A1 Vs A2 Milk - Is The Devil Really In The Milk?

burtlancast

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An old 1992 article:

A Naturally Occurring Opioid Peptide from Cow’s Milk, Beta-Casomorphine-7, Is a Direct Histamine Releaser in Man

Abstract
β-Casomorphine-7, a naturally occurring product of cow’s milk with opiate-like activity, was studied for possible direct histamine liberation activities in humans. It was found to cause concentration-dependent in vitro histamine release from peripheral leukocytes of healthy adult volunteers. Intradermal injectionof β-casomorphine-7 induced a wheal and flare reaction in the skin similarto histamine or codeine. Oral pretreatment with the H1 antagonist terfenadine significantly inhibited the skin responses to β-casomorphine-7. The intradermal injection of an opiate receptor antagonist, naloxone, inhibited in vitro histamine release and skin reactions only in a 100-fold excess over β-casomorphine-7. These findings suggest that β-casomorphine-7 can be regarded as a noncytotoxic, direct histamine releaser in humans. The clinical relevance of these findings deserves further studies.
http://www.karger.com/Article/PDF/236106

 

chrismeyers

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Yo just a shout out on this topic. A2 milk brand is just now available in the US. I saw it at Fred Meyer in the Seattle area for the first time last month. 100% A2 protein but its not organic, which has caused me to hesistate on actually buying it. And the fact that its not grass fed. I will likely soon try it though just to see how it digests.
 
L

lollipop

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Yo just a shout out on this topic. A2 milk brand is just now available in the US. I saw it at Fred Meyer in the Seattle area for the first time last month. 100% A2 protein but its not organic, which has caused me to hesistate on actually buying it. And the fact that its not grass fed. I will likely soon try it though just to see how it digests.
Saw it in Dallas as well - at least a month ago. I hesitated also because of nonorganic, non grassfed.
 

Richiebogie

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Here is an excellent summary of the ideas in "Devil in the Milk" discussing how a single amino acid difference between A1 and A2 proteins can give A1 opiate effects while leaving A2 safe:

 
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pboy

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is it a species thing or specific to just some cows...like Holstein is A1 ect, I get the idea cows treatment is a more important factor and their diet ect but still interested if anyone knows
 

burtlancast

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is it a species thing or specific to just some cows...like Holstein is A1 ect, I get the idea cows treatment is a more important factor and their diet ect but still interested if anyone knows

Only cows are affected.

Goats, buffalo's, camels, etc...are free of the A1 mutation and only give A2 milk.
 

nikolabeacon

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This has to do with breeds of cows. And a way of living and treating the animals( same is true for goat and sheep milk)
Autochtonous breeds of animals (this is true for plants as well) that adapted to a speciffic conditions of climate and soil have favorable amino acid and mineral profile and balance. Quality of autochtonous breeds is far superior because of that.Taste is also very different.
You can see also how dramaticaly the profile of amino acids and minerals is disbalanced in modern engineered varieties of fruits and grains. Also when animal or plant is stressed ( poor food,, lack of light)this profile is affected.
 
T

tca300

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I tried some A2 cows milk today and it tasted amazing but within about 10 minutes my stomach became upset, I became mildly congested and then started sneezing. Maybe its the brand. Might try goat soon and see if I notice a difference.
 

artist

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I get histamine issues from milk, the type that I get from high histamine and histamine liberating foods (I have histamine intolerance and am conscious of these things) Most official lists claim that fresh/pasteurized milk is low histamine. The idea that BCM-7 in A1 milk is a histamine liberator is very interesting. It's worth noting is that generally histamine liberators are less of a problem than high histamine foods provided you eat the histamine liberators every day, this prevents the body from building up large enough stores of histamine to cause a reaction. (Just like it works with niacin dosing, only the first "dose" of the liberator is painful and then you can keep having it every day.) I don't really get histamine problems from yogurt which is the opposite of what conventional advice suggests, as fermented products tend to be higher in histamine. I believe the predigestion of casein that happens from fermentation is the reason yogurt has usually worked better for me, but it's possible that only A1 casein has the issue that requires it be broken down first. I picked up a jug of that A2 whole milk that's everywhere to give it a shot. Unfortunately I am somewhat lactose intolerant so I'll have to supplement lactase with it but I'll report back
 

artist

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I wasn't actually expecting anything to come of this but I am pleased to report that A2 actually does make the difference for me! It only takes a day or less for normal milk to give me a histamine reaction, but I've consumed A2 the last 3 days and feel great. Very intriguing, I had always written the A2 thing off as snake oil but it is actually apparently the thing that will allow me to properly try milk as a primary calorie source.
 

CoolTweetPete

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Yo just a shout out on this topic. A2 milk brand is just now available in the US. I saw it at Fred Meyer in the Seattle area for the first time last month. 100% A2 protein but its not organic, which has caused me to hesistate on actually buying it. And the fact that its not grass fed. I will likely soon try it though just to see how it digests.

I have been using fat-free A2 milk for about a year. I can attest to it's easier digestibility for me. Dr. Peat has mentioned grain fed cows tend to have more PUFA in their tissue, but I imagine this would be mitigated by only drinking fat-free. I find it more than palatable with a few tbsp of sucrose added as Dr. Peat has mentioned.
 

chrismeyers

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Now if the A2 milk company would only make organic A2 milk, that is all I would buy. As it stands now I am sticking with Organic Valley because Im not willing to sacrifice. I wrote a suggestion to A2 to introduce this.
 

Travis

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I just read some articles on this. It has been confirmed that A1 and A2 digests differently in vitro because of the proline/histidine substitution, as mentioned above. Below are the first words published on this effect:

Release of β-CM-7 from [His⁸]-β-CM-9 To elucidate from which genetic variants β-CM-7 is released, synthetic [His⁸ ]-β-CM-9 and [Pro⁸ ]-b-CM-9 were digested by pancreatin. β-CM-7 was released only from [His⁸ ]-β-CM-9 (Table 3). This peptide was not detected in the pancreatin digest of [Pro⁸ ]-β-CM-9, probably because of difficulty of the hydrolysis of the Ile⁷ -Pro⁸ peptide bond. This means β-CM-7 is released only from [His⁶⁷]-β-casein. The shortest β-CM released from [Pro⁶⁷]-β-casein was [Pro⁸ ]-β-CM-9.

Enzymatic release of neocasomorphin and β- casomorphin from bovine β-casein

He used normal digestive enzymes like trypsin and pancreatin.

The shorter peptide from A1 β-casein would be more liable to penetrate the intestine and the blood brain barrier. The shorter the β-casomorphin is, the more strongly it bonds to the μ-opiate receptor. β-casomorphin-5 is the strongest one.

casomorphin9.png


I added the goat β-casomorphin sequence.

They are named based on chain length, starting at Tyrosine⁶⁰:

β-casomorphin-5: Tyr-Pro-Phe-Pro-Gly-
β-casomorphin-7: Tyr-Pro-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro-Ile
β-casomorphin-11: Tyr-Pro-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro-Ile-His-Asp-Ser-Leu

At the head of the chain is the opiate. It does, in fact, fulfill the "opiate rule".

The opiate rule is a set of chemical rules which has been found to be most important in creating an opiate effect:

casomorphin.png

1. A tertiary nitrogen with a small alkyl substituent
2. A quaternary carbon
3. A phenyl group or its isosteric equivalent directly attached to the quaternary carbon
4. A 2 carbon spacer between the quaternary carbon and the tertiary nitrogen

(Rules from the University of Rochester website)


β-casomorphin has been isolated from the urine of autistic kids and people undergoing psychotic episodes. It affects behavior in rats:

The response to sound was greatly reduced. Social interaction was incomplete or absent. The β-CM7-treated rats failed to avoid obstacles placed in their path. [...] About 1 hour after treatment with β-CM7 the rats became hyperdefensive, backing into a corner and showing obvious hostility to their normal cage mate. When touched on the flanks or shoulders or handled they had an exaggerated response with excessive and prolonged vocalization.

A peptide found in schizophrenia and autism causes behavioral changes in rats

All of these effects are consistently inhibited by naloxone. These are true opiates.

This might explain the shocking dairy withdrawal testimonials in the comment section of this website here: Shocking Dairy Detox – This will blow your mind!

From my experience, goat cheese has less of an effect on me than cow cheese. I think the Threonine⁶³ and the Proline⁶⁷ substitutions make a real difference. I think the hydrolized peptides might be longer and don't cross the BBB as easily.

But these can also be formed by the bacteria in cheese, and different strains of bacteria can form casomorphins of differing chain lengths. So it might actually matter whether its cheddar, brie, or parmesan.

Formation and Degradation of Beta-casomorphins in Dairy Processing
 
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aarfai

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Can I ask for some updated user experiences with A2 milk? Does it digest better and how would I know if the milk I purchase is A1 or A2? Thank you
 

Kartoffel

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An old 1992 article:

A Naturally Occurring Opioid Peptide from Cow’s Milk, Beta-Casomorphine-7, Is a Direct Histamine Releaser in Man

Abstract

β-Casomorphine-7, a naturally occurring product of cow’s milk with opiate-like activity, was studied for possible direct histamine liberation activities in humans. It was found to cause concentration-dependent in vitro histamine release from peripheral leukocytes of healthy adult volunteers. Intradermal injectionof β-casomorphine-7 induced a wheal and flare reaction in the skin similarto histamine or codeine. Oral pretreatment with the H1 antagonist terfenadine significantly inhibited the skin responses to β-casomorphine-7. The intradermal injection of an opiate receptor antagonist, naloxone, inhibited in vitro histamine release and skin reactions only in a 100-fold excess over β-casomorphine-7. These findings suggest that β-casomorphine-7 can be regarded as a noncytotoxic, direct histamine releaser in humans. The clinical relevance of these findings deserves further studies.
A Naturally Occurring Opioid Peptide from Cow’s Milk, Beta-Casomorphine-7, Is a Direct Histamine Releaser in Man

What exactely is this study supposed to prove? Almost anything will result in histamine release when injected intradermally. For this study to have any physiological significance you would have to provide evidence that beta-casomoprhine-7 passes through the intestinal wall and shows up in significant quantities in the blood after milk consumption.
 

mt_dreams

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Can I ask for some updated user experiences with A2 milk? Does it digest better and how would I know if the milk I purchase is A1 or A2? Thank you
goat, sheep and any other non cow milk protein are a2. cow dairy produced in france & india (possibly swiss & italy, to a lesser degree) will be a2, the rest of the world is a1 Holstein. If you live in the US, the only nation wide cow milk that's a2 will be the A2 milk company which certifies that their cows are a2. I believe jersey cows are a2, so you might be able to find local brands. i've found organic jersey ice cream at whole foods in the past.

I do better consuming goat & sheep dairy which are both a2. I'm not sure if it's a a2 thing, or the other differences they have. goat milk for my lattes & ice cream, and sheep milk for my cheeses. I only consume cow cheese from france.
 

mt_dreams

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That's odd, where did you see that? Jersey cows are a minority afaik.
just learned a new acronym.
in NA jersey & guernsey cows are a minority due to their lower output, which is why you will only see small time farms selling their dairy. the cow dairy in france & india will be from heritage cows. those 2 countries (and regions in swiss & italy) were the only ones to reject the over-breeding model which resulted in a majority of cows producing a1 dairy. The rest of the world went with profit motives when selecting the dutch-german Holstein varieties. it's the reason why french cow cheese is usually more expensive than other european countries
 

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