Milk production is a demand driven process. I was thinking at the biological level, rather than at the economy level.
When a newborn baby drops water weight, which he does as he uses up his glycogen before starting to feed properly, there comes a "tick box" percentage drop in weight at which your UK midwife will start asking if you'd like to give a formula feed, "just while his mother's milk comes in". But it's a demand and supply system. How can demand possibly work to increase supply if the baby is full of denatured cow casein and fast asleep?
The shut down of milk production at the end (or start!) of lactation is not something that just happens. On the biological basis, any mammary gland which is not being asked to produce milk will "assume" there is no infant to feed. Continued lactation then needs to be stopped. Casein, the primary protein in milk, is the signal to cease lactation!
If the casein is not removed from the mammary gland it starts sending signals that nothing is feeding. Milk is actively secreted in to the mammary gland. It's kept sealed in to to ductal system by the "tight junctions" between the cells lining the secretory system. It's worth noting that the first sentence of this abstract is generic, ie tight junctions are probably the same throughout the body, they're not limited to mammary glands.
Tight junctions become leaky when there is milk stasis.
It's important that casein per se does not do this as there is always some in the milk glands, it's hydrolysed casein that does it. This is logical as fresh casein should leave lactation in tact, provided it's removed promptly. If it hangs around for any period of time it gets broken down by plasmin, a proteolytic enzyme also present in milk.
So it's quite convincing that casein hydrosylates open up tight junctions. Then the leakage of milk in to the tissue spaces of the mammary gland produce an inflammatory reaction which shuts down milk production.
There is quite good evidence that it is amino acids 1-28 of beta casein that do the tight junction opening, maybe 2-28.
That's the basics of mammary gland involution at the end of lactation.
Fascinating, but so what?
There are tight junctions in the gut too, the ones that gluten opens up to cause auto immune diseases. Does casein open those junctions up as well as gluten does? There is no hard science here, so I'll speculate.
No.
Why not? Because a cow does not intend to maim the digestive system of her calf, any more than a mother does that of her baby.
The tight junction opening peptide from casein needs to be 27 or 28 amino acids long to work. This is what is produced by the action of plasmin in the udder/breast. Milk is normally delivered directly from mother to offspring, being deposited immediately in to the stomach. The enzyme here is pepsin. There is nothing gentle about pepsin. It's an industrial grade hydrolysing agent working best in a strong hydrochloric acid solution, pH around 2. If it just manages to cleave that initial amino acid sequence in even one place it will deactivate the tight junction opening ability. Ditto if the sequence is repeated elsewhere in the protein. How much in the way of active peptides are left after churning beta casein with acid pepsin for two hours at pH 2? Not a lot if you believe this report. No biological activity is left. Not much anyway.
So does that mean that casein is problem free? Of course not. How many people maintain that ideal pH of 2 for their pepsin to work in? Just take a swig of Gaviscon and your pepsin is not going to do its job. A pH of 7 is not the one at which it was designed to work. Even worse, take a ranitidine (H2 antagonist) tablet and the gastric pH is raised for 12 hours. Yet even worse (worser?) pop an omeprazole tablet, a proton pump inhibitor, and you simply are not going to pump any protons for 24 hours. Take one a day and forget your pepsin is ever going to do much protein digestion.
Once you've eliminated a functional stomach all bulk protein digestion is down to pancreatic trypsin. This is one of the better enzymes for making the casein hydrosylates used to open up the tight junctions in the mammary glands of experimental cows and goats. It's acting in your small intestine to manufacture a tight junction disruptor from milk.
That doesn't sound good to me.
Omeprazole is a market leader. Gaviscon and ranitidne are available OTC. I know at least one baby which has acid reflux so badly that she has spent (and still spends) most of her life on the latter two drugs. What's happening to her gut?
I think there is a case to be made for both the pasteurisation of liquid milk and the drying of powdered milk altering the shape of the protein structure of casein to render the 1-28 amino acid sequence protected from digestion in the stomach. This is absolute speculation, there's no data to support this. Except the world is full of anecdotes about people tolerating raw milk but not pasteurised milk. I'm also willing to speculate that bacteria used to ferment milk to yogurt or kefir may cleave this amino acid sequence, making fermented dairy products far less problematical, even if they are derived from pateurised milk. More speculation.
Bear in mind that once tight junctions in your gut are open, it does not have to be the casein which triggers the allergy, exactly as in the case of wheat gluten. Any intestinal protein can freeload through the opened epithelium.
BTW: Why on earth should a baby have acid reflux so badly she needs to live on ranitidine? It can all start from that suggestion, made with the best intentions by the midwife (ignoring box ticking), to give "just one" formula feed as baby is being slow to regain birth weight..... Considering formula milk appears to be made of sucrose and dried casein, with loads of omega 6 fatty acids (partly oxidised?), I think there are a host of suspects as to why it happens. But an unlucky baby can end up needing antacids as a lifesaver if she regurgitates repeatedly and projectilely on formula milk. I don't much like formula milk.
I also really don't like the idea of removing the functional ability of anyone's stomach either, at any age.
It's just asking for trouble.
Peter
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteI thought you may find some interesting info about gluten...casein...etc. in this link
http://www.gluten-free.org/reichelt.html
Hela
Hi Hela,
ReplyDeleteWow! I sit here at home reinventing the wheel. Dr Reichelt ("Tiny") should be writing the medical syllabus of a large chunk of internal medicine. Do you think the message may finally get out now that net access is so ubiquitous? I see all of this is from over 10 years ago and still no one in the mainstream accepts that autism is gluten/casein intolerance. I just pubmeded Dr Reichelt and see she is still publishing in 2007 and has extended casein/gluten in to many areas of neurobiology.
I guess the more people talk about this stuff the better the message will spread. But the basic info is there and has been for a long time!
Peter
"This is absolute speculation, there's no data to support this. Except the world is full of anecdotes about people tolerating raw milk but not pasteurised milk."
ReplyDeleteI think there are many variables to consider here. Like most people are using reduced fat or fat-free milk. How many are drinking WHOLE milk or half-and-half, and having problems? Plus, like you said, people eat the milk with grains. So how can people blame milk when the grains are also present? Refined sugars and omega-6 oils and all kinds of junk food are also a likely factor in problems.
BTW, what do you think of fermented or sprouted grains? As I understand it, this removes or neutralizes the anti-nutrients and so forth, making them much safer for consumption.
In general, I feel that cheese and butter are the safest dairy foods. Next, pure sour cream, and yogurt, pref straining or pouring off some of the whey. Some are sensitive to even raw butter. Ghee is pure fat, and tends to be tolerated well.
It is very speculative to say that pasteurization is the problem when it could be homogenization, or the removal of fat, or the addition of synthetic Vitamin A/D, or the feed the animals are given, etc.
Yes, Weston Price feel that grains can be processed to remove antinutirents. Certainly fully lactofermented home made rye bread is the closest I've tried to this and it still flares a psoriasis like rash with me. Perhaps sprouting would remove the lectins, but I'm too unenthused about grains to try this move...
ReplyDeletePeter
Very interesting :)
ReplyDeleteI think the reason no one knows about this stuff (even though we DO know about it)... is very simple.
Gluten and casein as contribution to disease will never take off for similar reasons that low carb won't.
$$$
In general, information is controlled by money, and if information is at odds with profits it's usually suppressed... I think it's safe to say if it was known that food which is a tremendous part of our society could prevent (not cure, prevent) diseases... that's like, double the blow. Most influential individuals don't want to stop doing/making/using something that makes money in many direct/indirect ways. Most influential individuals don't wants to prevent disease, either.
It may be true but it is like, de-evolution. If we don't eat bread, and dairy, and cheap carbs, if we live by sun and season we can't support a modern technological/ agricultural society. Besides curing almost all diseases (unrelated to microorganisms) what's the benefit? There is no motivation for devolving.
Hi itsthewoo,
ReplyDeleteYou are very right. However information is slipping out of the control of money. Pubmed is free and it's my personal data dredging ground, with help form others of course. I'm well aware that google has plans afoot to limit the appearance of non conformist nutritional advice in their search results, and a major member of the advisory committee as to what is "good" nutrition is Dean "Whole-Grain-Mcdonalds" Ornish. So sites like mine may well persist but become invisible on search engines. Hopefully pubmed will also persist and, although information acquisition will be slower, it will still be possible. Especially for a person with a named disease. A day on pubmed will take them to consultant level of background information. After that, what they do is up to them.
Of course you could always argue that the research done will be dictated by Big Money, so information dissemination can be stifled indirectly. There are a few hard core humans around, so some science will always persist...
In my opinion our society in its current form is not tenable for the long term. I'm unsure what will replace it but I just hope it involves humans. And none of them are hyper rich and in control. Have a look at Daniel Quinn's site. Nothing about nutrition, lots about society and sustainability, or not.
He has a phrase about our society, we practice "Totalitarian Agriculture". He does not talk about de evolving or return to ethnic tribalism, this is impossible. He's more interested in what we can do that is the more successful than what we are doing at the moment. He (and I agree) has no concern for the future of the planet, but is worried that humans may not be part of that future. You might enjoy...
Peter
Hi again
ReplyDeleteI am not worried about
There is a difference between controlling popular opinion and controlling information.
Fixing popular opinion is pretty easy, all you have to do is control the "experts". Influential ($$$) members of society can easily control experts, because society makes experts (acclaim/$$$ or lack). Experts control popular opinion because thats what their job description is. So ultimately society controls popular opinion by hiring all the experts.
Controlling knowledge/info on the other hand is much more difficult if not impossible. This actually involves suppressing both info as well as the actions of people. Pretty much totalitarianism. Any society capable of this is not a society that will exist for long, because it is so at odds with productive outcomes (by design, it prevents progress).
At worst what we'll wind up with is a little green label next to "approved" websites, like the ADA.org, letting grandma and grandpa know this is a trustworthy source of info about how best to manage their diabetes.
Research is already heavily fixed and controlled, especially the interpretations of findings. The findings themselves, though, cannot be suppressed; productive science must be proper, and proper science always contributes to discovering the truth (it's up to us to use it for that purpose, though).
Yea, uh I guess what I'm saying is I really don't fear a day when I turn on my computer and it's like watching tv, or getting a pamphlet from the doctor. I can't see how living in a progressive, living society is possible under such conditions.
That website seems like it is addressing this very issue, and I will *definitely* be checking it out.
(My instincts are that totalitarian agriculture cannot exist for more than brief periods, because by definition any social structure that controls everything is unprogressive and death making;
I feel so much about our modern existence is illusion, including the notion that we are in danger of extinction. It only seems that way because we so often face competition from ourselves, combined with a brain capable of contemplating the future, it makes it appear as if the end is neigh.
I don't see that as possible when humans are in competition with other humans and only other humans at this point in time. So by default the future must include humans (if not humans than either very evolved descendants of humans, some alien species, OR, least likely, nothing at all). No matter what happens I don't think it will be unfortunate, just different. I suppose I can say I'm indifferent as to whether or not the future will contain humans; even if they were humans, they probably wouldn't be humans... my genes aren't capable of caring that far ahead of time lol.
Hi itsthewoo,
ReplyDeleteMy view is that humans are biology. Nothing special. Species come, species go. Some leave derivatives, some don't. As you say, Totalitarian Agriculture cannot be sustained, mostly as it eliminates ANY species which is not of direct benefit to our current way of living. Species loss may be where the crunch comes from. Nothing has ever eliminated species diversity in the way that we do at the moment. Currently there is a population of >6 billion, the direct product of Totalitarian Agriculture. Lots of people are hungry today. When the TA system crashes, what then? My son is 12 months, he makes me think about the future.
Small groups of people are already "banking" species diversity, good. There are people outside the TA system already, who may increase the chances of human derivatives lasting even remotely as long as the dinosaurs did, but they've got their work cut out.
Provided the physical integrity of the planet persists I see no probability of humans destroying all life. Ants and grasses don't mind radiation and certain bacteria thrive in the cooling ponds of nuclear reactors. "Life" will be fine while the sun shines. Actually, autotrophic bacteria don't much care about the sun anyway...
Peter
You might perhaps like a study like
ReplyDeleteSidor K, Jarmotłowska B, Kaczmarski M, Kostyra E, Iwan M, Kostyra H.
Content of b-casomorphins in milk of women with a history of allergy.
Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2008.
This is about the development of atopic disease, but it points at some interesting issues with casomorphins, and is not as controversial as Reichelts opioid-excess-theories. Lack of, or decreased DPP iv stands in the middle both in Reichelts work and Sidor et al´s work.
It´s mostly parents of autistic children who reports a huge difference in behaveour in their children going gluten- and caseinfree. Thats controversial too. We don´t like the idea that food might alter our mind.
I´m not autistic, did not have any cognitive problems before trying gfcf-food, but had a huge reaction after 3 weeks, (and it lasted for 4 month:-). I spoke to, and learned from dr. Reichelt, that it was a normal reaction for some, and that I was actually going cold turkey (I sign that). Now I´m perfectly fine again, just feeling less tired. (My reason to go gfcf was some anti-gliadin and some milk allergy).
Another interesting voice on the internet is Keith Woodford. He published a book last year about A1beta-casein vs A2beta-casein. This summes up his view:
http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/news?article=1d81b30f-8bf3-4db3-b838-e5210fead0d9
Resulting in this (New Zealand food safety reports):
http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/policy-law/projects/a1-a2-milk/index.htm
More to come on this beta-casein issue and milk-research.
Hope you understand my terrible Norwenglish :-) and thank you for a very interesting blogg!
Hi Blogeier,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the links. I think chainey pointed me towards the NZ work on A1 vs A2 milk. Your links, especially the first one, are very interesting. There is the whole issue of intestinal permeability, especially as this appears to be the primary defect in NOD mice (and humans consuming gluten). You could add to that humans consuming NSAID and, after that, humans consuming the sorts of plant salicylates from which aspirin is derived... All have intestinal permeability issues so may well absorb opioid peptides from food.
What was your cold turkey like? If you browse the self help groups on the net for opioid addicts going through withdrawl the acute influenza like stage is usually over in between 3 and 10 days, depending on the degree of addiction and the opioid involved. But the crashing depression which follows seems to go on for between 6 and 12 months. Even with motivated people, staying "clean" is very hard.
I have to say that watching a number of people go gluten free has been interesting. There seems to be a very bad patch from about 2-6 weeks but not too bad after that. I don't know many people who have gone casein free too. Personally all of my casein is fermented, but whether this breaks the structure of the opioid fragment I don't know. If I end up talking to people who are serious about long term LC eating I always advise them to combine it with complete gluten elimination. Small amounts of gluten seem to lead to grain bingeing. I can see why...
Dr Reichelt seems to be a very interesting person.
Best wishes
Peter
Hi Peter :-)
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.. Maybe the opioid peptides don´t need to pass throug the tight-junction, maybe they just need to talk to receptors in the gut? :)
Most of 5-HT receptors live down there in the gut, and God knows what they do when casomorphins talk to them, or what the gut then say to the vagus nerve, and what the vagus do with that information.
If they communicate.. 5-HT and the vagus.
Still, I do agree.. intestinal permeability is probably the main issue, in combination with decreased DPPiv activity.
Going cold turkey by going gfcf is not something I do recommend.
For me it started with two nice weeks of awakening, then insomnia, muscle aches and pains, chills.. then joint pain. Intense joint pain in every joint in my body. I lost two periods in a row, and got the famous blues the last tree weeks. Huge white spots appeared on my fingernails, and my heartbeat increased. Then suddenly, after 4 month, all the pain, the depression and chills, everything odd disappeared, and I was ok again :-) Less tired than before gfcf.
If I eat milk-contaminated food today, I get this acute arthritis in one of my shoulders the morning after. Funny. I´ve never had that arthritis problem before.
Wheat just make me want to sleep. I get very tired if I eat something contaminated with wheat.
I don´t know why this happened to me while going gfcf, and i don´t know if it has to do with opioid peptides. But in my opinion, Reichelts theories is plausible.
Sorry, bad translation from norwegian to english :-)
ReplyDeleteMent to say I get acute inflammation in one of my shoulders if I eat milk-contaminated food! Not arthritis.
It's very strange, gluten gets me with neck/shoulder arthritis nowadays but doesn't seem to do the skin reaction it used to. Never any detectable gut signs. Where as my wife it is always gut first... We're much better at avoiding nowadays.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever browsed the opioid addiction sites? Do you realise that you described to me a heroin withdrawl exactly, but done in slow motion over weeks rather than days????? Very interesting.
I was lucky, no detectable withdrawl. But I will always remember my wife's comment 2-3 weeks in to gluten withdrawl. We were walking around a supermarket and there was the smell of fresh baked bread and she said "I wish you'd never found out about this diet!"
But she got off of omeprazole.... Hee hee
Peter
Strange, yes..
ReplyDeleteI did look up opioid withdrawal in pubmed, (By the way, seen this? http://www.gopubmed.org/ ) and googled a bit as the symptomes appeared one by one, and found some resemblance to addiction and some logical (for me) biocemical answers Reichelts work) to why it happened like that.
Strange to feel so much pain just becaused I changed foodhabits, and also strange to be inside my head, thinking rationally, knowing I was´nt depressed, knowing I didn´t have any logical reason to be depressed, but still feeling the depression for those weeks. The world outside my eyes had this pale blue shade! Literally a blue shade. I remember thinking it was a funny observation and an interesting state to be in. But all in all it was just a very painful experience.
Guess I am kind of lucky in a way too, because I´ve never craved for milk or wheat afterwards. It´s actually harder to stay lowcarb!
Anyhow, thank you again for sharing your knowledge. I´ll keep reading!
:-)
Interesting. When my infant (now age 11.5) was born I damn near had to throw a fit and get out of bed and send my husband in to watch to make SURE the nurses did not give her formula so she would breastfeed. She lost exactly 10% of her body weight (which is within expected tolerance) the first, week I think it was? and the doctor insisted I should supplement with formula. The hormonal effect on the psychology ("my BABY is STARVING!") were truly unbelievable. I spent all the money I had on a breast pump and did nothing but pump, feed, pump, feed, for days, and then at his insistence, gave her "only 2oz" -- that is a LOT! -- of formula. She promptly projectile vomited the stuff all over the place. I refused to give it to her again. Later, an older doctor said that was unnecessary and he'd talk to the young guy; he said that was standard in medical school, a real big push to encourage formula. I'm sure the reasons are financial, not health, on the part of the educational motivation (not the doctors, who I'm sure have good intent).
ReplyDeleteI'm going to look through the rest of your blog to see if I can find more about the gluten which you just had a ref to. My boyfriend is celiac and I appear to be gluten intolerant (at least, if bloating and then asthma 12-24 hours later is a sign...) and I've never understood the 'why' of this. I find tons of info on gluten online but frankly, so much, and much so complex, that in the end all I really understand is it's an allergy to the protein. I recently saw a pill that said it digested gluten for people who were intolerant to it (do you know if that actually works?).
I might add that since I shifted my diet from typical ("whatever" modern food) to general lowcarb, I've lost a ton of weight and a dozen medical symptoms and my entire life has radically changed for the better.
As a total side effect (by sheer accident), I discovered my gluten reaction as part of this. I also discovered a reaction to milk--I knew it before, but getting off it forcibly showed me the pattern: it's like heroin to me. If I drink a little I want more. If I drink more, I need more. If I drink more, I'm doomed--I'll be up at 3am drinking out of the carton, gasping against the refrigerator in my panting craving-need. I spent my entire life living primarily on gluten and caseine and it turns out I may literally be allergic (or something) to both of them, how crazy is that (well, over 500# of crazy originally, apparently...).
Btw I found your blog as a ref from the lowcarber forum related to the study on vegetables allegedly causing DNA damage etc. This is the first I've heard of such a thing. I'd like to see a lot more info (like what veggies, how many studies, done with addition damage measure or just subtraction improvement measure?) so I'm searching for more info on that.
Nice blog here, I'll be back regularly.
Best,
PJ
Hi PJ,
ReplyDeleteVery slow in replying but we've just taken on an allotment garden and the diazoxide posts got a bit involved at the same time.
If you scan through the posts in the index on wheat, gluten and casein you'll pick up more information. One of the main bees in my bonnet is that for gluten, and to a lesser extent casein, classical allergy is not needed. The molecular structure is such that direct toxicity, gut leakage and distant damage are all possible without an antibody in sight. A delay is common with gluten toxicity and asthma doesn't in the least surprise me.
I've got a short post on coeliac disease planned.
We only had the pressure from the midwife re formula, medics are less involved in childbirth in the UK when things go well. Luckily we're NCT members and the breast feeding councillor got us sorted with a couple of phone calls. Our son is 16 months now and starting to wean himself, well, down to 3 feeds from seven per day!
BTW, enjoyed your comments on weight loss, obesity and dishonesty. Fat people lie. Thin people lie. Mostly they don't, sometimes they do. Insulin doesn't, there has to be an explanation that doesn't rely on participants lying! They can't ALL lie ALL of the time! Particularly the ones who volunteered for a study involving calculated eating with calorie restriction!!!!
I also wonder if the protein in Slimfast is casein? A number of other proteins are insulogenic too. Can't tell from their website, I looked.
All the best
Peter
PS interesting blogs you run.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI was recently diagnosed with gluten intolerance after suffering from various autoimmune conditions. Found a dr to push me get off gluten, casein, soy, most grains and sugar. It's been miraculous. I'm fascinated by your blog. Everyone should read this. Also one more reason to breastfeed (which I'm currently doing). Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteA brilliant post: only just discovered it via the hez post on dairy. Your comments here are gold. I couldn't agree more that humans are simply biology, nothing more, nothing less.
Western natural science and philosophy has developed a curious, split-level image of human existence. Paradoxically, we are understood to be organisms; however, to conceptualise ourselves as organisms we must be something 'more' than organisms. It is precisely this ‘excess’ that incites us to define the parameters of our common humanity. While an animal such as a deer, a dog, or a chimpanzee is all organism, the human being is said to be an organism ‘plus'. Our organic nature is supposedly topped up with some intangible, additional factor – mind or self-awareness – that can be found not by external observation but only by the knowledge we have of ourselves as possessing identities, emotions, memories and intentions.
Hee hee Anna, one of my line to clients is that there is nothing special about people. Anything we can do cats can generally do better. Hmmm, though they are pretty bad at Parkinsons! Alzheimers they do really well...
ReplyDeleteHi Peter,
ReplyDeleteHow do you feel about casein supplements for athletes? I've been advised to take a post-workout whet/casein supplement for the more complete amino acid profile and to supply my muscles with amino acids(from the casein protein) for a more extended period of time (compared to the relatively immediate supply from whey protein). Is it a bad idea to ingest casein out of the context of whole (raw or pasteurized) milk?
Thanks!
Mike
Michael, I don't know on this sort of Q. Last time I was an athlete was in the 1970's!I'd be a little concerned immunologically with high dose dried casein...
ReplyDeletePeter
Adding more complications, different breeds of cow create diff types of proteins in their milk. Info on one variation here: http://fedup.com.au/factsheets/additive-and-natural-chemical-factsheets/a2-milk . Right now, there is a lawsuit in Australia over the 1970s switch to A1 milk in Australia being found in research articles to be linked to various ailments including Autism, and the Australian A1 milk producers have been trying to 'patent' this information so they have ownership of it and can block it from being published. A2 milk producers are sueing to keep the info in the public. And there are a lot of other proteins in milk besides A1 and A2 that are also different between breeds and species..
ReplyDeleteMy gut was altered from 3 months on. My mother, unable to milk, put me on a standard south american liquid made from barley and oat water with a little cows milk. She thought she was giving me a beneficial boost', but instead it cleaved my gut pretty much for life. I heard stories that I was a constantly crying baby, highly anxious, fearful, and prone to panic attacks (nothing changed much until I formally stopped eating wheat - 2 years ago)- I'm 48.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, should I eat any gluten based product, especially if the seed is in the product, I'm in physiological and psychological turbulence for up to 72 hours.
Mum didn't know better so she's 100% forgiven, but for those today that do have the correct information at hand, should re-think their decisions to follow standard medic-myth and do their due research. Thank goodness for the internet and people like you.
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is still top of the ratings, as far as I am concerned. You continue to raise my sights and I thank you.
I am currently in the midst of what I believe to be casomorphine withdrawal. It is horrible. And yet, I was on goat’s milk/cheese/cream/yogurt/butter, and not cow’s, being an atopic type, and have been using goat and sheep milk products for years (even source a load of raw goat milk from a farm recently!) Anyway, I was putting together a public presentation on dairy products and decided to go milk free, for a while at least, to see if my persistent constipation and wind might be resolved through doing so. Having been off all grains (pseudo grains and all) and living low carb high fat for some years, it was odd that the wind was such a problem, but it was. I had even developed noisy burpy hiccoughs, which was all rather H. pylori - like (though not inclined to get it tested).
So, since last Sunday I have had no milk products at all, and boy am I feeling it!!! Achey, tight, grasping, ischaemic type sensations in thighs, hips, back and abdomen, and having to writhe around in an attempt to relieve it. I played Lennon’s song ‘Cold Turkey’ and his rasping guitar sound is an exact replica of these bodily sensations in his medium. Sleep is almost impossible, unless I take two soluble aspirins plus some strong Passiflora or Valerian tincture (I am a Medical Herbalist so I have these at hand) and only then can I get to sleep, but I am very fatigued, and like a caged animal in that I have to walk around or wriggle my legs and back the whole time.
How, you may well ask, can this be casomorphine withdrawal, when goat/sheep milk products don’t contain casomorphine? That is exactly what I want to know too. I know all about A1/A2 milk and goat/sheep milk is all A2, so should not be producing beta-casomorphine 7. So what the hell does it contain, as I am certainly suffering here, and it looks very like the symptoms described on opiate withdrawal forums. Maybe all milk contains some morphine-like peptides, as we know that human milk does, which may well help in the mother baby bonding process.
My constipation has gone, though having switched my breakfast from an omelette to fruit and coconut cream might explain that, but it is great not to feel so bunged up. I am no longer drinking 6-8 cups of tea with milk daily, so this might be caffeine withdrawal (I have had headaches too, though not quite as described in the caffeine sites). The severe wind that I had has reduced a bit, but, where it was entirely anxious (read: no smell) it is now stinky! A bit less, but far more nasty. Burping is a bit less, but not gone entirely. So I am far from certain about what I have done, or whether I can keep this up! I have to start feeling better soon, or the cheese gets it!
So if you have any thoughts on what on earth is happening to me I would really appreciate it. It is no fun, and I just want to eat cheese all the time, or cream (Waitrose will feel the effects of my not buying 7 pots per week).
Please help!
Afifah
PS Kalle Reichelt is a chap, and, as you say, should re-write the medical curriculum.
Hi again Peter, I have a bit of a news flash, following my earlier comment/request for thoughts on probable casomorphine withdrawal. The news is, my dear hubby has made me a cup of tea with almond milk. It is the first cup of tea that I have had since Sunday. It has immediately relieved my malaise, the pains/ischaemic sensations in legs/back etc, and stopped me feeling like shite. HOWEVER, one of the things that had been bothering me for months was cramps in legs and feet, especially at night, with no relief from magnesium (though a bit from ascorbic acid), but it had been rather a mystery why I was having these blooming cramps. Anyway, I have not had any cramps all this week off milk products, but, I had a tiny twitch of cramp in one foot straight after drinking this cup of tea just now!!! Perhaps tea causes cramps, (I have seen a case in Lancet 2002 of a 44 yr old chap who's Earl Gray intake was found to be the source of his cramps) but simultaneously enables the cells of those addicted to it to continuously detox, as for me, not having it felt as though a large proportion of my cells were overloaded with toxic waste, which felt dreadful.
ReplyDeleteI am feeling fine again, after just two cups of common or garden organic Sainsbury's loose tea with commercial almond milk (Almond Dream made by The Celestial Group, whoever they may be, and I see contains some corn syrup and rice starch, neither of which I ever touch normally).
So maybe my week of feeling crap had nothing at all to do with milk products and everything to do with tea.
You could knock me down with a feather, truly, it is a phenomenal difference.
I can now proceed with caution re tea, and drink it weaker and fewer cups per day, and maybe, just maybe, get back to eating some gorgeous sheep and goat's dairy products.
Any comments or thoughts from you or others would be extremely welcome.
Afifah