I have wondered whether early exposure to cow's milk might alter the way
one's gut reacts to milk, and possibly result in these individuals always
absorbing the larger molecules across their own intestinal epithelium.

For the proteins to get into breastmilk, they have to get into the mother's
blood, after all.  Why do some people maintain gut permeability to these
large molecules and some not?

Could there be changes in other organs because of altered gut permeability,
or could it simply be that our breasts are designed to pass large protein
molecules into the milk, and if we happen to have such molecules from cow's
milk in our blood, then they get into the milk too?

It would be interesting to know how women whose milk doesn't contain cow's
milk protein differ from women whose milk does contain it.  I doubt that the
key factor is simply whether or not they ingest cow's milk.  My hunch is
that mucous membrane immunity is permanently altered by early exposure to
cow's milk.  The recently published reports of allergic mothers seeming to
pass on this tendency more strongly if they breastfed, seems to me to fit
with my hunch.

If I had research money and a place to do it, this is the question I would
investigate.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html