I suppose it was only fitting during my gastronomic adventures in Europe that I developed a gastrointestinal illness. Of course, I can’t be sure exactly what caused it–a virus or a particular food–though I sensed it was unlikely a food-borne pathogen, since the symptoms were lower grade in intensity than what I’ve read about for E.coli O157:H7, campylobacter, and such
My sense was confirmed when, after a day-and-a-half of symptoms including fever and diarrhea, I visited a Pharmacie in Lisbon. These licensed dispensaries are all over the city, easily distinguishable by the official green neon cross over the store entrance. They are something akin to America’s old-time drug stores, before CVS and Walgreens drove them out of business—places where you can discuss your illness with a pharmacist and get serious recommendations about protocols and treatments for your problem, which may or may not involve prescription drugs.
I had been in to one of these places a day after arrival near where I was staying in an old section of Lisbon, to buy some sun screen, and had struck up a conversation with a young pharmacist, Alexander. When he heard I was from the Boston area, he told me that his secret passion was music and musicals, and how much he had enjoyed a recent visit to New York City.
So when my intestinal illness hit ten days later, I paid Alexander a return visit. He questioned me closely: Did I have nausea? Diarrhea? Both or just one? Fever? How high? How long had I had the symptoms? How was I limiting my diet?
When he was satisfied with the answers, he disappeared into a back room for several minutes. I could see him rummaging through some drawers. He returned with a package of 15 white capsules. Though all the information on the package was in Portuguese (the capsules were produced in Portugal), the product name, Bacibiotic Activ, suggested it was a probiotic. Alexander confirmed that it was. “I want you to take one of these 15 minutes before meals, twice a day. Even after you get better, finish them up.” The cost: about $18.
He advised me to avoid fried foods and roughage, and focus on white binding foods like rice and bananas. Eggs only if they were boiled or softly cooked.
In the U.S., of course, a consult with a Walgreens or CVS pharmacist would likely have pointed me to the display case for imodium or Kaopectate. Even if I specifically requested a probiotic option, the pharmacist likely would have known little, and would have had even less available to recommend.
The effect of the probiotic Alexander came up with was near instantaneous—within hours of taking the first capsule, my diarrhea reduced, my fever was gone, and I was much less uncomfortable. Within a couple days, I was pretty much back to normal, able to take full-day train trips around the area without fear of not having immediate access to a decent toilet.
The experience was yet another reminder that the traditional European relationship to bacteria in the diet and in the gut is much different than the American one. In Europe, bacteria are friends in many respects, while in the U.S. they are seen mostly as enemies.
Things are shifting, though. There is expanding recognition in America’s medical community of the importance of gut bacteria in good health and such. The Wall Street Journal reported recently on several venture-backed startup companies focused on analyzing individuals’ microbiome and offering dietary advice based on the results. I just heard an advertisement this evening on national TV for a probiotic….for sale in Walmart.
So this microbiome stuff is coming, to a store near you. In the meantime, Europe has an advantage by virtue of a very long tradition.
David,
Great little piece.
Just spent two days with Dr Silvia Onusic at Opdc. We toured the dairy from grass to glass and discussed all things micro biome and of course raw milk etc. We recorded two You Tube videos. It was great. She is on the board at WAP and does some of the research for published journals etc. Her phd is in public health and nutrition. Her pet project is a raw milk based baby formula she is developing. It was great to have a Phd to talk to that had spent time in Slovenia and with the World Health Organization. The EU perspective is different because their goals are different.
In America we see a doctor that knows little of nutrition or true healing. Instead US doctors and pharmacists are trained to relieve pain, signs or symptoms. In the EU it is far cheaper and far more permanent to go to the origins of the problem. No returning patients. That’s sustainable medicine. I love my American doctor friends. But they are so deeply frustrated. Many want to quit from deep concern for loss of ethics or spinning their wheels with patients returning again and again. They want to heal, but protocols forbid ignorring standards of care that regulated their practices. They admit… they know little of the gut biome, or nutrition but wish they did. Some feel cheated by their narrow medical training.
I am seeing the beginnings of change. On a recent Flying Doctors clinic trip to Mexico, I watched a young American pediatrician advise probiotics and not antibiotics. This was the first time I had ever seen this.
When I spoke with the doc, he said. Got to protect the biome!!!
I was almost in shock. Never heard this from a doctor in all my years as a paramedic.
There is hope. The hope comes from EU micro biome Pubmed published research that is the foundation of evidence based medicine. Western docs will take this in.
We have a long ways to go!!
Mark
Your gastronomic adventures along with changes in sleep schedule etc. in Europe likely stressed and altered the terrain/environment in your gut that in turn resulted in your gastrointestinal illness. If you regularly consume quality probiotic rich foods such as raw milk, yogurt and Sauerkraut, taking a good prebiotic prior to and during your trip would likely have been beneficial.
Probiotics are helpful in that they inoculate the existing terrain with beneficial microbes in the event that those microbes in the gut were compromised by among other things… drugs antibiotics and vaccines; prebiotics on the other hand maintain and revitalize that terrain, nurturing the beneficial microbes already present throughout the entire length of the gut.
You are probably correct, Ken. International travel is pretty stressful these days–long lines and walks through airports, to go along with the jet lag. I was taking a probiotic, but wasn’t consuming as much in the way of fermented foods as I probably should have been.
International travel literally stresses the crap outa ya, eh David?
Curious that you should have such a sensitive microbiota. I was led to believe a healthy microflora is protective and resilient, even durable, but now I learn it is fragile as heck and must be meticulously coaxed along from one meal to the next.
Never seemed to have this problem before we started obsessing over the microbiome; used to be able to eat and do just about anything and, still, everything would (literally) come out just fine most of the time.
Maybe you were poisoned in Portugal?
Anything is possible, Doc. Another possibility is everyone gets sick, at least occasionally (and dies eventually, in all cases).
BTW, my apologies for the delay in approving your comment, and a number of others–I was away and off-line last week.
Exactly!!
That’s why the international traveler in the know always gets a local fecal transplant within hours upon arrival at any foreign destination. It’s also good policy when traveling in-country, Corvalis, OR, for example.
Could be the US if it weren’t under the thumb of the government protected monopoly known as the AMA.
I’m seeing a shift happening too, slow but sure, and am SO happy about it. However, it’s sad and ironic that the docs are often the last to get a clue. Even if most mean well, they prescribe what will keep us sick, not cure us. One recent example comes to mind… A loved one is trying to reverse her diabetes and had ONE more diabetic med she was still taking — Metformin (which is also usually the first one docs put you on when you’re diagnosed). She was doing the Keto diet to correct her blood sugars even more and her numbers went UP. After weeks of frustration, she finally realized that it seemed like the Metformin needed the carbs to “activate” it to work. She went OFF that last drug and her blood sugar numbers came way down and are finally staying that way! Antidepressants are another example of how the meds keep us sick instead of cure… ugh… My rant could go on for a while but I’ll stop.
Kelly
Glyphosate, besides being an herbicide, is an antibiotic. It seems reasonable to ask: How might the widespread presence of glyphosate in food and the environment impact the microbiome?
Torretta, V., Katsoyiannis, I. A., Viotti, P., & Rada, E. C. (2018). Critical Review of the Effects of Glyphosate Exposure to the Environment and Humans through the Food Supply Chain. Sustainability, 10(4), 950.
http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/950
Abstract
Glyphosate is a synthesis product and chemical substance that entered in the global market during the 70s. In the beginning, the molecule was used as an active principle in a wide range of herbicides, with great success. This was mainly due to its systemic and non-selective action against vegetable organisms and also to the spread of Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) crops, which over the years were specifically created with a resistance to glyphosate. To date, the product is, for these reasons, the most sprayed and most used herbicide in the world. Because of its widespread diffusion into the environment, it was not long before glyphosate found itself at the center of an important scientific debate about its adverse effects on health and environment. In fact, in 2015 the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France), an organization referred to as the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland), classified the substance as “likely carcinogenic” to humans. This triggered an immediate and negative reaction from the producer, who accused the Agency and claimed that they had failed to carry out their studies properly and that these conclusions were largely contradictory to published research. Additionally, in 2015, just a few months after the IARC monography published on glyphosate, the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority, Parma, Italy), another WHO related organization, declared that it was “unlikely” that the molecule could be carcinogenic to humans or that it could cause any type of risk to human health. The conflict between the two organizations of the World Health Organization triggered many doubts, and for this reason, a series of independent studies were launched to better understand what glyphosate’s danger to humans and the environment really was. The results have brought to light how massive use of the herbicide has created over time a real global contamination that has not only affected the soil, surface and groundwater as well as the atmosphere, but even food and commonly used objects, such as diapers, medical gauze, and absorbent for female intimate hygiene. How human health is compromised as a result of glyphosate exposure is a topic that is still very debatable and still unclear and unambiguous. This paper is a review of the results of the main independent recent scientific studies.
Thank you for posting this article, Dr. Heckman. It was fascinating reading.
Also, great reading, David. Glad you were able to find relief! In some ways, the EU is ahead of us by being behind us, if you know what I mean. What they promote is healing, not hiding of the symptoms. But you know what people in the know always say/quote about modern medicine (from Wm. Shakespeare): “Hell is empty, all the devils are here.” Seems to me it’s becoming more and more truthful all the time.
Salad dressings applied to lettuce often made with soybean oil. How much glyphosate is in the soybean oil used to make salad dressing?
Whenever I see anything with soybean oil (or canola) in the ingredient list, it makes me shudder. I do not much trust labeling, however, so I think it’s in more food items than we know. We make our own salad dressings but there are a lot of people out there who absolutely douse their salads in Hidden Valley – and that stuff is nasty with soybean oil, and so are ALL brands of Mayo (also sometimes referred to as salad dressing)and Miracle Whip, which is also loaded with sugar.
When we buy anything local such as beef, chickens, eggs, raw milk – whatever, we always ask the producer where they buy their “organic” feed (usually only used in the winter months) because we know which brands/elevators/equities add what they claim are *organic soybeans* to their feed. We do not want soybean used in anything we consume.
Personally I’m getting more and more jaded regarding the word “organic” these days anyhow, but I really don’t trust soy at all.
I feed no soy to my pastured chickens. They seem to like this no soy organic feed from New Country Organic: http://www.newcountryorganics.com/shop/certified-organic-soy-free-poultry-feeds.html
Thank you for the link to the soy-less organic feed.
I really dislike this new format. There was no “reply” button next to Dr. Heckman’s post, so I had to use the reply under MY previous post, which puts everything out of chronological order, of course.
We too feed our chickens nothing but organic, and I can vouch for the New Country brand. Unlike some of the other “organic brands,” it is not processed pellets but the real thing, crushed grain. Your girls will be happier and healthier, and their eggs more nutritious and delicious.
Dr.Heckman …hello…i posted a message to you on the previous article david wrote but i guess you didn’t see it.was wondering why i have not contracted listeria.I was consuming yoghurt..milk from a New york farmer that was told by the state that she tested positive for listeria.she makes cheese as well from goats mostly camembert and other soft cheeses.why have i NOT been sick ….not even a sniffle.Her problem has since cleared up but i thought id make a test on myself and nothing happened no death to report as well.
From a doctors point of view…how is this possible? She also had another independent tester asides from the the new york testers.PLEASE ADVISE..ONE WHOLE MONTH I CONSUMED …ONE WHOLE MONTH SHE TESTED POSITIVE FOR LISTERIA ONE WHOLE MONTH I WAS NOT SICK !!!!!kathy from udder milk
With regards to lettuce: Study: Listeria bacteria can hide inside tissue of romaine lettuce
https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2017/Q1/study-listeria-bacteria-can-hide-inside-tissue-of-romaine-lettuce.html
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A Purdue University study shows that the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes can live inside the tissue of romaine lettuce, suggesting that conventional post-harvest sanitization practices might not be sufficient to kill the potentially lethal pathogen.
dr. heckman ….so you can’t answer my question to you about listeria in milk i consumed and why i was not sick ??
Kathy, Dr. Heckman is very busy, but I can answer your question. Whether or not pathogens cause serious illness depends on the environment they land in (i.e. the age and health of the person who ingests them) + enough per ml. to be an “minimum infectious dose.”
A healthy adult with a robust immune system can survive a a pathogen that a child with a developing immune system, an elderly person with a failing immune system, or an already-ill adult with an already compromised immune system cannot.
A food product containing the pathogen but not in high numbers is NOT a health hazard. Listeria monocytogenes requires a high infectious dose – see age 13 at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/shared/PDF/Atlanta2010/Slides_FSEC_JGreig_Doses.pdf .
BTW, you can consume all want of the dozen or so species of benign Listeria and they won’t harm you. Only ONE species of Listeria — L. monocytogenes — causes food-borne illness, called “Listeriosis.”
Your friend’s milk likely was tested for L. monocytogenes in specific, not for Listeria in-general, although there are tests for such.
Typo: “Page 13”, not “age 13”
When I posted a slightly different version of this post earlier in reply to Dr. Heckman, it tentatively posted with a message that it was waiting for moderation, but that post and message has disappeared. Why would this post not be posted?
The abstract Dr. Heckman linked to said romaine lettuce seeds were germinated, and plants grown in three soil types (i.e., standard potting mix, autoclaved potting mix, and top soil) and sterile soft-top agar for up to 21 days. The listeria m. bacteria persisted on all growing mediums except the 75% top soil. Pathogen levels dropped below detection in the top soil with aerobic content; this did not occur in sterile media.
Seems to me that competition from the aerobes in the top soil is what killed off the listeria via competitive exclusion. Same phenomemon that happens in raw milk.
The abstract said romaine lettuce seeds were germinated, and plants grown in three soil types (i.e., standard potting mix, autoclaved potting mix, and top soil) and sterile
soft-top agar for up to 21 days. The listeria bacteria grew in all conditions except the top soil containing aerobes. Pathogen levels dropped below the limit of detection by day 18 in 75% topsoil; this did not occur in sterile media.
Seems to me this is another example of competitive exclusion by the aerobes in the top soil, just as we see in raw vs. pasteurized milk. A healthy aerobic soil might minimize any cases of listeria in vegetables or fruits.
Interesting. I see the same common functioning principle with fresh unprocessed milk.
Hi, Kathy. I appreciated Vera’s response to your question. However, ‘minimum infective dose’ may not be a very relevant biological entity now that knowledge of the human superorganism with its protective microbiota is advancing. Potential pathogens are detected in healthy superorganisms, yet they are suppressed by competition with the dominant species in a healthy microbiota.
Evidence for doses causing illness and not causing illness is generally indirect (especially for humans) and insufficient to define defensible minima. Human clinical studies that administered Campylobacter, Salmonella, and other pathogens included volunteers who did not develop campylobacteriosis or salmonellosis after doses of 1 BILLION bacteria. Yet most risk assessors use conservative assumptions about dose-response relationships for pathogens: non-threshold dose-response models with linear low-dose behavior. These assumptions cause overestimates of risk and underestimates of uncertainty. References for human clinical studies and studies on protective effects of the microbiota for foodborne pathogens can be provided.
As others said, likelihood of illness depends on the context (travel, exercise, stress, drugs), and predicting health or illness is complex and uncertain. Watch for a 2018 paper in Risk Analysis entitled ‘Microbiota and Dose-Response: Evolving Paradigm of Health Triangle’ from a symposium at Society for Risk Analysis (SRA). Yes, a healthy gut microbiota can protect us from low doses of Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter, Clostridium difficile, and many other pathogens.
An example relevant to milks is the Blue Bell ice cream outbreak that caused severe and fatal listeriosis in immunocompromised patients in hospitals, but no illness at all was documented in the general population, including children and the elderly who were not hospitalized. The ice cream was prepared from pasteurized milk.
Regis Pouillot of FDA published this report on the outbreak and another article reporting that listeriosis in healthy populations is unlikely for doses below 10,000 bacteria.
Pouillot et al., 2015. Infectious Dose of Listeria monocytogenes in Outbreak Linked to Ice Cream, United States, 2015. Emerg Infect Dis. 2016 Dec;22(12):2113-2119. doi: 10.3201/eid2212.160165. PMID: 27869595 Free PMC Article
Pouillot et al., 2015. Listeria monocytogenes dose response revisited–incorporating adjustments for variability in strain virulence and host susceptibility. Risk Anal 35(1):90-108. doi: 10.1111/risa.12235. Epub 2014 Jun 26. PMID: 2497554
So, yes, the dose of pathogens matters, not just presence of pathogens in a food. However, the microbiota, part of the ‘context’ of our gut ecosystems, matters more. The microbiota provides innate ‘colonization resistance’ inconsistent with dose-response models based on conservative assumptions or opinions that are commonly used in microbial risk assessments.
Thanks in advance for your comments on this long posting.
You didn’t mention pathogenic E.coli. 1,800 cells fit on the head of a pin and it only takes 10 cells for a child to become ill. You have kids going to petting zoos and touching the animals and becoming ill. It does not take a large infectious dose. Secondary infections are also common with pathogenic E.coli. A child died in the 1993 Jack in the Box outbreak because a child at his daycare ate a hamburger and then infected him. This is not a pathogen to mess with.
Mary
It’s because of a persistent controlling desire to “mess with” (eradicate and manipulate) microbes to begin with that so-called pathogens such as coli 0157 H7 have come onto the scene!
A fundamental change in approach and attitude towards microbes we perceive as harmful, or… as useful tools to manipulate genetically, as is the case with genetic engineering and the development of genetically modified organisms is long overdue.
http://pathwaystofamilywellness.org/Holistic-Healthcare/shifting-the-paradigm-insight-into-the-germ-theory.html
Mary, I understand your concern about O157:H7. I worked with this pathogen in the laboratory and as a risk assessor. Your post points out what we don’t actually know: that 10 cells caused illness. I do not see this number as a defensible ‘minimum infective dose’. Is this an expert opinion? Can you point me to data supporting that estimate?
You point out that pathogens infect from many sources in the environment besides food, and confounders in epidemiologic investigations are part of the difficulty in estimating doses that made people sick and those that did not. Epidemiologic investigations can provide data on numbers of pathogens in companion samples of suspect foods, but we never know with confidence the number of ingested pathogens for any person, ill or not.
If the ‘infective dose’ was truly that low, I would expect to see more illnesses. I am interested to know how many deaths have been attributed to O157:H7 since the 1990s, and what foods were implicated.
Thanks for sharing this episode, David. I’m glad you were able to get better so quickly while using a remedy that worked with your body, not against it. Your pharmacist showed welcome common sense!
Shana, I think the pharmacist showed good sense because he was educated to seek out remedies that work with the body rather than against it. Our pharmacists are educated differently, to rely on products that temporarily reduce symptoms, without regard to how the products work.
David, I’m sorry to hear that you got sick in Portugal, probably from food that your metabolism wasn’t used to, but the natives eat daily and doesn’t make them sick. Me and my wife also got very sick one night after eating out in Lisbon, shellfish was the culprit was we ate a huge “house special combo” that featured some stuff we’d never even seen before. Call it, “Magellan’s Revenge.” It’s certainly a beautiful place kind of like southern California, but be careful.
And yes, I have to agree that in my experience over decades, doctors have a different ethic over there mostly because they’re not all bought and paid for by the major pharmaceutical companies.
Pesticide linked to cancer is in nearly every US food: report
A widely used weed killer that’s been linked to cancer has turned up in nearly every common food in the US, according to a new report.
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2018%2F04%2F30%2Fpesticide-linked-to-cancer-is-in-nearly-every-us-food-report%2F%3Futm_campaign%3Diosapp%26utm_source%3Dmail_app&data=02%7C01%7Checkman%40njaes.rutgers.edu%7C8019f0200e104821880e08d5aedf82a2%7Cb92d2b234d35447093ff69aca6632ffe%7C1%7C0%7C636607197356535928&sdata=LxP%2FVPgvYtrDwpb6xHq4Hc%2BOMQHychyPKuYBEKpAooY%3D&reserved=0
Quote from article:
“Another FDA chemist, Narong Chamkasem, found “over-the-tolerance” levels of glyphosate at 6.5 parts per million in corn, the Guardian reported. The legal limit is 5.0 parts per million.
But an FDA supervisor wrote to an Environmental Protection Agency official in an email that the corn was not considered an “official sample” – meaning that the shocking example wouldn’t be reported to the EPA.”
Not an official sample? What the sam hill does that mean? It WAS a sample to test, no?? What would it take, I wonder, to consider it an “official sample”. Crazy stuff.
This is exactly why we’re in trouble – – because one agency is covering the butt of another agency at all times. Back in the day, it was simply and correctly called lying.
Thanks for posting, Dr. Heckman.
“Glyphosate Found in Childhood Vaccines”
https://www.ecowatch.com/glyphosate-vaccines-1999343362.html
“MMR II (Merk) vaccine had 2.671 parts per billion (ppb) of glyphosate
DTap Adacel (Sanofi Pasteur) vaccine had 0.123 ppb of glyphosate
Influenza Fluvirin (Novaris) 0.331 ppb of glyphosate
HepB Energix-B (Glaxo Smith Kline) 0.325 ppb of glyphosate
Pneumonoccal Vax Polyvalent Pneumovax 23 (Merk) had 0.107 ppb of glyphosate”
If they are using plant and animal products in vaccines such as peanut oil, dairy derivatives, and liver tissue etc. and these plants and animals are exposed to glyohosate at every turn, is it any surprise that this pesticide among others are permeating into every facet of our lives?
As I stated back in the late 70’s when Ag retailers and Ag Reps were promoting this systemic, total kill, so-called “biodegradable” solution for weed control, “Anything with such a wide spectrum of toxicity cannot but be harmful”!!!
This has been an interesting story to follow.
** There is a update included at the top of the article so you might want to read the bottom part first.
https://www.cornucopia.org/2018/04/suspicious-organic-grain-shipment-intercepted-at-u-s-port/
I woke up at 0300 this morning and drove my truck 6.5 hours to San Diego to interview a mom and dad about their son Paxton. Paxton had an amazing story of complete recovery from severe asthma and allergies to nuts and even pasteurized organic milk. At the worst of his asthma saga, the doctors sent him home from the hospital with nine medications including antibiotics, steroids, inhalers, and an epi pen. His directions included basically sterilizing the house and getting rid of any family pets. He even had a collapsed lung at one point with being hospitalized many times in one year!! The family was emotionally traumatized by midnight runs to the ER to save his life!!
After an emotional journey on the Internet Paxtons mom found a WAP Ancestral Deep Nutrition expert and the healing began. After a couple of months consuming bone stock broth, bone broth, whole foods and then tons of Raw Kefir, he was off all meds. He was no longer allergic to nuts and could eat anything. He was no longer pale and his lips went from grayish blue to pink. He was on the school track team and could play with the families dogs and pets. He was normal in six months.
There is more to this story but that is the super condensed version. The big take away…..asthma is a gut disorder. Fix the gut and you fix asthma and allergies.
The 30 min You Tube will be up in a few days at Farmers over Pharmacies channel.
13 kids die every day from asthma.
It is criminally tragic that doctors fail to acknowledge the gut biome and the critical links to asthma and so many other illnesses. If you know anyone with asthma or allergies please share with them the nutritional pathway provided by nutrition and biome regeneration.
The list of illnesses are long that can be recovered using this therapy:
All autoimmune diseases
Allergies
Asthma
Osteoporosis
Gut brain issues
Crohns
IBS
Ulcerative Colitis
Immune depression.
Ear infections
Frequent colds
Many more related to immune depression!
Each and everyone of these conditions has some PubMed research that supports recovery using raw dairy and nutrition. Unfortunately research is limited and you will need to connect extra dots to figure it out.
Paxton’s mom had birthed him via C Section and he had been subject to many rounds of antibiotics early in life even though she did breast feed. His parents had placed him on an elimination diet that was starving him !! At the same time he was on piles of meds!
This crisis is not rare…..13 kids die every day from asthma!! We dairymen are the future gut healers. We hold the tools to save lives!!
Please share and care.
I will post the You Tube link when it is edited and posted.
In this day of failing organic dairies because of CAFO cheating and over supply, the smaller organic dairies truly need to start teaching gut biome regeneration and making raw milk kefir and even bone broth.
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food
All disease begins in be gut
Do no harm
Great words from Hippocrates 2400 years ago.
Lessons for doctors and organic dairymen alike. Teach ! Share! Nourish!
Mark, In light of what you have just described I think you will find these articles interesting and revealing.
The following articles discussing UC Davis research in regards to “Immune system and gastrointestinal deregulation linked with autism”, sound strikingly similar to what Dr. Andrew Wakefield and fellow researchers pointed out in a 1998 research paper suggesting that there was a relationship between autism, bowel disease and… the administration of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Fortunately, or perhaps judiciously, they did not delve into the role that vaccines play in this relationship between autism spectrum disorder, reduced immune system regulation, and shifts in gut microbiota. If they had they likely would have met with the same fate as Dr. Wakefield!!!
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/publish/news/newsroom/12807
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2017.00120/full
In the second article under the heading, “Probiotics and Prebiotics” I think you will find this info especially interesting since it backs up in a way what you are saying… In short it states, “The probiotic/prebiotic can normalize the gut microbiota, enhance gut barrier and relieve the ASD-like behaviors in animal models or ASD patients”.
Raw milk supplier responds to customers. Raw milk sales are providing a way for a Canterbury dairy farmer to diversify and get closer to customers, writes Heather Chalmers.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/103439470/raw-milk-supplier-responds-to-customers
Reading in this book: “glyphosate may harm beneficial gut bacteria needed for healthy immune function” Whitewash, The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science by Carey Gillam
Presence and Profile of Innate Lymphoid Cells in Human Breast Milk
Babak Baban, PhD1; Aneeq Malik, BSc1; Jatinder Bhatia, MD2; et al
Jack C. Yu, MD3
Author Affiliations
JAMA Pediatr. Published online April 9, 2018. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.0148
Full
Text
Human milk contains 32 soluble factors and 5 cell types. The list of both proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory milk cytokines is growing.1 Studies in the 1960s found cells (neutrophils, macrophages, lymphocytes, stem cells, and epithelial cells) in fresh, unpasteurized milk. Newborns ingest 108 maternal cells/d, with 80% being macrophages, originating from maternal peripheral blood monocytes. These milk components protect the breast from infection while modulating the developing neonatal immune system.2 Immunomodulation of an infant’s infection by mother’s milk has been known since 2011, but the precise mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Milk is a dynamic, living fluid and changes with the varying demands of the infant.1
The breast/udder milk of other species such as bovines is likely similar… What effect does routinely infusing antibiotics into a cow’s udder and/or “routinely” injecting hormones, pesticides and vaccines into her body have on the above or below mentioned process and the quality of the milk… “living food”???
“SWAT team of immune cells found in mother’s milk”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180503085547.htm
One more point… referring to the above process as a “swat team” is a sad reflection on our narrow antagonistic/militaristic attitude with regards to perceived harmful microbes that in turn, lends to control measures that are ultimately self destructive…
@ Ken: I need suggestions on how to answer a question I was recently asked, which was: which is better to consume – nut milks (like almond milk) or pasteurized dairy? Some people we know who do not have access to raw milk since they’ve moved to another part of the country, are trying to decide which of these is the lesser of two evils. Aren’t most nut milks also pasteurized? I have no idea because I’ve never looked at the grocery store products. I used to make my own almond milk once in a while before I got sick of smoothies but I can’t say I’d want to use it as a “substitute” for real raw dairy. Whaddaya think about this? Any advice will be helpful.
Anyone else have any idea?
” Some people we know who do not have access to raw milk since they’ve moved to another part of the country”
D. Smith – where are they moving to? There are connections across the whole continent. I personally don’t know anywhere in North America that’s without access, other than the 3 Territories up north of the Provinces of Canada. The folks here can suggest sources.
@ Vera: Well, I’m here to tell you that if we lose the ONE provider of raw milk available in my area, we’d have to drive over 6 hours one way to get it. I live in the sticks and it’s even harder to get ahold of pastured chickens and real, pastured free-range eggs. If our local food co-op is out of packages of frozen chicken parts (legs, breasts, etc) we have to do without until the next truck delivery the following week. But I am unable to get to the co-op until evening (after work) and by then everything that WAS there is so picked over it’s not really worth the time to drive across town.
So no, in this area, some things are damned near impossible to procure. We have no trouble getting our pastured beef, that’s the one good thing about living here!
D, I have never drank nut milk but I eat plenty of nuts…
I suppose if I were desperate I would either make my own nut milk or search out the least pasteurized, non-homogenized so-called organic jersey milk and up the butterfat content by adding a carton of cream. I would also make my own yogurt and kefir.
This person was confronted with a similar dilemma…
https://organiceater.com/tag/almond-milk-pasteurization/
@ Ken: Thanks for that great link! Whoever wrote that sounds just like me. 🙂 And the writer is right about something else, too – – it’s getting to be a definite challenge to find REAL food of any kind these days. It’s all those dang chemicals which seem to be everywhere thanks to the lobbyists for BIGCHEM.
D.Smith, where have your friends moved to?
Sorry it took me so long to get back to this blog. My friends have moved to Scottsdale, AZ. They said it is next to impossible to get anyone to even talk about raw milk. They shop at a natural food/health food store and they can buy vat pasteurized milk, but nothing is completely raw. I gave them the same advice Ken suggested, which is to buy the best “organic” cream they can find and add it to the best milk they can find, rather than use nut milks. She told me earlier this week they only use nut milk when they simply cannot get ahold of anything else but that they ditch it the first chance they get to buy the other cow milk.
Maybe when they’ve lived there a bit longer they will be able to find out more information about raw milk sources, at least that’s the hope.
Arizona licenses raw milk farms – here’s a list of the current licensees: https://agriculture.az.gov/sites/default/files/documents/RAW%20MILK%20IN%20ARIZONA.pdf
But AZ also allows retail raw milk sales – this is my go-to site to find sources: https://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-finder/arizona/#az
D. Smith, also send them this link to the WAPF chapters in AZ: https://www.westonaprice.org/find-local-chapter/#az
WAPF chapter leaders (U.S. and Canada) usually know where to get raw milk in their areas.
I sent them the Weston A. Price link a while back but she said they aren’t having any luck with that at all. People are very closed-mouthed about anything “natural” right now, the way it sounded to them. That’s one of the reasons I said that maybe after they’ve lived there a while longer (and are better known in their “retirement community”) it might be easier for them to navigate informational channels.
Thank you for the links you provided and I will forward them all, and thank you for your kind assistance. I know they will appreciate leads of any kind at this point.
They will be going to Tuscon to visit their daughter in the next couple of weeks and are hoping to be able to visit some of the natural food stores there and maybe make a connection or two, as well.
In all my travels, I have always had a cup of raw milk where ever I stayed
Canadians, Australians and Americans always find their raw milk.
There is no alternative to raw milk. Nut milks have not endured the million years of evolutionary pressures to create a whole food to build immune systems or nourish life.
If you want a fluid to lubricate your cereal. Go for it. Don’t expect anything more.