Please watch this video for more information
Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZOR-Qd3QSg
Monday 25 February 2013
Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy
Please watch this video for more information
Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy
Monday 18 February 2013
Milk and Medicine
From the first mouthful of breast milk till that last bowl of cereal, milk is almost omnipresent in our day to day life. While all milk may be white in colour there does lurk some murky and muddy inconvenient truths hidden within that appealing pale.
When I first heard of Prof Keith Woodford's (Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness, Lincoln University, New Zealand) presentation to a group of General practitioners in Sydney I was sceptical as well as intrigued. Sceptical of his presentation because of the marketing presence of a particular brand name milk who stood to profit; intrigued because I have heard a lot of anecdotal evidence about milk et al during my extensive online research into autism, autoimmune conditions and allergies.
I have to confess here that I am an autoimmune disease sufferer. In fact my life is plagued by two wonderful autoimmune diseases - two diseases which have prompted me to scour the length and breadth of medicine to find a cure, to find causatives and preventatives. More often than not conventional textbooks hold very little and with the help of the internet, 'anecdotal' evidence on a large scale coupled with case studies have proved more beneficial in my personal quest.
Personal issues aside let me continue with the story of milk.
Apparently most of us in the western world drink milk from the wrong kind of cow. The big black and white cows that we are fond of seeing--the holsteins and its ilk give a slightly different kind of milk than the older breeds like the Asian, African and Jersey cows. The main difference in the milk is the type of milk protein that they contain. Beta Casein comprises around 30% of the milk protein and our older cows produce milk with the A2 variant of beta casein, whereas most of the industrially reared cows in the western world as well as in New Zealand and Australia produce milk which has both the A1 and the A2 variant.
Unfortunately for us this A1 variant is not a very stable one and it easily lets go of BCM-7 in the digestive tract of animals and humans drinking milk with A1 beta casein.
As the devil is in the detail we now need to understand why and what BCM-7 or beta-casomorphin - 7 can do in our gut. BCM -7 is an opioid peptide(see the word morphin at the tail end!).This opiate BCM 7 has been shown in the research to cause neurological impairment in animals and people exposed to it, especially autistic and schizophrenic changes. BCM 7 interferes with the immune response, and injecting BCM 7 in animal models has been shown to provoke Type 1 diabetes. Dr. Woodford presented research showing a direct correlation between a population’s exposure to A1 cow’s milk and incidence of auto-immune disease, heart disease (BCM-7 has a pro-inflammatory effect on the blood vessels), type 1 diabetes, autism, and schizophrenia.
One of my GP friends used to tell me to switch to goats milk as she had felt that giving her children goats milk instead of cows milk had brought a significant reduction in them catching colds and being 'mucussy'. The real reason behind that presumption lies in the research that shows that BCM-7 selectively binds to the epithelial cells in the mucus membranes (i.e. the nose) and stimulates mucus secretion!
Now for some Russian research which has actually been ground breaking and an eyeopener to many. This group of 12 Russian scientists from four leading research institutions has developed a test for measuring BCM-7 in the blood. They have also shown that babies fed formula milk do indeed absorb BCM-7 into their blood. Both of these are huge breakthroughs. More importantly they have shown that some of the babies can get rid of the BCM-7 rapidly from their systems, but that other babies retain it in the bloodstream. And then comes the final blow. Those babies who are unable to rapidly breakdown and excrete the BCM-7 from their systems are at very high risk of delayed psychomotor development!
They also showed that the human form of BCM-7 (which is quite different in its biochemical structure to the bovine form found in A1 milk), and which is found only in breast milk, is actually a good casomorphin, that enhances psychomotor development and works best in those children who don’t break it down quickly. It is only the bovine form that causes issues.
Last but not the least we need to look at ways around this particular problem. Our babies and us may or may not be able to rapidly get rid of BCM-7 from our systems. So what do we do.--and especially if we feel that we do have symptoms associated with the consumption of milk?
The first option is the most obvious---stop drinking milk and stop formula feeds for babies--only give them breast milk.
The second option, if taking away milk from your diet is too radical a step, is to substitute the commonly available supermarket shelf milk for goats milk or milk that is entirely composed of the A2 variant of Beta casein, otherwise known as A2 milk(TM).
For a bit more on milk please read Dr. Thomas Cowan's article here.
References
1. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2006;46(1):93-100.
Health implications of milk containing beta-casein with the A2 genetic variant.
When I first heard of Prof Keith Woodford's (Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness, Lincoln University, New Zealand) presentation to a group of General practitioners in Sydney I was sceptical as well as intrigued. Sceptical of his presentation because of the marketing presence of a particular brand name milk who stood to profit; intrigued because I have heard a lot of anecdotal evidence about milk et al during my extensive online research into autism, autoimmune conditions and allergies.
I have to confess here that I am an autoimmune disease sufferer. In fact my life is plagued by two wonderful autoimmune diseases - two diseases which have prompted me to scour the length and breadth of medicine to find a cure, to find causatives and preventatives. More often than not conventional textbooks hold very little and with the help of the internet, 'anecdotal' evidence on a large scale coupled with case studies have proved more beneficial in my personal quest.
Personal issues aside let me continue with the story of milk.
Apparently most of us in the western world drink milk from the wrong kind of cow. The big black and white cows that we are fond of seeing--the holsteins and its ilk give a slightly different kind of milk than the older breeds like the Asian, African and Jersey cows. The main difference in the milk is the type of milk protein that they contain. Beta Casein comprises around 30% of the milk protein and our older cows produce milk with the A2 variant of beta casein, whereas most of the industrially reared cows in the western world as well as in New Zealand and Australia produce milk which has both the A1 and the A2 variant.
Unfortunately for us this A1 variant is not a very stable one and it easily lets go of BCM-7 in the digestive tract of animals and humans drinking milk with A1 beta casein.
 |
| Ground breaking book by Keith Woodford |
As the devil is in the detail we now need to understand why and what BCM-7 or beta-casomorphin - 7 can do in our gut. BCM -7 is an opioid peptide(see the word morphin at the tail end!).This opiate BCM 7 has been shown in the research to cause neurological impairment in animals and people exposed to it, especially autistic and schizophrenic changes. BCM 7 interferes with the immune response, and injecting BCM 7 in animal models has been shown to provoke Type 1 diabetes. Dr. Woodford presented research showing a direct correlation between a population’s exposure to A1 cow’s milk and incidence of auto-immune disease, heart disease (BCM-7 has a pro-inflammatory effect on the blood vessels), type 1 diabetes, autism, and schizophrenia.
One of my GP friends used to tell me to switch to goats milk as she had felt that giving her children goats milk instead of cows milk had brought a significant reduction in them catching colds and being 'mucussy'. The real reason behind that presumption lies in the research that shows that BCM-7 selectively binds to the epithelial cells in the mucus membranes (i.e. the nose) and stimulates mucus secretion!
Now for some Russian research which has actually been ground breaking and an eyeopener to many. This group of 12 Russian scientists from four leading research institutions has developed a test for measuring BCM-7 in the blood. They have also shown that babies fed formula milk do indeed absorb BCM-7 into their blood. Both of these are huge breakthroughs. More importantly they have shown that some of the babies can get rid of the BCM-7 rapidly from their systems, but that other babies retain it in the bloodstream. And then comes the final blow. Those babies who are unable to rapidly breakdown and excrete the BCM-7 from their systems are at very high risk of delayed psychomotor development!
They also showed that the human form of BCM-7 (which is quite different in its biochemical structure to the bovine form found in A1 milk), and which is found only in breast milk, is actually a good casomorphin, that enhances psychomotor development and works best in those children who don’t break it down quickly. It is only the bovine form that causes issues.
Last but not the least we need to look at ways around this particular problem. Our babies and us may or may not be able to rapidly get rid of BCM-7 from our systems. So what do we do.--and especially if we feel that we do have symptoms associated with the consumption of milk?
The first option is the most obvious---stop drinking milk and stop formula feeds for babies--only give them breast milk.
The second option, if taking away milk from your diet is too radical a step, is to substitute the commonly available supermarket shelf milk for goats milk or milk that is entirely composed of the A2 variant of Beta casein, otherwise known as A2 milk(TM).
For a bit more on milk please read Dr. Thomas Cowan's article here.
References
1. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2006;46(1):93-100.
Health implications of milk containing beta-casein with the A2 genetic variant.
Bovine beta-casein antibodies in breast- and bottle-fed infants: their relevance in Type 1 diabetes.
Source
3.Kost NV, et al. Β-casomorphins-7 in infants on different types of feeding and different levels of psychomotor development. Peptides 2009 Oct; 30(10):1854-60.
4.http://keithwoodford.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/russian-breakthrough-unravels-bcm7-mysteries/
5.http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/the-devil-in-the-milk-dr-thomas-cowan-on-how-a2-milk-is-the-answer-to-the-mystery-of-why-even-raw-milk-sometimes-does-not-seem-to-be-enough-of-an-improvement-over-store-bought/
5.http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/the-devil-in-the-milk-dr-thomas-cowan-on-how-a2-milk-is-the-answer-to-the-mystery-of-why-even-raw-milk-sometimes-does-not-seem-to-be-enough-of-an-improvement-over-store-bought/
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