Does Tainted Milk Cause Crohn's Disease?

Does Tainted Milk Cause Crohn's Disease?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHcyAH0rOPE

A bacterium known to cause illness in cattle may also cause Crohn's disease in humans. Crohn's disease causes chronic intestinal inflammation, leading to pain, bleeding and diarrhea.

A bacterium called Mycobacterium paratuberculosis prevents white blood cells from killing E. coli bacteria. E. coli is known to be present in increased numbers within Crohn’s disease infected tissue.

It is believed that the Mycobacteria make their way into the body’s system via cows’ milk and other dairy products.

The video above is an excerpt from the outstanding DVD The Whole Truth About Milk, which was created by by David Getoff, CTN, CCN, FAAIM, and features Organic Pastures Dairy owner Mark McAfee, where he explains the vital differences between pasteurized and raw milk.
Sources:

* Science Daily December 13, 2007

* Gastroenterology November, 2007; 133(5):1487-98


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Dr. Mercola Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are collectively known as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), which are characterized by symptoms such as:

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Frequent diarrhea
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Abdominal cramps and severe pain
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Rectal bleeding
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Weight loss and fatigue
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Nausea and fever

Other extra-intestinal symptoms include disorders of your eyes, liver, gallbladder, muscles and joints, kidneys and skin. In some cases, fistulas can form aberrant passages from your bowels to your anus, vagina or skin surface.

Most conventional treatments focus on relieving your symptoms with anti-inflammatory drugs, or surgically removing the affected part of your intestines.

The Dairy Connection

This is not the first study indicating pasteurized milk as one of the culprits in Crohn’s disease. Previous research found that the mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) was present in about 92 percent of patients with Crohn’s disease, compared to 26 percent of patients in a control group.

MAP is present in about two percent of commercial pasteurized milk. So, not only does pasteurization kill the beneficial bacteria available in milk, but it leaves a potentially harmful organism alive and well. Making matters worse, the conventional recommendation to drink milk that has been pasteurized at even higher temperatures is far from helpful.

What nearly everyone fails to appreciate about pasteurized milk is that although the pathogenic (disease causing) bacteria are killed during pasteurization so they can’t multiply, they are NOT removed from the milk. The dead bacteria are STILL IN THE MILK.

If the bacteria are there, they can serve as a stimulus to your immune system and cause all sorts of autoimmune diseases, Crohn’s disease being only one example.

Instead, RAW milk from healthy grass-fed cows is actually one of the more profound healing agents you can turn to when confronted with inflammatory bowel disease. Rather than cause it, raw milk can send your IBD into remission. This is because if cows are raised properly and only fed grass, not immunized, given access to plenty of fresh air and sunshine, and not given antibiotics or harmful vaccines that impair their immune system, then they simply do not get sick or become colonized with these pathogenic bacteria in the first place. Thus there is no need to pasteurize their milk.

What many also fail to appreciate is that pasteurization is NON discriminate in its ability to kill bacteria. Pasteurization kills the GOOD bacteria in the milk that actually makes you healthy and can reverse diseases like Crohn’s.

If this information interests you I would STRONGLY encourage you to purchase the full Raw Milk video (an excerpt of which is provided above) from the Price Pottinger Foundation. It is one of the best videos I have seen this year, and really helped my understanding of all the benefits of raw milk.

I knew raw milk was good, but had no idea just how much better it was, until I saw this video.

Milk and milk products have been the food staple of mankind since the beginning of recorded history. They are truly the one food source that has allowed us to become civilized and to develop societies as we know them today. But now, in 2007, milk has a bad name. Is it the milk itself, or is it the way that it is being processed and delivered in this corporate farming world we now live in? Are the problems we see a result of pasteurizing and homogenizing, which are relatively new developments in the history of milk?

Unfortunately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in another misguided and unhealthy move, recently moved to ban some raw-milk cheese. And in California, one of the only states in the United States that legally sells raw milk, raw milk must now -- for the first time -- conform to strict limits for coliform bacteria that could actually make the milk less healthy, according to a new state law, AB1735.

For more information about the current Consumer Revolt against AB1735 and legal action to defend your access to raw milk, you can contact Organic Pastures at www.organicpastures.com or (559) 846-9732.

Antibiotics Can Also Cause Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

When antibiotics are taken for various purposes your protective, healthy bacteria are eliminated and yeast growth goes unchecked. The resulting effects can be very similar to those of IBD.

Furthermore, when fungi become systemic from gut inflammation and the overuse of antibiotics, your whole body -- again, your eyes, liver, gallbladder, muscles and joints, kidneys, and skin -- becomes involved in inflammatory bowel disease.

Some scientists have directly implicated yeast and fungal toxins (mycotoxins) as the cause of Crohn’s disease. Former World Health Organization expert Dr. A.V. Costantini found that people with Crohn’s often have aflatoxin, a mycotoxin made by Aspergillus molds, in their blood. The disease activity in patients with Crohn’s was lower while they followed a yeast-free diet, specifically avoiding baker’s and brewer’s yeasts.

How to Treat Crohn’s Disease Naturally

In addition to converting from pasteurized- to grass-fed raw milk, avoiding dangerous grains and sugar is another important factor that can help you reverse inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s.

There is fairly strong Paleolithic evidence that many thousands of years ago most humans did not consume many grains. They were hunter-gatherers who subsisted mostly on vegetables and meats. Ten thousand years is a mere blip in a biological sense for humans -- over 99 percent of our genetic make-up was in place well before we ever started consuming grains.

When considered from this perspective alone, it is not too surprising that grains can cause a wide array of health issues. As a contemporary human you have not suddenly evolved the mechanisms to deal with carbohydrates from starch- and sugar-rich foods into your diet.

Taking healthy doses of probiotics should also be high on your list. Fermented foods, such as natto, for example, are loaded with beneficial, healthy bacteria. They give your body similar benefits as consuming a whole bottle of a probiotic supplement, but at a fraction of the cost.

One of your best and least expensive ways to achieve this would be to obtain raw milk and convert it to kefir, which is very easy to make. All you have to do is put one half packet of kefir start granules in a quart of raw milk at room temperature and leave it out over night. By the time you wake up in the morning you will likely have kefir. If it hasn’t obtained the consistency of yogurt you might want to set it out a bit longer and then store it in the fridge.

Additionally, if you suffer with Crohn’s disease or IBS, coconut oil would be an extremely beneficial addition to your diet. The anti-inflammatory and healing effects of coconut oil have been shown to play a role in soothing inflammation and healing injury in the digestive tract. Coconut oil also has antimicrobial properties that promote intestinal health by killing troublesome microorganisms that may cause chronic inflammation.

Fish oil is another absolutely essential element of preventing and controlling inflammatory bowel disease.

It has also been my experience that there is nearly ALWAYS some type of unresolved emotional trauma that occurred before the age of six and is buried deep in the subconscious. This can be something devastating like sexual abuse, but far more commonly it is related to some parental interaction that was relatively minor, but to the child, it was absolutely devastating. Until this is cleared up it is VERY difficult to obtain improvement.

There are a number of different approaches that can be used but energy psychology is probably the most universally and consistently effective strategy to use. My particular favorite is EFT.