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| By Robert Cohen Executive Director |
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The Killers WithinThe most common pathogenic organism found in raw milk is Staphyloccus aureus. Cows often get ulcers or sores on their udders. That bovine condition is known as mastitis, and the average cow in America requires $200 to treat that mastitis condition. Multiply that by 9.3 million dairy cows, and America's dairymen have a $2 billion yearly problem I read a remarkable book on Sunday's flight from Detroit to Newark. "Killers Within" is the story of the deadly rise of drug-resistant bacteria. Written by Michael Schnayerson and Mark Plotkin (Little, Brown & Company, 2002), the book reads like a detective story. I took notes. Staphlococcus aureus is the most common infection of dairy cows. Bacterial toxins are easily passed from cows to humans in milk, and are not destroyed by pasteurization. On page 30, the authors write: "Staph aureus bacteria are so virulent that very few are needed to do the job...it's the most successful of all bacterial pathogens and the number one cause of hospital infections in the world." I was fascinated to learn that many of the so-called miracle antibiotic drugs were derived from feces taken from sewers (page 35). On page 123, the authors explain one reason that antibiotic use continues on many farms. Antibiotics are growth promoters. That explains why chickens, pigs, and cows are so overdosed. The authors go into great detail about new strains of bacteria that developed immunities to traditional antibiotics. Many Americans consume the antibiotic-resistant bacteria and become deathly ill. Some of these bacterial strains take residence in the human heart, and the ensuing disease in painfully expensive, painfully painful, and untreatable. Cases of diarrhea from E. coli 157 or Guillain-Barre Syndrome from campylobacter can be traced to the diseased body fluids that we drink and infected flesh that we eat. The authors report a CDC study revealing that 60% of the 9.5 billions chickens sold in America each year are infected with campylobacter. Three out of every five chickens. If you eat chicken twice each week, thirty of your meals will come from highly toxic and infected flesh. I was surprised to learn that 1.4 million Americans get salmonella each year, and 2-3% of those so infected get arthritis. I have not extended those numbers out over the course of a lifetime, but this information suggests a plague of bad health results from eating infected chickens. On page 173, the authors report that staph pneumo is the leading cause of acute otitis, or earaches in children. How many cases per year? About 6 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Earaches are the most common reason that children visit pediatricians, according to the authors. WHY ARE THERE NEW STRAINS OF BACTERIA? The authors if "The Killers Within" do not explore the following: In 1990, the Food and Drug Administration sent a message to dairy farmers: more drugs in milk was permissible. FDA arbitrarily increased the allowable level of antibiotics in milk by 100 times. The old protocol called for no more than one part per hundred million of antibiotic residues in milk. The change permitted antibiotic levels to be as high as one part per million. Consumers Union tested milk samples in the New York metropolitan area in 1992 and found the presence of 52 different antibiotics. During that two-year period, cows were overdosed with antibiotics and new strains of bacteria developed. If an imaginary cow had one billion bacteria in her system and she was treated with streptomycin and that antibiotic killed all but one of those germs, that one survivor would be immune to the drug, then reproduce a new population with total immunity. Doubling its population every twenty minutes, it would take 10 hours for a new strain of bacteria to grow to one billion in number. Multiply that by 9 million cows and 52 different antibiotics, and it becomes clear to see why antibiotics no longer seem to work when they are needed. GOT MILK? GOT ANTIBIOTICS! The average American drinks milk and eats cheese containing new strains of bacteria, immune to the 52 different antibiotics which are also present in milk. Children are dying, and scientists do not have a clue why. Milk and dairy products should carry a warning label. Forty percent of the average American's diet consists of a product that is always infected with bacteria in its raw state. Raw milk usually contains blood, feces, bacterial and pus cells. Pasteurization does not kill all of the bacteria in milk. Many cheeses are not pasteurized. Rod-shaped bacteria form a spore (spore is the Greek word for seed) at the first sign of heat. When the milk cools, the spore "blooms" and the bacteria re-emerges into its toxic state. Does pasteurization really work? On day ten you might pour out the offensive smelling milk in your refrigerator, and on day nine, you drink it. Got Sick? Robert Cohen, author of: MILK A-Z (201-871-5871) Executive Director (notmilkman@notmilk.com) Dairy Education Board http://www.notmilk.com Do you know of a friend or family member with one or more of these milk-related problems? Do them a huge favor and forward the URL or this entire file to them.
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