I remember in my early 20s, deciding that a glass of milk just made me feel so uncomfortable and bloated that I would no longer drink milk by the glassful. I told my Dr. that I thought I was lactose intolerant (because I knew that 75% of the population cannot digest milk) and that's actually when he did the celiac blood tests on me. Thankfully because turns out I'm celiac. I never thought twice about dairy after that. I enjoyed yogurt, butter, cheeses and cream in my coffee for another 15 years. I remember about 10 years ago, visiting a dear friend that had just fought thyroid cancer and she told me that she was no longer eating dairy. She said that her cancer markers were lower when she didn't eat dairy.🤔 This really planted a seed that I might look into it one day, but I really never put much time into thinking about it honestly. Besides dairy is everything creamy and delicious! 😍
Several years ago, my good friend was sharing her husbands' remarkable story of recovery after many conventional doctors and specialists failed to help him. He was literally dying from heavy metal toxicity and systemic inflammation due to poor diet. He was on so many steroids and medications that were only making him sicker. In desperation, they went to a holistic hospital and were given a strict diet to follow. It sounded so crazy to everyone but a change in diet and a heavy metal detox program brought him back to health! It really is an amazing story and it made me question my eating habits. But going 100% dairy free is hard and I still wasn't convinced that it was for me. Besides, I'd already given up gluten - and that was medically necessary!
It was around this time that I had also developed a crazy cough. At first I figured it was just a minor cold but it lingered and lingered and worsened. I had stuffed ears and post nasal drip for months on end. I began to worry that maybe my PNETS had spread to my lungs the way my Mom's had. I went for chest x-rays and many diagnostic tests but no one could figure out what it was. My hubby was worried about me and I was losing more sleep because of it. I was also gaining weight after my distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy surgery because I was so fatigued and my joints were causing so much pain that I couldn't walk up or down the stairs. And I was constipated all.the.time. because dairy mixed with grains forms a sort of paste (think of paper mache) and sticks in the digestive tract. I was getting other crazy pains in my neck that travelled up into my head and caused crazy headaches. I was a mess!! One doctor told me that the constipation was causing pressure on my vagus nerve and that's what was causing these crazy shooting debilitating pains. I was always bloated and uncomfortable. And on top of it all, my Chromagranin A was quadruple what it was last time they tested it meaning that my PNETS were probably growing. AND they found that I also had nodules on my thyroid gland!
So I got to work researching the heck out of all of these things. Some of the books that I read at this time were "The Thyroid Connection" by Amy Myers, MD (who reversed her Graves disease) "Wahls protocol" by Dr. Wahls, MD (who reversed her MS), "Autoimmune Fix" by the brilliant Dr. Tom O'Bryan as well as "It starts with food" and "Whole 30" by Melissa Hartwick. I learned so much about the body and how food particles interact with our very cells! This is when I learned about something called molecular mimicry - which very simply means that dairy molecules look identical to gluten molecules to our cells and contributes to systematic inflammation! Waiting for a thyroid biopsy and not getting anywhere with all of these other things was so nerve racking- I had to do something! This when also decided to take my friends advice and seek out a functional medicine doctor. I really had nothing to lose at this point. Turns out It was literally the best thing I've ever done for myself. My functional medicine doctor is a regular Medical Doctor that went to school even longer to learn about how foods affect the body as well as other things that conventional MDs don't learn. As most MDs take very little schooling about nutrition, they simply cannot know what they don't know.
He did a complete blood panel on me that showed how deficient I was in certain vitamins and minerals and things as well as a food allergy test that showed that, like the majority of people, I could not digest dairy, gluten, most legumes including peanuts, eggs, corn, and a few other foods. And that I had high levels of lead, bismuth (all that pepto bismol) and gadolinium (that's a heavy metal from all the contrasts we get in MRIs). I had to do a mild chelation to get these levels down. Heavy metals is a whole other topic!
This is when things really started to change for me because I started eating for my cells instead of my taste. I knew that all of those foods I was eating before was stressing out my immune system and causing so much inflammation! I was focused on healing my gut and thus strengthening my immune system. 💪
It really took dedication but I knew that if I cheated I'd never take it seriously and I wouldn't see any changes. I started to notice subtle things at first, like it wasn't quite as painful some days to do stairs, the angiofibroma on my nose stopped growing, my skin cleared up, the cough completely disappeared, my resting heart rate went down to a normal level, my TSH went down to an optimal level. My inflammation markers went down- along with my anxiety, my Chromagranin A levels went down and the last endoscopic ultrasound I had, he said he couldn't find 2 of the 6 tumors he saw the time previous to that!
If these aren't reasons to make these life changes I don't know what is? It was work though, I won't lie. But I think about how hard the surgeries are and how hard chemo and radiation therapy is on the body. And I would much rather make all of these changes that are completely in my control right now, to lessen the damage caused by inflammation, to help stave off this illness from taking over- at least for a bit longer. You have the power to help your body fight if you give it a fighting chance!!
So I tell my story about the benefits of giving up dairy so you can see the practical reasons why I gave it up, but there are so many reasons that no one should be ingesting it!
Cow milk is for baby cows, it has natural growth hormones in it so that a baby cow can grow in to a LARGE cow, QUICKLY. This in of itself is the very reason (although there are so many more) that people should NOT be putting it in their bodies! It can increase your IGF-1 which leads to cancer growth! Since going off of dairy, my IGF-1 levels are low-normal! It's no wonder that the latest studies are revealing that increase in dairy consumption increases risks for breast cancer. If you have cancer, you need to think SERIOUSLY about why you are still choosing to consume it!
It has been linked to cause type 1 diabetes in children. It is not recommended to give to children under a year of age because babies immune systems are still developing. The components of the dairy cause a drastic immune response that in some children lead to the development of antibodies against the child's own inulin producing cells! What else is it doing to our bodies?
Dairy is full of hormones, chemicals and antibiotics. The cows are living in stressful environments when they're impregnated and then their babies are taken away from them. Imagine the amount of stress hormones they're releasing into the milk! We know they're given antibiotics that alter the microbiome as well as fed a diet that is not grass but grains, probably sprayed with glyphosate to boot. All of these chemicals and hormones are being passed into the milk that you are now putting in your body!
PUS. yep. gross hey? Udder infection is extremely common in dairy cows since they're subjected to being hooked up to milking machines for your milk and cheese products. So more than 90% of the white blood cells in the cows milk is neutrophils, which is what forms pus. And just a reminder, next time you're reaching for that cheese, you're eating highly concentrated yellowish, white PUS.
Still not convinced? How about the fact that the dairy industry is trying so hard to convince us that we need the calcium in dairy that they are telling you that you need to consume dairy to get your calcium and hormone D levels. Yes that's right. "Vitamin" D is actually a hormone, but when the dairy industry started to add it to milk, they called it a "vitamin". Vitamin D is a hormone that your body produces on it's own when your skin is exposed to the sun! And the calcium in dairy isn't even absorbed by your body very well either. You actually end up peeing out more calcium then you're taking in (hello, kidney stones?). This is where I mention the 2023 study about dairy actually INCREASING women's risk of hip fractures! They're also trying to say that yogurt is the better way to take in dairy, which, how many people are actually eating plain yogurt? If you're not eating it plain then it isn't helping you at all. The amount of sugar (or sugar-free chemicals) in it is enough to take away any benefits. That being said, if the yogurt is pasteurized in any way, then the only beneficial thing in it, the probiotics, will be dead anyway! There are way better ways to get probiotics than dairy and sugar laden yogurt. It ISN'T healthy like they try to make you believe! The best way to get the daily calcium you need is by eating GREEN foods!! Broccoli actually contains more calcium than milk! Don't take calcium supplements either as that is actually more dangerous than you've been told (unless like me you've had parathyroid surgery). If you're concerned about weak bones then you need to do weight bearing exercises, eat green foods, get out in the sun, and be sure to learn about vitamin K2!
Dairy contributes to skin and respiratory problems. Acne and other skin issues are exasperated when you consume dairy. Same with Asthma and sinus issues. As I mentioned in my story above, the immune response that dairy causes will produce excess mucus in the respiratory tract and make a person feel stuffed up and the skin will try to push out the toxins. Since giving up dairy, I no longer have acne, mucus related coughing and I don't even get that sleep in the corner of my eyes anymore. If you have any of these issues, you know it's time to give up dairy.
There is literally no benefit to eating dairy and with all of these health risks I can't imagine I will ever touch the stuff again. It was hard at first, but honestly, nowadays with the plant- based movement in full swing, there are so many delicious replacements everywhere, I haven't missed it in 7 years!
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