy."

The Lancet, vol. 2, 7160, November 19, 1960
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"Those who consumed cows milk were fourteen times more likely to die from diarrhea-related complications and four times more likely to die of pneumonia than were breast-fed babies. Intolerance and allergy to cow's milk products is a factor in sudden infant death syndrome."

The Lancet, vol. 344, November 5, 1994
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T is for TUBERCULOSIS
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"A Mycobacterium bovis-infected dairy herd of 369 Holstein cows with lactation duration between 200 and 360 days was tested... 170 cows had positive tuberculin test results, and 199 had negative results. Cows with positive test results produced less milk than did cows with negative test results...In this herd, tuberculosis was associated with a 4% decrease in milk production."

J Am Vet Med Assoc, 1998 Sep, 213:6
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"Many diseases such as tuberculosis are transmissible by milk products."

Journal of Dairy Science 1988; 71
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U is for UTERINE & OVARIAN CANCER
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"The uterus and ovary, like the breast, are hormone-sensitive organs. Not surprisingly, uterine and ovarian cancers are both linked to fatty diets in epidemiologic studies."

Cancer 1966
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"IGFs may be important in carcinogenesis, possibly by increasing the risk of cellular transformation by enhancing cell turnover. These emerging epidemiologic data indicate that high levels of IGF-I are associated with an increased risk of at least several types of carcinoma that are common in economically developed countries."

Horm Res, 1999, 51 Suppl 3
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V is for VITAMIN D-EFFICIENCY
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"Exposure to sunlight provides most humans with their vitamin D requirement."

Journal of Nutrition 1996;126(4 Suppl)
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"Testing of 42 milk samples found only 12% within the expected range of Vitamin D content. Testing of 10 samples of infant formula revealed seven with more that twice the Vitamin D content reported on the label, one of which had more than four times the label amount. Vitamin D is toxic in overdose."

New England Journal of Medicine, 1992, 326
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W is for WISCOWSINITIS
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"I have run into patients who undergo marked alterations in behavior patterns when ingesting dairy products, and whose behavior is totally changed by withholding them."

Letter, Pediatrics 1979;64(5) John J. Murray, M.D.
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"These dairymen are organized, they're adamant, they're militant, and they - they're massing an enormous amount of money that they're going to put into political activities, very frankly."

Secretary of the Treasury, John Connally to President Richard Nixon, from the Watergate Tapes, March 23, 1971 (after President Nixon had received a $3 million cash gift from dairy-industry representatives in the oval office).
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X is for XANTHENE OXIDASE
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"Bovine milk is presently under investigation by this laboratory since it has been shown that milk antibodies are significantly elevated in the blood of male patients with heart disease."

Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 163: 1981
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"Bovine milk xanthene oxidase (BMXO) may be absorbed and may enter the cardiovascular system. People with clinical signs of atherosclerosis have greater quantities of BMXO antibodies. BMXO antibodies are found in greater quantities in those patients who consume the largest volumes of homogenized milk and milk products."

The X-O Factor, by Kurt Oster, M.D., and Donald Ross, Ph.D.
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Y is for YIN/YANG
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"Significant atherosclerosis is rare in peoples whose diet over the life span is predominantly vegetarian and low in calories, total lipids, saturated lipids and cholesterol."

Nutrition and Athersclerosis, by Louis Katz
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"Scientific data suggest positive relationships between a vegetarian diet and reduced risk for several chronic degenerative diseases and conditions, including obesity, coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and some types of cancer."

Journal of the American Dietetic Association, November 1997, 97(1)
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Z is for ZITS
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"Acne is an end-organ hyper-response to androgens...These data show that sebaceous glands are stimulated by androgens to varying degrees and support the theory of an end-organ response in acne."

British Journal of Dermatology, 1998 Jul, 139:1
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"We studied the effects of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), alone and with androgen, on sebaceous epithelial cell growth...IGF-I was the most potent stimulus of DNA synthesis. These data are consistent with the concept that increases in GH and IGF production contribute in complementary ways to the increase in sebum production during puberty."

Endocrinology, 1999 Sep, 140:9, 4089-94


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All-Creatures.org Health Position and Disclaimer

We began this archive as a means of assisting our visitors in answering many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part in their own health. We believe the articles and information contained herein are true, but are not presenting them as advice. We, personally, have found that a whole food vegan diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have found. Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body. If you have a health problem, see your own physician.