Why Milk Doesn’t Do A Body Good

Multiple sclerosis is the most common degenerative inflammatory neurological disease in the U.S., striking people primarily between the ages of 15 and 55. It is characterized by numerous lesions—areas of damage—on the nerve cells of the brain and/or spinal cord. The lesions are replaced by hard scar tissue, causing the nerve cells to stop functioning. The nearly 500,000 Americans with MS suffer recurrent attacks on the nervous system that rob them of various functions and senses. One attack may take a victim’s vision; the next may cause loss of bladder control; a few months later, one arm or leg may no longer have strength. After ten years with the disease, half of all MS victims are severely disabled—bedridden, wheelchair-bound, or worse.

Physicians Committee for Responsive Medicine – Tackling Multiple Sclerosis with a Plant-Based Diet

Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis strongly advises that people with MS avoid dairy because research shows a high correlation between MS and dairy milk, specifically because of particular proteins in cow’s milk. Here are three pieces of evidence:

Some of the proteins in cow’s milk are targeted by the immune cells of people with MS. These include butyrophilin and bovine serum albumin (BSA).

Injecting those same cow’s milk proteins into test animals caused lesions to appear in their central nervous systems.
Some proteins in cow’s milk mimic part of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), the part of myelin thought to initiate the autoimmune reaction in MS. This can trick the immune system into initiating an attack on MOG and hence cause demyelination.

In terms of general health, a research study involving more than 135,000 men and women in the U.S. linked cow’s milk to the degenerative neurological disorder Parkinson’s Disease. Researchers conclude that dairy products may have a generally toxic effect on nervous tissue.

Scientific Publications:

• A study published in the journal Neuroepidemiology revealed an association between eating dairy foods and an increased prevalence of MS, stating, “A good correlation between liquid cow milk and MS prevalence was found; this correlation was highly significant ” – Correlation between milk and dairy product consumption and multiple sclerosis prevalence: a worldwide study. Neuroepidemiology 1992
• This finding was published in the Journal of  Immunology “consumption of milk products may modulate the pathogenic autoimmune response to MOG” – Butyrophilin, a milk protein, modulates the encephalitogenic T cell response to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. J Immunol 2000
• In the Oxford Journal of Internal Immunology “Epidemiological and recent experimental studies have raised the possibility that dietary compounds containing proteins that cross‐react with myelin antigens may also have a role in the pathogenesis of the disease. Enhanced T cell reactivity against several cow’s milk proteins, such as BSA, has been reported in MS patients” – Tolerance induction by molecular mimicry: prevention and suppression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis with the milk protein butyrophilin. Int Immunol 2004