The hormones present in cow’s milk may help explain the association between certain diseases and dairy consumption.
Acne & Cancer Connection,
Image thanks to Caitlin Regan.
In volume 3, I talked about the link between these hormones in dairy and the stimulation of sebaceous glands, resulting in acne. But as we’re learning the growth of acne is not the only thing the hormones in milk can stimulate the growth of. Acne, dairy, and cancer, published last year in the journal demato-endocrinology A potent link to dairy seems to exist for acne, breast cancer, and prostate cancer, but why? Maybe it’s 5-alpha-P. What is 5-alpha P?
5-alpha pregnanedione is another sex steroid hormone present in cow’s milk that is a direct precurser to a testosterone metabolite that not only drives acne, but may promote both prostate and breast cancer like the other dairy hormones. The article starts out how, over the past 35 years parts of a highly important jigsaw puzzle have gradually come to light. First, all any doctor has to do is take a medical history to learn that, for example, extensive back acne is almost exclusively due to excess dairy intake, but not necessarily milk itself—it could be other dairy products.
Now we’d like to do controlled clinical studies, but the problem is there’s no control. Dairy without the offending hormones does not exist. Even organic milk, where they’re not allowed to inject cows with hormones, has growth hormones in it because biologically, that’s the whole point of milk, to put a couple hundred pounds on a baby calf.
The problem with humans drinking cow hormones is that there’s no natural feedback loop. For our own hormones, if we have too much estrogen or something, our brain damps it down, but this protective feedback system is bypassed when the system is “invaded” by these dihydrotestosterone precursors in dairy products.
See the human endocrine system didn’t evolve under the influence of ingested dairy and other external hormones and growth factors, and we’re just not equipped to cope with such a quote-unquote sneak attack. In summary, the evidence suggests that dairy-sourced hormones, not being subject to any innate feedback inhibition, may be the source of the steroid sex hormones that drive acne, prostate and breast cancer. This is the most promising unifying hypothesis—or theory—available, to explain the cause of diverse diseases that blemish, scar, shorten and take, the lives of millions.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
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Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out the other videos on acne. Also, there are 1,449 other subjects covered in the rest of my videos--please feel free to explore them as well!
For more context, check out my associated blog posts: Stool Size and Breast Cancer Risk, Breast Cancer and Diet, and Are Bioidentical Hormones Safe?