Cow's Milk and Autoimmune Diseases

Cow's Milk and Autoimmune Diseases
Pedro Bastos

Autoimmune diseases (AD) are the most common illnesses in the U.S., afflicting five to eight percent of the American population,1 especially women.2

AD develop when the body's immune system loses the ability to distinguish between what is "self" and what is "non-self," and attacks healthy tissues and organs as if they were a foreign invader like a bacteria or virus.1

The resulting disease depends on which tissues are involved. For instance, in celiac disease, the targeted tissue is small bowel mucosa. In type 1 diabetes, the insulin producing pancreatic beta cells are involved. The thyroid gland is the affected organ in autoimmune thyroid diseases. In Sjögren's syndrome, the attack is directed to the glands that secrete saliva and tears. The joints are affected in rheumatoid arthritis, and it is the gastrointestinal tract that is affected in Crohn's disease. In psoriasis, the skin is affected, and in Multiple Sclerosis, the target tissue is the myelin sheath surrounding nerves.

Although AD have a genetic predisposition,1,3 the concordance rate between twins is only about 30 %, so the interaction between one's genotype and several environmental factors plays a major role.1-3

In the last 20 years, several dietary factors have been implicated in AD such as drugs,1 heavy metals,1 viral and bacterial infections,1 vitamin D deficiency,4-14 and gluten consumption15-37 (that's a group of water-soluble proteins found in wheat, barley, rye and oats15). It also appears that cow's milk is involved in certain AD, as well.

Various epidemiological studies have associated milk with T1D38-45, especially when the initial exposure begins in the first months of life. This evidence appears to be consistence, since various reviews of the scientific literature published in 199346, 199447,48, 199849, 199950,51, 200252, 200353 and 200554,55 corroborate the association between cow's milk drinking and T1D.

Regarding MS and cow's milk consumption, epidemiological studies have also repeatedly shown a strong correlation56-60.

The most likely mechanism is called molecular mimicry whereby amino acid sequences from milk proteins resemble amino acid sequences in our body's organs and tissues.

Indeed, there is molecular mimicry between bovine insulin (present in cow's milk) and human insulin61-66, which may explain the Cow's Milk-T1D connection.

Molecular mimicry is also a suspected mechanism explaining the MS connection and the implicated milk proteins are:

Butyrophilin(a bovine milk fat globule protein), since there is molecular mimicry between this protein and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), an autoantigen involved in MS.67
Bovine serum albumin(one of the proteins in cow's milk whey), as there is structural similarity between this protein and the autoantigen myelin basic protein.68

Finally, there is molecular mimicry between bovine serum albumin and human collagen type 1, which has implications for RA69. Indeed, case studies have shown that elimination of milk and dairy products from the diets of patients with RA improved symptoms, and the disease was markedly exacerbated on re-challenge.69

Bovine Milk is also implicated in other auto-immune diseases, such as Crohn's disease70, Sjögren's syndrome71 and even celiac disease.72

Based on this evidence, it appears that people with an elevated risk for auto-immune diseases or already with the disease would benefit from a dairy free diet, which is one of the characteristics of the Paleo Diet.

References:

References:
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