Many medical doctors and scientists have suggested a link between
milk consumption and heart disease. The scientific literature is so
filled with supportive references for that ideology that one wonders
why
it is not universally accepted.

One doctor has just suggested a new milk factor. This new theory might

very well earn its author a Nobel Prize in medicine.
I could not have imagined this missing link, so meticulously
researched,
so brilliantly presented between heart disease and a substance in milk
that had not been previously considered. The following detective story
blossoms into the story of the century, and David Gordon's new book
will
soon be hailed as one of the monumental achievements of the twentieth
century.

THE AUTHOR



David Gordon, Ph.D., considers himself a cardiovascular
physiologist by profession and a medical historian by avocation. In his

81 years, Dr. Gordon has worked with some of the great names in
medicine, particularly in the field of hypertension research.

He has written and edited numerous scientific papers and books. His
most
well known and respected work is one volume of a landmark series called

"Benchmark Papers in Human Physiology."

That book is titled,
"Hypertension: The Renal Basis."

Dr. Gordon is now retired and lives with his wife in Livermore,
California, a suburb of San Francisco. For the past ten years he has
devoted his life energy to studying the correlation between milk
drinking and coronary heart disease.

His new book arrived on Tuesday of this week and I read it that
evening.
I re-read the book on Wednesday and am now on my third reading. I sent
Dr. Gordon a fax consisting of just one symbol, an exclamation point.
Today I spoke with the doctor and have never before been so much in awe

of a man and his work then I now am.

The book: MILK AND MORTALITY



Dr. Gordon's 207 page book cites 428 scientific papers, published
in the most respected of peer reviewed journals. His book includes
thirteen charts and illustrations consisting of meticulously prepared
data.

Most impressive of these charts are the ones on page 32 and 112. The
first chart correlates coronary heart disease mortality rates with the
consumption of milk in twenty-three countries.

The second chart correlates milk consumption versus serum cholesterol
level in 15 countries. Each graph illustrates a convincing
straight-line
correlation that provides an empirical relationship between milk and
heart disease.

THE MISSING LINK
Lactose is broken down into glucose and galactose. Even people who are

lactose intolerant experience a breakdown of lactose in the lower
gastro-intestinal tract resulting from bacterial action.
Galactose is toxic to the human system.

Gordon carefully takes the reader through 50 studies in his fifth
chapter: The Galactose Hypothesis: Natural Galactosemia.

In that chapter, we read reference after reference of how galactose
causes cataracts in laboratory animals and in humans. Gordon erects the

pyramid of each theory from the ground up, documenting the chemistry,
then physiology of each event.

There is little debate as to the toxicity of galactose, and its
etiology
in cataract formation. Gordon pieces together pieces of a puzzle that
point to galactose as being a key factor in *coronary heart* disease as

well.

THE REFERENCES
There is so much scientific evidence in this book linking milk
consumption to heart disease, that any overall review would be a
disservice. The book should be a textbook for medical students. It
reads
more like a scientific journal article. Every single page, without
exception, contains documented facts.

I merely take a small piece of information from page two of each
chapter
to illustrate the profound nature of this Gordon's work. To read the
entire book is to be overwhelmed.

CHAPTER 1 - A MISSING RISK FACTOR (page 2)
"Twice as many men in Northern Europe died from coronary heart disease
as those in Southern Europe, in spite of starting out with equivalent
levels of the major risk factors." (Northern European countries consume

the highest per capita rates of milk and dairy products.)

(Keys, Seven Countries: a Multivariate Analyses of Death and Coronary
Heart Disease. Harvard University Press, 1980)

CHAPTER 2 - EPIDEMIOLOGY, EARLY STUDIES, MILK AND SUGAR (page 2)
"Significant atherosclerosis is rare in peoples whose diet over the
life
span is predominantly vegetarian and low in calories, total lipids,
saturated lipids and cholesterol."

(Nutrition and Athersclerosis by Louis Katz. Lea & Febiger, Phil.,
1958)



CHAPTER 3 - LATER STUDIES - MILK & CHEESE (page 2)
"In 1981 Stephen Seely... obtained mortality data from the World Health

Organization... and calculated correlation coefficents for various
foods
and food components... comparing quantity consumed with mortality rates

from different countries... (Seely) found that milk and milk products
gave the highest correlation coefficient, while sugar, animal proteins
and animal fats came in second, third, and fourth, respectively."

(Seely, Diet and Coronary Disease, A Survey of Mortality Rates and Food

Consumption Statistics of 24 Countries, Medical Hypothesis 7:907-918,
1981)

CHAPTER 4 - THE VILLAIN IN MILK - (page 2)
"The idea that proteins in milk may somehow be damaging to
coronaries...received a boost when Davies showed that more patients who

had suffered a myocardial infarction had elevated levels of antibodies
against milk proteins than was found in a comparable group of patients
without coronary heart disease."

(Davies, Antibodies and Myocardial Infarction, The Lancet, ii: 205-207,

1980)

CHAPTER 5 - THE GALACTOSE HYPOTHESIS: NATURAL GALACTOSEMIA (page 2)
"The damage can be prevented if galactose restriction is instituted
very
early in life... another example of organ damage which has been well
documented is ovarian damage... with galactosemia."

(Kaufman, Hypergonatdotrophic Hypogonadism in Female Patients with
Galactosemia, New England Journal of Medicine, 304:994-998, 1981)

CHAPTER 6 - EXPERIMENTAL GALACTOSEMIA WITH LESSONS FROM CATARACTS AND
FROM DIABETES (page 2)

"One of the early studies, reported by Day in 1936 showed that, in
young
rats fed a diet containing 60% carbohydrate, a comparison between
glucose, galactose, sucrose, and starch revealed that rises in blood
sugar were greatest with galactose feeding, next highest with lactose
and blood sugar was only slightly elevated with sucrose. Starch and
glucose diets yielded an approximately normal level of about 120 mg per

100 cc."

"An important additional fact, discovered by Day, was that after a
short
(one hour) consumption of the high galactose diet by rats, their blood
sugar reached very high levels (e.g., 500 mg/dl) and then fell rapidly
over time but was still above normal levels five hours after feeding."

(Day, Blood Sugar in Rats Rendered Cataractous by Dietary procedures.
The Journal of Nutrition, 12:395-404, 1936)

CHAPTER 7 - GALACTOSE IN THE BLOOD (page 2)
"There is only one paper which reports galactose levels in the blood of

human beings after milk drinking! The only one! This study is concerned

with a comparison between the effects of milk intake versus yogurt
intake on galactose levels and not with the question which I have
raised

- that is how high do galactose levels go after milk drinking?"

David Gordon
CHPTER 8 - A MILKY WAY TO LOOK AT THE LIPID HYPOTHESIS (page 2)
"Milk consumption correlates positively with cholesterol levels in
blood
as well as coronary mortality. In comparisons between 17 countries,
there is a good correlation between national cholesterol levels and
mortality from ischaemic heart disease."

(Law, An Ecological Study of Serum Cholesterol and Ischaemic Heart
Disease between 1950 and 1990. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
48:305-325, 1994)

CHAPTER 9 - ALCOHOL AND YOGURT - (page 2)
"Although studies point out strong negative correlations between wine
consumption and heart disease... six countries with the highest
mortality show no correlation at all. Finland ranks highest of all in
milk consumption, wine consumption and mortality from heart disease."

(Leger, Factors associated with cardiac mortality in developed
countries
with particular reference to the consumption of wine. The Lancet,I,
1017-1020, 1979)

CHAPTER 10 - DO INDIANS FROM INDIA DRINK MORE MILK? - (page 2)
"Shaper and Jones published a report comparing coronary heart disease
and serum-cholesterol in native Africans living in Kampala, Uganda and
migrant Asian Indians living in the same community. The first few
sentences of that publication state:

'In the African population of Uganda coronary heart disease is almost
non-existant. In the Asian community, on the other hand, coronary heart

disease is a major problem.'"

(Sharper & Jones, Serum Cholesterol, Diet and Coronary Heart Disease,
The Lancet, I:534-537, 1959)

MILK AND MORTALITY
Milk and Mortality (ISBN 0-9671605-0-2 $35) is published by:
Gordon Books (925-443-6213)
567 Amber Court
Livermore California 94550

<THE MISSING LINK
Lactose is broken down into glucose and galactose. Even people who are

lactose intolerant experience a breakdown of lactose in the lower
gastro-intestinal tract resulting from bacterial action.
<Galactose is toxic to the human <system.

Thanks for the reference.

I have some difficulty in claiming that galactose is toxic to the human
system. It may be for the adult, but that sugar is a needed and vital
component of milk sugar for the developing infant.

We may need to temper that statement.

DrC PhD

"Tim Campbell" <timcall@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Tim, whenever I read nutritional medicine literature in ref to
cow's milk, I have never found any information on any POSITIVE health
benefits from drinking cow's milk. Nutri med folks NEVER say that any
current NON-drinkers of cow's milk should now START drinking cow's milk
Actually, M.D.s with an interest toward nutritional medicine say folks would
be wise to eliminate dairy (including cow's milk) products from their diet.
Since I now understand the chemical structure of cow's milk, I know why they
say that.

George Lagergren wrote:

:: [...] whenever I read nutritional medicine literature in
:: ref to cow's milk, I have never found any information on any
:: POSITIVE health benefits from drinking cow's milk. [...]

I think that low fat dairy is associated with lower blood pressure and
reduced weight gain in epidemiological studies. Lactovegetarians have higher
life-expectancy and better bone quality than vegans do. I am not promoting
high use of dairy but sometimes the adverse effects are exaggerated.

--
Juhana

Juhana Harju wrote:
"Low fat dairy" is a criminal sales conspiracy. When a certain portion
of the fat is removed the volume in a qt. of milk is less than a quart,
therefore more "low fat" milk must be added to make up the difference.
Ergo, and increase in casein, hormones, etc.
As for the volume of actual fat removed it is minimal as people
wouldn't buy dairy that had a chalky tasted from all the calcium and no
fat to make it all slippery and slidy.
Actual low fat was tried years ago and was a bust sales wise.
So the low fat is now measured by weight as opposed to volume.

<banmilk@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1116174117.524392.226560@o13g2000cwo.googlegr oups.com...
Yes, low fat milk is denser in nutrients.


Sales of skim milk are just fine, thank you. Also, millions of tons of
non-fat dry milk are sold to be used as ingredients in baked goods and other
products.

Milk fat has always been measured by weight.

--Rich

Why don't you consume ***ALL*** the milk and get back to us?

"Rich" <joshew@hawaii.rr.com> wrote in message
news:CXKhe.17284$ya2.11788@tornado.socal.rr.com...

In article <1116118942.037158.63510@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups. com>,
<drceephd2@netscape.com> wrote:
Galactose is toxic to those with galactosemia (a genetic disorder).
In everyone else, it's just converted to glucose.

-- David Wright :: alphabeta at prodigy.net
These are my opinions only, but they're almost always correct.
"I don't need someone to tell me that George W. Bush is a
deceitful, corrupt, clever and destructive man--that's pretty
clear on the face of it." -- Garrison Keillor

In article <t1Fhe.3440$w21.1151@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink. net>,
George Lagergren <gel44@earthlink.net> wrote:
George, you know as much about the chemical structure of cow's milk as
you do about speaking ancient Assyrian, i.e. nothing.

-- David Wright :: alphabeta at prodigy.net
These are my opinions only, but they're almost always correct.
"I don't need someone to tell me that George W. Bush is a
deceitful, corrupt, clever and destructive man--that's pretty
clear on the face of it." -- Garrison Keillor

If the free radical oriented hypotheses of "chronic disease" are
largely correct - and the evidence suggests this in the strongest
possible terms - then it is all dependent upon when the lipids in the
milk have undergone free radical degradation, either by processing,
cooking, or in the body (due to other things you ate with the milk,
such as fried foods). If there are other toxins in the milk, then of
course this could be a problem too, but I'm assuming the cows ate
organic food, weren't pumped up with antibiotics, etc.

"montygram" <nazztrader@lycos.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:1116283270.886421.10900@g44g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
A rather bold assumption.

Good commentary, Tim. The evidence has been there for a long, long
time. The dairy industry has worked hard to refute the data, while
health agencies, run by industry-supported bureacrats, look the other
way. The data would show that if people reduced their dairy by just
half, the incidence of heart disease would drop dramatically. As a
favorite doctor of mine likes to say, "Health is not something you
take, it's something you do."

PeterB

Too bad you don't specify what irks you. I could cite dozens of
studies that say specifically that lipid peroxidation or ROS or free
radical mediated processes or some other way to describe the same
phenomenon is likely at the heart of "chronic disease," but you will
never admit you made a mistake - you are more of a politician than a
scientist (assuming you really do have any credentials).

"Tim Campbell"
wrote:
Tim, whenever I read nutritional medicine literature in ref to
cow's milk, I have never found any information on any POSITIVE health
benefits from drinking cow's milk. Nutri med folks NEVER say that any
current NON-drinkers of cow's milk should now START drinking cow's milk
Actually, M.D.s with an interest toward nutritional medicine say folks would
be wise to eliminate dairy (including cow's milk) products from their diet.
Since I now understand the chemical structure of cow's milk, I know why they
say that.

On Sat, 21 May 2005 14:00:57 -0400, ·George Lagergren <·George
Lagergren@echoforum.com> wrote:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A diet high in milk does not increase the
risk of heart disease and stroke, a new study suggests. On the
contrary, it may protect against stroke and heart disease.
The authors of the study feel that the present perception that milk is
bad for the heart harmful "should be challenged, and every effort
should be made to restore it to its rightful place in a healthy diet."


The study involved 665 men in South Wales who were between 45 and 59
years of age when first evaluated from 1979 to 1983. After recording
their weight and food intake for seven days, the subjects were
followed for 20 years to assess the occurrence of cardiovascular
events.

At the start of the study, virtually all of the men reported drinking
whole (full fat) milk, but later on virtually all had switched to skim
or semi-skim milk.

Men whose milk intake was at or above the median level (187 mL per
day) were 48 percent less likely to suffer a stroke and 12 percent
less likely to have a heart attack or other cardiac event than men who
drank lesser amounts of milk.

This finding "challenges the belief that because milk drinking raises
blood cholesterol level, it increases the risk of vascular disease,"
Dr. P. C. Elwood, from Llandough Hospital in Cardiff, UK, and
colleagues write in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The authors caution that more study is needed to fully characterize
the association between milk intake and the risk of cardiovascular
events. Nevertheless, they also point out that such a study might have
to involve more than 20,000 subjects, a number of whom would be
obliged to avoid milk for as long as 5 years.

SOURCE: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health June 2005.

On 14 May 2005 16:04:22 -0700, "Tim Campbell" <timcall@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:


When I tackled the local public health authorities a few years back
regarding the implementation of a patent I have for producing food
with the lactose divided, in order to prevent migraine - which lactose
also triggers without the lactase to hydrolise it - I was treated like
a criminal. - This by these autocrats who allow manufacturers of most
kinds of processed foods to introduce lactose artificially into all
their products.

Why was I such a moral leper? Presumably because I was endangering
the great god of 'industry'. Ah, it is the money, you see. Look at
the muscle of the tobacco industry, and of its survival in the face of
all the adverse data. So fat chance there is of rectifying the milk
situation either.

[Surprise!]

A Diet High In Milk May Cut Heart Disease And Stroke Risk
A diet rich in milk does not increase the risk of heart disease
and stroke, and may even be protective, concludes research in the
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The research team asked a representative sample of 764 men to weigh
and record every item of food and drink they consumed for seven
consecutive days. Just under 90% of the sample (665) produced
complete and detailed diaries.

The men, who were all aged between 45 and 59, were taking part in
the Caerphilly Cohort Study, which was set up between 1979 and 1983.

They were given comprehensive health check-ups, including a heart
tracing (ECG) at the start of the study and subsequently every five
years for a period of 20 years. Hospital and family doctor records
were also checked.

During the study period, 54 men had a stroke and 139 developed
symptomatic ischaemic heart disease (heart attack or angina), and
225 died.

At the start of the study, virtually all milk consumption was whole
(full fat) milk, but a random sample of the surviving men in 2000,
showed that almost all of them had switched to skimmed or semi
skimmed milk within the preceding eight years.

Men who consumed the most milk every day (a pint or more) had a
higher energy intake, suggesting that they were more active.
Cholesterol levels and blood pressure readings were similar in high
and low milk consumers (less than half a pint), and men who drank
the least milk tended to drink the most alcohol.

Men who drank the most milk had a lower risk of ischaemic heart
disease or stroke than those who drank the least, and in the case
of stroke this risk was significantly lower. The findings held true
even for those men who had started out drinking full fat milk.

The authors suggest that milk has had something of a bad press in
respect of its impact on cholesterol, and they conclude: "The
present perception of milk as harmful, in increasing cardiovascular
risk, should be challenged, and every effort should be made to
restore it to its rightful place in a healthy diet."


J. Epidemiol Community Health 2005; 59: 502-5
Milk consumption, stroke, and heart attack risk: evidence from the
Caerphilly cohort of older men
Objective: To examine associations between milk consumption and
incident heart disease and stroke.
Design: A representative population sample of men was asked to weigh
and record their food intake for seven days. The total consumption of
milk was obtained from these records. Details of all deaths and
vascular events were collected during the following 20 years. Incident
ischaemic strokes and heart disease events were diagnosed by standard
criteria.
Setting: The Caerphilly cohort, a representative population sample of
men in South Wales, aged 45-59 when first seen in 1979-83.
Participants: A representative 3:10 subsample of the men in the cohort.
Main results: 665 men (87% of those approached) returned satisfactory
seven day diet diaries. After adjustment, the relative odds of an event
in the men whose milk consumption was the median or higher, relative to
those with lower intakes of milk, were 0.52 (0.27 to 0.99) for an
ischaemic stroke and 0.88 (0.56 to 1.40) for an ischaemic heart disease
event. Deaths from all causes were similar in the two milk consumption
groups (relative odds 1.08; 0.74 to 1.58).
Conclusions: These results give no convincing evidence of an increased
risk of vascular disease from milk drinking. Rather, the subjects who
drank more than the median amount of milk had a reduced risk of an
ischaemic stroke, and possibly a reduced risk of an ischaemic heart
disease event. These conclusions are in agreement with the results of a
previously reported overview of 10 large, long term cohort studies based
on food frequency intake records.