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Milk-Cancer Controveersy |
 Dr. Robert D. Bibb ...has cancer-milk theory |
Researcher believes milk
may cause prostate cancer
of TheColumnists.com
Dr. Robert D. Bibb has come up with a theory about cancer that he says fellow doctors are pooh-poohing.
He is among a small group of researchers who think milk and dairy products are the root cause of prostate cancer, the number one cancer affecting men, and some other cancers, as well.
You have to admit it sounds like an idol-smashing theory. You can't help asking yourself: could milk, long hailed as a source of vitamin D and a promoter of stronger bones and healthy growth in children, be the cause of cancer?
Could the all-American drink endorsed by all those famous people with milk mustaches turn out to be a health villain?
Yes, says Bibb. And he is serious enough to write a book telling why he thinks so.
The 61-year-old physician is not formally
trained as a cancer specialist. But his credentials are wide-ranging.
He is a dermatologist (specialist in skin disease) with an engineering
degree who's done advanced degree work in bio-environmental engineering.
He is also a dedicated student of medical research. And he says
a review of the
medical literature bears him out.
Bibb thinks milk and dairy products (butter, cream and cottage cheese, yogurt, ice cream) not only increase the risk of prostate cancer but of other hormonally sensitive tumors like breast, endometrial, testicular, and ovarian cancer, as well.
Stop drinking milk and eating dairy products is his advice to his patients.
"When I started this project seven years ago," said Bibb, who practices in Myrtle Beach, S.C., "my fellow physicians laughed at the idea that dairy could be behind the epidemic of prostate cancer."
Even though many of his colleagues brush off his theory, research into whether diet causes or contributes to a person's chance of developing cancer has accelerated. People who contract prostate cancer cannot control risk factors like their age, race, nationality, family history, and genes. But one risk factor they can control—and that's why it is important--are the foods they eat.
June M. Chan, an expert in epidemiology, biostatistics, and urology at the University of California at San Francisco, said a recent mega (large-scale) analysis of patients in 21 studies found "suggestive" evidence that milk and dairy products are "possible" risk factors for prostate cancer.
She added the analysis indicated that diets high in calcium (found in milk and dairy products) could be a "probable" cause of prostate cancer.
Others disagree. Dr. J. Brantley Thrasher, chairman of urology at the University of Kansas, who is a spokesman for the American Urology Association, says studies have had mixed results.
"It (the dairy-prostate cancer link) remains controversial," he said. "There is not enough significant evidence to recommend limiting dairy food intake to prevent prostate cancer."
Bibb doesn't buy that. His research convinces him it is not a question of whether milk and dairy products cause cancer but just how they do.
Cases of cancer of the prostate—a small gland just below the bladder where it produces semen to mix with sperm cells--have grown rapidly in the past half century.
A slow-growing malignancy that most often occurs late in life, prostate cancer has become the leading cause of cancer in men. It produces twice the number of cases as lung cancer and three times the caseload of colon- rectal cancer. Also worrisome is the fact that more cases are showing up among younger men.
Bibb sets down his ideas in his new self-published book with the attention-getting title "Deadly Dairy Deception." The "deception" Bibb says doesn't apply to any person or industry.
Instead, he says, it refers to subtle biochemical reactions that dairy products may trigger to foster malignancies like prostate cancer. Foods like milk, cheese, and ice cream are "deliciously deceptive. To many of us, milk and dairy products are comfort foods. It is this delicious and comfortable deception that I believe are the cause of the prostate cancer."
Bibb and other researchers trace the milk-prostate cancer link to the use of ultra-violet rays to fortify milk during processing. He said prostate canser cases began to rise in the late 1940s after the dairy industry stopped exposing raw milk to ultra-violet rays to add vitamin D.
The industry found a cheaper way to do it. But in cutting out ultra violet rays, Bibb said, it allows a rogue protein (called IGF-1) in cow's milk to survive processing and enter the human bloodstream. There, this outlaw protein knocks out a gene in the body that protects against prostate cancer. And so, Bibb said, the end of the ultra-violet ray era marked the beginning of the rise of prostate cancer rates.
Bibb cites several studies in the U.S. and abroad that support his theory. One involving 45,000 men who were followed for seven years was reported in 2008 in Japan.
Researchers there associated dairy products with a "dose-dependent increase in the risk of prostate cancer." That is, the more these men consumed dairy products, the higher their risk was in developing prostate cancer.
On the other hand, researchers at the University of South Carolina Medical School came up with a different finding last year. They looked at 26,000 cases of prostate cancer patients and reported their data did not support an association between dairy products and an increased risk of prostate cancer.
However, the National Dairy Council, the public relations arm of the dairy industry, funded the research and some medical investigators are leery of studies underwritten by interest groups.
An American Cancer Society spokesperson said the issue of a milk-dairy products link with cancer remains an open question. "It is still under investigation," said Marji McCullough, strategic director of nutritional epidemiology for the ACS. "One factor complicating general recommendations is that consumption of milk and calcium is associated with a lower risk of colo-rectal cancer."
So what is the best course for people to take while the jury is out?
The ACS calls for moderation. In its 2006 cancer prevention guidelines, it recommends that males limit dairy products as one way to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. "So for men," McCullough said, "it's a good idea not to go overboard until more is understood about this relationship."
As for Bibb, he still feels the safest course men should take is to keep milk and dairy products out of their diet altogether.
©2009 by David Zinman. The Zinman caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The photo is courtesy of Dr. Bibb. This column first posted Feb. 23, 2009.
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