Is Milk and Mucus a Myth?

Do dairy products contribute to increased mucus (phlegm) production?

August 30, 2011
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  • Michael Greger M.D.

    Dairy industry policies have also been accused of racial bias, as profiled in this article published in the Journal of the National Medical Association.

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    • http://www.msadventuress.com MsAdventuress

      I can’t begin to thank you enough for posting this video. When explaining this issue as the reason I can’t consume dairy, people tend to think I’m a tad wacky. But seeing it here makes me feel…sane. ♥

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  • maybush1

    Very good information. I was literally asking myself this very same question a couple of days ago, since I had recently heard it mentioned many times.

    Thanks again Dr. Greger. Keep up the great work!

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=638542017 Bo Novak

    Love, love, love these videos. Proper science with the important bits underlined. The connection between milk and allergies / asthma and mucus / phlegm is well known. Many singers avoid milk for this second reason. And the opiates in milk serve an obvious purpose in mother-child bonding – which begs the question why so many of us drink the breast milk of another species.

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  • vegdeb

    I’m a singer, and many singers avoid dairy before a performance because of this. I even heard the director of an elementary school musical warning her cast about this before the show. Go, Maimonides!

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=676800493 Benjamin Stone

    “Dairy industry blames Jewish physician” Ha!

    Of course most Jews are in fact lactose intolerant. The Dairy Council must be perturbed at ethnic groups that can not digest their products!

    Good catch Doctor. I think the Dairy Council is in need of some new copywriters.

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  • EH

    As someone in a position of trust, you may want to review some of the statements in your video.

    First off, what is it that told you that the source article was a review, was it the title of the journal: “Medical Hypotheses”, or was it the long list of references?

    Secondly, what makes you think that article states that it is indeed fact? There is nowhere in that article that states that this is what happens. Perhaps I missed that part and you can quote it for me so that I can better understand.

    Finally, while you do indeed say that ‘this may affect that’ and ‘this may cause that’, most of this hesitation is invalidated by the fact that you earlier stated that this is certainly what happens since it is a fact.

    That being said, while I have little doubt in my mind that the milk industry is bending facts like every other large industry with rumours or myths or even evidence against them, I abhor when people with presumably noteworthy credentials say things in a way to make the general population think something is true, when it is simply a hypothesis. And so I must apologise for the somewhat hostile tone.

    -a Ph.D. Candidate in Biochemistry, Chemistry, Protein Dynamics, and Drug Design

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    • Michael Greger M.D.

      Thank you so much for your feedback! It’s very sweet of you to take the time to leave a comment. It’s a dream come true to have science-minded folks like yourself reviewing the site and it would be a great favor to me personally and to those visiting the site if you had time to review as many other videos as you can. If you don’t have institutional access to any of the articles I cite please let me know and I can email you PDFs.

      With specific regard to your comments, you’re absolutely right: “review” is only correct in the colloquial sense and not in the technical sense. So I should have said the “latest paper” on the subject instead. In fact I’ll add it to the queue of videos I want to rerecord just to make sure it’s crystal clear. I am indebted to you and all those who have noted site search glitches, videos with sound problems, etc. as I am constantly trying to improve on the site (while at the same time working on coming up with new content every day!).

      The Bartley and McGlashan paper I highlight is indeed more of an explanatory paper, trying to figure out the “why” rather than the “what.” Although reports of mucoid impaction tied to milk allergy go back nearly 30 years, such a large percentage of the population recognizes a milk/mucus link (see for example, here, here, and here) that allergies alone couldn’t account for such a widespread perception. That’s why this new paper is so interesting, offering a non-allergy explanation of why so many people report increased respiratory mucus production with milk consumption. Is their hypothesis (i.e. educated guess) correct? It hasn’t been tested, but hopefully it will lead to a fruitful line of research and I will make sure to keep everyone in the loop.

      And EH, good luck on your thesis!

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  • EH

    I appreciate that you responded and are willing to improve and review your descriptions.

    While I cannot access the article titled “Recurrent mucoid impaction in an asthmatic infant with cow’s milk protein allergy”, the article titled “The Milk Mucus Belief: Sensations Associated with the belief and characteristics of believers” states that even in non-believers there was a sensation of needing to swallow, of coating of the throat, etc. They also refer to a similar double blind study they did in which they report that the subjects also experienced the same effect with soy milk, and so conclude that these sensations are just something that comes with this type of drink and is not actually associated with cow’s milk itself.

    The next article titled “Patients’ perceptions of food-induced asthma” found that approximately 35% of respondends reported that dairy products had “made you start to cough, wheeze, feel short of
    breath or get a tight feeling in the chest?”, but with that same questionnaire, about 40% reported those same symptoms with fruits and vegetables. They conclude that ‘confirmation of these perceptions will require well conducted challenge studies’. More importantly here, they say that ‘health professionals need to be aware of their own beliefs.’

    The last study “Do You Believe Milk Makes Mucus?” found that there are equal proportions of people who think milk causes increased mucus production when considering those that have illnesses that could affect that effect (asthma, cystic fibrosis, and allergies). There are also an equal propotion of people that believe it across different ethnicities. The part of this article I personally find interesting is that the stated sources for the idea that milk causes more mucus is 9.8% pediatricians, 18.7% other physicians and 2.6% other healthcare professionals.

    Your argument that allergies alone could not account for such a widespread perception falls under the argumentum ad populum fallacy of argumentation that states that something is true because many people believe it is. Nobody has yet confirmed that milk does indeed cause increased mucus production, and until somebody does so, be it for some small percentage of the population, it is irresponsible to advertise it as being a true effect.

    I do look forward to seeing the results of that study though, being asthmatic myself.

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    • BPCveg

      I too read this paper and think Dr. Greger’s video was representative in that all he actually stated was that it “appears to be fact” that milk increases mucus production.

      In fact, Bartley and McGlashan cite a number of studies that support dairy elimination and conclude that “These observations would suggest that in some situations a cow’s milk exclusion diet can be beneficial.”

      To support these observations the authors provided a plausible and testable mechanism to explain why a certain type of milk (A1) could increase mucus production in a subgroup of people who have increased intestinal permeability.

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  • EH

    Like I said, most of the wording in the video does indeed have a note of doubt in it, but most people will assume it is just turn of phrase. Scientists will often state things this way because they are aware that discoveries are rarely certain and even more seldom absolute, whereas for the general population, if you tell them it appears that drinking and driving cause accidents, the will take it as a fact because it is something they already think or know to be true.

    When you saw this video, before looking at the sources and reading the comments, were you not under the impression that milk did indeed cause mucus production?

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  • http://www.facebook.com/EFVOnline Angel Duran

    I got this from Dr. Mercola’s site on raw milk. What’s your take on it. (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/01/cdc-misrepresents-raw-milk-statistics.aspx?e_cid=20120101_SNL_Art_1)

    Raw Milk is a Healthful, Living Food

    High quality raw milk has a mountain of health benefits that pasteurized milk lacks. For example, raw milk is:

    Loaded with healthy bacteria that are good for your gastrointestinal tract
    Full of more than 60 digestive enzymes, growth factors, and immunoglobulins (antibodies)
    Rich in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which fights cancer
    Rich in beneficial raw fats, amino acids, and proteins in a highly bioavailable form, all 100 percent digestible
    Loaded with vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, and K) in highly bioavailable forms, and a very balanced blend of minerals (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron) whose absorption is enhanced by live lactobacilli
    It is not uncommon for people who drink raw milk to experience improvement or complete resolution of troubling health issues—everything from allergies to digestive problems to eczema. It is also common for people who have “milk allergies” to tolerate raw milk just fine. Pasteurized milk is a completely different story.

    Pasteurization Creates a Dead, White Liquid That is NOT Beneficial to Your Health

    Pasteurization turns milk into a dead white liquid whose health benefits are largely destroyed. Consider what pasteurization does to milk:

    The price of killing the pathogenic bacteria is that you also kill the good bacteria which helps digest milk and make it such a nourishing food
    Proteins and enzymes are completely destroyed or denatured, made less digestible and less usable by your body
    Immunoglobulins, metal-binding proteins, vitamin-binding proteins, carrier proteins, growth factors, and anti-microbial peptides such as Lactoferrin are destroyed
    Many vitamins and minerals are rendered biologically unusable
    Fats are damaged and destabilized
    Additionally, the bacteria killed by pasteurization are not removed, so their dead carcasses remain in the milk to ignite immune reactions in those who ingest them, which is one major cause of milk allergies. It isn’t really an allergy to the milk itself, but to the organic cell fragments it contains.

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  • Deb

    Interestingly, Maimonides was right on alot of medical issues.  I believe he also  wrote that people needed to allow a sufficient amount of green space around cities for clean and, thus promoting optimal health.

    A reviewer on Amazon.com, commenting on one of the English translations of Maimonides medical writings said this:

    Maimonides studied medicine long before he decided to enter the
    profession because he knew that good heath is important to a satisfying
    life. He taught that prevention of illness and the maintenance of good
    health is the major goal of physicians and non-physicians alike. He
    focused his attention not only on the body, but also on the mind, the
    environment, a proper attitude, good interrelationships, the avoidance
    of stress, and other similar subjects.

    Maimonides was very modern in
    his approach to good heath by stressing exercise, proper foods,
    sufficient sleep, and recognizing that nature by itself, without the aid
    of a physician, can resolve many illnesses. His advice on health,
    contained in his medical, philosophical and legal writings, remains
    worthwhile reading today.

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