Milk...Help Yourself

(To Cancer, AIDS, and Multiple Sclerosis?)

by Michael Greger

Food poisoning causes illness in at least a third of the entire U.S. population every year and the fraction is increasing. Thousands of people die. Most food poisoning is a result of our eating nonhuman animals. What people don't realize is that drinking milk can be just as deadly.

Listeriosis is a virulent bacterial disease found in cow's milk striking at least 1700 people each year in the U.S. 75% of those infected suffer from potentially fatal meningitis or encephalitis and 25% die. Infants, the elderly, and the immune suppressed are at particular risk. Although frankfurters are commonly infested also, listeriosis is an enormous problem for the dairy industry, costing them millions of dollars a year. The reason listeria bacteria are so frightening is that they can survive pasteurization and can grow to dangerous levels in refrigerated foods. In addition they survive the manufacturing process for cheese, and ice cream production. They can even survive at least 12 weeks in non-fat dry milk. Reporting on a big outbreak in Massachusetts, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control tried to down-play the seriousness of the disease by urging people to remember the potential benefits of milk. It is unclear if they are talking about the high saturated fat or the cholesterol content. That particular outbreak, and the ensuing deaths, were strongly linked to the drinking of milk pasteurized at temperatures and times exceeding current FDA regulations in a facility that was "clean, modern, and well run" according to the FDA and the Massachusetts Department of Health.

There are also some viral diseases that one may want to look out for. As considerable doubt is cast on the green monkey theory and the African origin of HIV in general, the scientific community is looking elsewhere. Some are looking to BIV, bovine immunodeficiency virus or "cow's AIDS" as it has been dubbed. BIV can indeed infect human cells and is morphologically identical to, and cross-reacts on the Western Blot test with, HIV. The virus integrates itself into the DNA of white blood cells of cows which are found in milk. Even heat sterilization does not destroy this DNA.

BIV is widely distributed among cattle in the United States. Long time consumer advocate Jeremy Rifkin has called for a quarantine of infected cattle while the human risk is investigated and also for government testing of dairy products to check for possible contamination. Our corporate-run government, however, sees no reason to quarantine or test.

Human beings are continuously exposed to other cow viruses also through dairy products like milk. The scariest virus is probably bovine leukemia virus (BLV). It was shown years ago that chimpanzees fed milk from leukemic cows from birth died of leukemia in the first year of life. Between 10-70% of the cows in the US are infected with BLV and approximately 60% of the herds surveyed similarly infected. BLV has been linked to acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL). ALL is a form of acute childhood leukemia. Untreated children usually die within 6 months of symptom onset from this disease. Properly treated children have a 20-30% chance of survival. There is a high correlation between ALL in human males and cattle density and the presence of BLV infected herds. Dairy farming in general has been linked to increased leukemia risk. Butcherers and slaughterhouse workers also have a high risk of developing ALL. They also have an increased risk of other lymphatic malignancies and lung cancer. Human leukemia clusters have often even been associated with cattle and dairy industry exposure. Finally, some studies in Sweden and the former USSR show that areas with the most bovine leukemia also have significantly higher human leukemia.

To infect humans through milk, the cancer virus must be able to survive the pasteurization process, survive refrigeration, survive the digestive tract and gain entry into the tissues. Although there is still controversy whether the virus can survive pasteurization, there is evidence to suggest that all of the above are possible and even that BLV is probably also insect borne. After gaining entrance to the tissues the virus must of course be able to infect cells. BLV has been shown to infect human, chimpanzee, and rhesus monkey cells. In fact human nerve cells, in which BLV can replicate, are highly susceptible to BLV infection.

The virus's affinity for nerve cells brings up another dire possibility. Its been known for some time that milk fat consumption and multiple sclerosis incidence have been strongly correlated. Among 40 occupations in one study, multiplesclerosis was considerably higher than expected in dairy farmers. In fact among 21 countries milk was found to be the major statistical determinant of multiple sclerosis. In addition, milk production and consumption both contribute significantly to multiple sclerosis mortality. Diets involving a sharp reduction in the use of dairy products is even said to help MS patients. Although some studies have not been able to find evidence of BLV infection in groups of MS and ALL sufferers, others have found evidence and some infected cells do not synthesize detectable viral substances.

According to USDA Veterinary Medical Offcer Dr. Janice M. Miller at the National Animal Disease Center "There has not been any significant effort in the US to control the virus [BLV]...primarily because of insufficient support from persons or groups representing the livestock industry."