dairy and dry eyes?

[jenny2008]

My obgyn spoke w/ a compounding pharmacist who said avoiding dairy may help w/ dry eyes? has anyone tried this and if so the results???

[GinaJ]

I have not but I would think this would be more for someone who has an allergy to dairy. Have you thought of getting allergy tested?

[spmcc]

I've been going to several naturopaths as well as "regular" doctors and ophthalmologists to try to figure out if there's anything I can do to improve my eyes.

The latest naturopath told me to avoid foods that contain (or are) sugar, dairy, eggs, caffeine, soda pop/soft drinks, gluten, soy, red meats, peanuts, chocolate, oranges, corn, and many condiments.

I told him that I had a blood test for gluten intolerance but I was fine.

He explained that it's not necessarily that you're allergic to these items, just that they are known to cause inflammation in the body. So I should avoid them to help my eyes.

[rhad]

Yes, I have found this to be true, Dairy from Cow's is not fit for human consumption...It contributes to increased Cancer rates, Osteoporosis Rates, and causes Juvenile diabetes according to clinical studies.

The protein in milk is not designed for the human body. It is designed for a Calf, a whole different species of animal(note that a cow has 4 stomachs, it's digestive system is different than ours). and it causes sinus congestion, and causes excessive mucus production (a defensive mechanism of the body to bind and carry out foreign contaminents.)

It has to do with the type of protein found in it, Cow Milk is made up of about 80% Casein Protein...Casein is naturally made inside the human body but in very very small amounts, ingesting large amounts(such as is found in cow milk or any dairy product) is not good for us.

Yes, I have noticed a difference in eliminating Dairy from my Diet. but even eliminating this does not fix Meibomian Gland Dysfunction, that I will discuss around the 1st of March..

if you'd like the evidence to back up what I just said, I will be glad to post the sources, they are clinical nutrition studies.

rhad

[Roderick]

These just seem like more weird conspiracy theories.

Milk has been part of human diets for millenniums and its virtues have been well established. Were the people who consumed milk before us getting diabetes and cancer? Come on.

[rhad]

Roderick, You do have a point there. Milk has been consumed for centuries, by many peoples, and yes they probably did have alot less diseases compared to today. but I wonder if the reasons that studies find these correlations is because cows don't "graze" on grasses anymore. their fed grains. and then many say that pasteurization and homogenization of the fats in it, make it hard to digest...so their are always many factors. but just logically, Cow milk is designed for Cows, just as Human Milk for humans, and every species of animal..

also, the only reason the dairy industry has for saying Milk promotes strong bones and that it's a "healthy food" is that milk contains Calcium, which is known to build strong bones.
The Fact is, according to the Journal of Clinical nutrition. is that even though Cow milk has alot of calcium in it, it's poorly absorbed into our bodies, at about only 10% absorbability...while broccoli a plant based food while having less calcium, 60-70% of it's calcium can be absorbed. you want the sources I'll gladly post them, so you can read for your selves. but until you actually read the Clinical Nutrition Journals, your gonna have to take my word for it. Cause I read them all the time. these are the facts according to science.

rhad

[Rebecca Petris]

These just seem like more weird conspiracy theories.

Milk has been part of human diets for millenniums and its virtues have been well established. Were the people who consumed milk before us getting diabetes and cancer? Come on.

Actually... if you research it you'll be surprised at the number of reasons to distrust the healthfulness of commercially distributed cow's milk in this country.

The milk people have been drinking for millenia - even in places where they consumed more cow's than goat's or sheep's milk - was a very different animal (so to speak) than what we buy at Safeway. They also didn't consume so much fresh milk compared to cheeses and fermented milk products.

[willwork4tears]

I'll gladly post them, so you can read for your selves. but until you actually read the Clinical Nutrition Journals, your gonna have to take my word for it. Cause I read them all the time. these are the facts according to science.

rhad

This is a very interesting topic and, admittedly, one I know very little about. I'd be interested in reading the primary literature. Please send the journal articles along when you have a moment. Thanks!

[david2404]

milk and wheat

I've been off milk for a while now. Actually I've been off it before but not for longer than a month or two i think. However after christmas i decided to try going off wheat for a while. I made it about 6 weeks wheat and gluten free and can't say it made much difference. But I also went off dairy and sugar - almost completely . I've also been off sugar in the past and it's no magic bullet for me but i definitely think it affects the acidity of my eyes. They can often feel 'acidic' when i'm eating lots of sugar, but going off doesn't noticeably affect my eye dryness.

The thing i wanted to mention though was that although i'm back on wheat and a bit of sugar I've stayed off milk. I got sick of trying so many different diets these past years and just not knowing if anything will work so having read lots of mixed reviews on the accuracy/legitimacy of allergy/intolerance testing I got myself a little home kit to test for IGg antibodies (this tests for intolerance as opposed to IGe which is allergies). I'm cautious about promoting anything here but if you google 'IGg intolerance testing' you should find the one I'm talking about - it costs about 50 quid in the uk). And I came up big time on cow's milk. Which I have consumed a LOT of over the years. The little booklet that came with the kit suggested removal of the food from diet for 3 months so i'm keeping my fingers crossed this will make a difference.

Thing is, apart from the prick test for environmental allergies, which seems to be generally accepted as accurate, there isn't comprehensive acceptance for the other forms of testing but you have to start somewhere. It would take me years to eliminate all the foods for 3 months or more to see what works.

Has anyone else been told they are milk intolerant and gone off it? any success stories?

thx

[spmcc]

dairy

I've seen a number of interviews with opera singers (and Celine Dion) who all state that they do not consume dairy or dairy products (in the interview, Celine Dion said that she couldn't wait to retire so she could eat ice cream again).

As far as they claim, dairy and/or dairy products make them "phlegmy" so they must stay away to optimize their voices. I don't know if "phlegmy" equals allergy or inflammation though.

[ringo]

on the subject of opera singers getting phlegmy-- that is because consuming dairy products increases teh production of mucous in our bodies.

on the subject of eyes-- in dry eyes there is excessive mucous-- espeially in severely dry eyes. the ones who have not noticed the mucous coming out are even more severe cases than the ones who can actually "identify" that their discomfort is coming from the mucous strings. In the very dry severe cases these mucous plaques are so stuck to the surface of the eye, that they just create a sticky irritating, painful, like pulling, feeling, and the patient is not able to identify the source. Also, there may be a feeling of having something in the eye, but oe cannot see it or get it out.

Mucous strings compromise severely the corneal surface and aggravate the inflammatory damage to the corneal nerves. Whther one can see them or not, they are usually there in dry eyes.For example, mine started "showing up" after I used FML and cyclsporine for some time. After I instill the FML, the eye starts trying to "expel" the mucous strings so I am able to at least partially pull them out and that provides incredible relief.

As dairy products stimulate mucous production (thats why opera singers get the "phlegm" in their throats), obviously these products aggravate the burden of the mucous on the dry eye. And yes, burden is exactly what the mucous feels like in the eye, painful burden. Whether one can "pinpoint" it as the source of extreme discomfort or not.

[rhad]

Here are some quotes that will put your mind at ease concerning milk consumption:

Osteoporosis, Milk is essentially "liquid Protein":

"Countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis, such as the United States, England, and Sweden, consume the most milk. China and Japan, where people eat much less protein and dairy food, have low rates of osteoporosis."
Nutrition Action Healthletter, June, 1993

"What appears to be important in bone metabolism is not calcium intake, but calcium balance. The loss of bone integrity among many post menopausal white women probably results from genetics and from diet and lifestyle factors. Research shows that calcium losses are increased by the use of animal protein, salt, caffeine, and tobacco, and by physical inactivity."
Neal Barnard, M.D., Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, Understanding Health, December, 1999

"Dietary protein increases production of acid in the blood which can be neutralized by calcium mobilized from the skeleton."
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1995; 61 (4)

"Even when eating 1,400 mg of calcium daily, one can lose up to 4% of his or her bone mass each year while consuming a high-protein diet."
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1979;32(4)

"Increasing one's protein intake by 100% may cause calcium loss to double."
Journal of Nutrition, 1981; 111 (3)

"Osteoporosis is caused by a number of things, one of the most important being too much dietary protein."
Science 1986;233(4763)

"The average man in the US eats 175% more protein than the recommended daily allowance and the average woman eats 144% more."
Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, 1988

"Calcium intake demonstrated no protective in preventing bone fractures. In fact, those populations with the highest calcium intakes had higher fracture rates than those with more modest calcium intakes."
Calif Tissue Int 1992;50

"There is no significant association between teenaged milk consumption and the risk of adult fractures. Data indicate that frequent milk consumption and higher dietary calcium intakes in middle aged women do not provide protection against hip or forearm fractures... women consuming greater amounts of calcium from dairy foods had significantly increased risks of hip fractures, while no increase in fracture risk was observed for the same levels of calcium from nondairy sources."
12-year Harvard study of 78,000 women American Journal of Public Health 1997;87

"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

Milk and Heart Disease:

"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

"More patients who had suffered a myocardial infarction had elevated levels of antibodies against milk proteins than was found in a comparable group of patients without coronary heart disease."
Davies, Antibodies and Myocardial Infarction, The Lancet, ii: 205-207, 1980

"Milk consumption correlates positively with cholesterol levels in blood as well as coronary mortality. In comparisons between 17 countries, there is a good correlation between national cholesterol levels and mortality from ischaemic heart disease."
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 48:305-325, 1994

"Although studies point out strong negative correlations between wine consumption and heart disease... six countries with the highest mortality show no correlation at all. Finland ranks highest of all in milk consumption, wine consumption and mortality from heart disease."
The Lancet, I, 1017-1020, 1979

"Milk and many components of milk (butterfat, milk protein, calcium from milk, and riboflavin)… were positively related to coronary heart disease mortality for all 40 countries studied."
Circulation 1993; 88(6):2771-2779

"Greenland Eskimos, who have a very low incidence of ischemic heart disease, have a high-fat, high-protein diet, but a very low intake of milk."
British J of Preventive & Social Medicine, 1977

"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 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...animal proteins contribute to homocysteine production; however, milk more than meat lacks adequate B vitamins to convert homocysteine to useful products. Lactose and calcium in conjunction with homocysteine from consumption of non-fat milk may also contribute to calcification of the arteries."
Altern Med Rev, 1998 Aug, 3:4

"Excessive milk consumption may adversely affect the circulation on account of the high calcium content of milk and because lactose promotes the intestinal absorption of calcium. Excessive calcium intake may cause calcification and rigidification of the large elastic arteries, which could be an important factor in causing myocardial ischaemia."
Med Hypotheses, 2000 May, 54:5

"Animal food-groups were directly correlated to mortality from coronary heart disease, defined as sudden coronary death or fatal myocardial infarction and vegetable food-groups (except potatoes) as well as fish and alcohol were inversely correlated with CHD mortality. Univariate analysis showed significant positive correlation coefficients for butter (R = 0.887), meat (R = 0.645), pastries (R = 0.752), and milk (R = 0.600) consumption, and significant negative correlation coefficients for legumes (R = -0.822), oils (R = -0.571), and alcohol (R = -0.609) consumption. Combined vegetable foods (excluding alcohol) were inversely correlated (R = -0.519), whereas combined animal foods (excluding fish) were directly correlated (R = 0.798) with coronary heart disease death rates."
Eur J Epidemiol, 1999 Jul, 15:6, 507-15


MILK CONSUMPTION AND CANCER:

"Human Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I) and bovine IGF-I are identical. Both contain 70 amino acids in the identical sequence."
Judith C. Juskevich and C. Greg Guyer. SCIENCE, vol. 249. August 24, 1990.

"IGF-I is critically involved in the aberrant growth of human breast cancer cells."
M. Lippman. J. Natl. Inst. Health Res., 1991, 3.

"Estrogen regulation of IGF-I in breast cancer cells would support the hypothesis that IGF-I has a regulatory function in breast cancer."
A.V. Lee, Mol-Cell- Endocrinol., March, 99(2).

"IGF-I is a potent growth factor for cellular proliferation in the human breast carcinoma cell line."
J.C. Chen, J-Cell-Physiol., January, 1994, 158(1)

"Insulin-like growth factors are key factors for breast cancer growth."
J.A. Figueroa, J-Cell-Physiol., Nov., 1993, 157(2)

"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)

"IGF-I plays a major role in human breast cancer cell growth."
E.A. Musgrove, Eur-J-Cancer, 29A (16), 1993

"IGF-I has been identified as a key factor in breast cancer."
Hankinson. The Lancet, vol. 351. May 9, 1998

"Serum IGF-I levels increased significantly in milk drinkers, an increase of about 10% above baseline but was unchanged in the control group."
Robert P. Heaney, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, vol. 99, no. 10. October 1999

"IGF-1 accelerates the growth of breast cancer cells."
M. Lippman Science, Vol. 259, January 29, 1993

Milk, a Cause of Type 1 Diabetes:

"Studies have suggested that bovine serum albumin is the milk protein responsible for the onset of diabetes... Patients with insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus produce antibodies to cow milk proteins that participate in the development of islet dysfunction... Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that an active response in patients with IDDM (to the bovine protein) is a feature of the autoimmune response."
New England Journal of Medicine, July 30, 1992

"In lieu of the recent evidence that cow's milk protein may be implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus, we believe that the Committee on Nutrition should clarify whether cow's milk is ever appropriate for children and whether or not infant formulas that are based on cow's milk protein are appropriate alternatives to breast milk."
Pediatrics, July, 1992: 89

"Antibodies to bovine beta-casein are present in over a third of IDDM patients and relatively non-existent in healthy individuals."
LANCET, October, 1996, 348

"Cow's milk proteins are unique in one respect: in industrialized countries they are the first foreign proteins entering the infant gut, since most formulations for babies are cow milk-based. The first pilot stage of our IDD prevention study found that oral exposure to dairy milk proteins in infancy resulted in both cellular and immune response...this suggests the possible importance of the gut immune system to the pathogenesis of IDD."
LANCET, Dec 14, 1996

"Introduction of dairy products and high milk consumption during childhood may increase the child's risk of developing juvenile diabetes."
Diabetologia 1994;37(4):381-387

"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)


Is that Enough to convince you all that Cow Milk is possibly the worst thing you could consume? these are just a few quotes, their are tons of studies on this. I have read many of them, and i would have to say that milk is the worst food you could ever consume, it's correlated with the most diseases of Modern day.

Read them all, I recommend it!

rhad

[Rebecca Petris]

Thanks for the references, rhad.

I don't think the problem is milk itself. It's more about what the cows are fed and drugged with in the CAFOs. My family mostly buys locally produced goat milk (and goat milk products) and sometimes almond milk. Thankfully there's lots of decent alternatives available these days. - In general I don't like to get too worked up about the latest food scare story but making incremental dietary changes is useful and not that hard.

[rhad]

yeah, but Goats milk is completely different than cow's milk. Goats milk doesn't have mostly Casein Protein in it, which is a huge problem, for mucus production.

The IGF-1 hormone, which is the key factor in the growth of cancers, is Completely identical to Human IGF-1. Cow's and human's have the identical IGF-1 Hormone (insulin like growth factor 1), and it is in the milk, your drinking it, and it increases your chances of cancer..

please, before anyone criticizes anything I have posted. Please take the time to actually read and analyze these quotes from several prominent medical journals.

rhad

[Rebecca Petris]

criticizes anything I have posted. Please take the time to actually read and analyze these quotes from several prominent medical journals.

Uh, did you read my post as criticism? It was not intended that way.