Dairy/Dairy Alternatives

Cherish what is the contradictory research on dairy?

It is very clear that countries that consume high levels of dairy have high rates of MS. These counties also have high consumption of sat fat and meat and also low vit D levels so it could also be a combination that causes it.

But is ot worth the risk?

Hi Kashu,

This is the article that seems to contradict the lab studies GJ refers to:-

"Tolerance induction by molecular mimicry: prevention and suppression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis with the milk ..."
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pubmed

The above article refers to butyrophilin actually helping to suppress the rat induced MS (EAE).

HI Cherish,

Really interesting article. I'd also love some more definitive research on dairy. I have completely cut out all dairy from my life, but have wondered about this. I note the people on the Swank diet still consume dairy - it would be interesting to know how they are progressing overall.

It was a very big deal for me to remove all dairy from my diet, the meat not so hard, but the dairy caused some fairly major changes.

I have settled on unsweetened almond milk for my breakfast (I find the brand I use quite subtle and very neutral) and Bonsoy for coffee is the only soy I touch. Bonsoy is unlike any other soy milk, too me it has more an evaporated or powdered milk flavour and is very subtle, I find it hard to pick up the soy flavour which is good as I really don't like the soy flavour. It's also ideal to cook with.

As at this stage the studies aren't definitive but there is enough evidence for Prof J to recommend omitting dairy, and I think our 'fear' of what might happen if we consume dairy ensures most of us go without it.

In brief Swank's patients, even the very best dieters still deteriated , OMS is to overcome MS and if removing dairy (which for me now seems such an alien product) then that is a stone I won't leave unturned. In my home it was the right thing to do my partner has visibility been better since removing dairy and completely unrelated to MS and I have not had a single migraine since and they were regular occurrences.
There is a good reply on this from George on this site re Swank's patients.

It wasn't too difficult for me to eliminate dairy as I never liked the white stuff in any case!

I think it is also important to remember that milk is not a 'natural' product for humans to consume. Human females produce milk to sustain their offspring through the first months of life. Female cows to the same. Humans often turn their noses up at women who breastfeed their babies past a few months, and yet are more than happy to drink the breast milk of another species for a lifetime. This to me is totally unnatural. Humans are the only species that continues to drink milk into adulthood.

Also, dairy products all go through some form of processing.

Rachel

Hi Cherish,

When it comes to research like this there is a hierarchy of evidence with systemic reviews and meta analysis on the top of the pyramid and in vitro (test tube) research on the bottom https://phpartners.org/tutorial/04-ebph ... 4.2.7.html .Animal research like that in the article you mention is important in the grand scheme of scientific research but one, two, three or even twenty studies cannot be easily extrapolated to humans. The OMS lifestyle is based on systemic reviews and meta analysis of all the scientific literature available and is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal for tackling this disease. The nitty gritty of why dairy is a problem for MS is interesting and I'm sure will continue to be researched but for me the epidemiology of the occurrence of the disease and it's correlation with countries that have the highest dairy consumption is good enough for me for now.

Hi Cherish,

this is the study by P. Maña (of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain), M. Goodyear, C. Bernard, R. Tomioka, M. Freire-Garabal and D. Liñares in the Journal “International Immunology” 16,3, p. 489–499, published in March 2004.
The full text is available online at: http://intimm.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/3/489.long

George Jelineks refers to this study in note 71 (on p. 410) to p. 103 in the new book (in the old [2010] book: note 10 on p. 336 to chapter 5, p. 84). George Jelinek drew from this study the conclusion (new book, p. 103): “Other researchers have demonstrated how certain proteins in cow’s milk mimic part of myelin oligoendrocyte glycoprotein, the part of myelin thought to initiate the auto-immune reaction in MS.71”, that is: he refers to it as supporting the statement, that molecular mimicry and crossreactivity between cow’s milk protein Butyrophilin (BTN) and the myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) exists. This is certainly correct.
What George Jelinek does not mention is that the researchers had also been able to use BTN to attenuate EAE (the mouse model for multiple sclerosis) in mice. And this is probably what seems to be contradictory about the link between BTN and MS.


Although I have no medical background and do not understand medical studies or abstracts sufficiently, to my limited understanding there apparently seems to be a chance, that BTN could one day be used to help against MS inflammation. This seems to be a promising trajectory for future research. And indeed, there seems to be a lot of research going on in this field, as quite a number of recent studies pop up, if one types “immune tolerance” and “encephalomyelitis” / “EAE” / “MOG” into PubMed.
But until the researchers come up with a working therapy for humans using BTN, I prefer not messing around with that protein.

I agree with Kashu and Rafticon that the epidemiological observations carry enormous weight.


How much evidence do we require? Do we need to see waterproof evidence, before we take action? Or do probabilities and plausible explanations suffice?

My personal decision was to trust George Jelinek’s informed judgement and to follow his precautionary advice to eliminate dairy. This was not easy for me, since I had always loved (skim) milk (to the point of addiction). But – similarily to what Veg has experienced – I was lucky to receive a signal that my body apparently thanked me for being liberated of milk: No more headaches! In the days before skipping dairy I had suffered on about 2 days per week from headaches, not terrible migraines, that incapacitated me, just “normal” headaches, which nevertheless were annoying and reduced my sense of wellbeing. I had been so used to these regular headaches that I had considered them a normal part of my life. But with the elimination of dairy these headaches were gone. Therefore, like Veg, I have never regretted skipping dairy and feel all the better for it.
If you ask me whether three years of adherence to the OMS program have helped me in respect to my MS symptons: Yes! My walking is slowly improving.

There is also a podcast by George Jelinek with the title “Prof. Jelinek Discusses the Journal Articles On Cow’s Milk” (of January 21, 2011), here in the podcast library, which goes into more detail than both books do .
See:
https://overcomingms.org/community/podc ... lk-and-ms/

On many other problematic aspects of milk and dairy see Michael Greger’s website http://www.nutritionfacts.org and type in “milk”.

I would be very grateful, if somebody with more medical knowledge joined this discussion and offered her/his assessment and comments on the studies which talk about a protective potential of butyrophilin.

Let’s be on the save side of this butyrophilin question!

Zoë

The gene for Lactose tollerance is only about 7,500 years old, it spread from Northern Europe out into the world population... or at least that was an explanation I heard recently.

Interesting I've got northern Europe in my genetics as does my partner, both of us are better without dairy.

Thanks Zoe for your detailed post, much appreciated!