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How a pint of milk a day can give you spots.

"this could be very serious?"

Link & Article below:-



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770


How a pint of milk a day can give you spots
By FIONA MacRAE

Last updated at 01:01am on 9th May 2007

Many a spotty teenager has been told to lay off the chips and chocolate if they want clear skin.

But research suggests they would do much better to cut down on drinking milk.

Teenagers who drink a pint or more of milk a day are almost 50 per cent more likely to develop spots and pimples than those who rarely or never drink milk.

Whole and semi-skimmed milk also raise the risk of acne - but to a lesser extent, the research carried out at the respected Harvard School of Public Health, showed.

It is thought that hormones that occur naturally in milk and other dairy products nourish spots by making skin greasy and blocking pores.

Processing milk to make low-fat versions may raise levels of the hormones, making the situation worse.

Most common in the teenage years, acne affects up to 98 per cent of 16 to 18 year olds.

Usually sparked by hormonal changes during puberty, acne can also be triggered by stress.

While many sufferers believe their spots are made worse by chocolate or by fatty food, the link between diet and acne has been unclear. But it now appears milk may play a key role.

The US researchers looked at the teenage diet of more than 47,000 women and then compared dairy product intake with cases of acne.

Analysis of the results revealed a clear link between milk and skin problems.

Worst off were those who regularly drank skimmed milk, with two half-pint glasses a day raising the risk of the condition by 44 per cent.

Those who drank a pint of whole milk a day were 12 per cent more likely to develop acne, while semi-skimmed milk increased the risk by 16 per cent.

Overall, those who regularly drank milk were 22 per cent more likely to have suffered from acne than those who rarely or never drank the white stuff.

Cream and cottage cheeses also raised the risk of the condition, however, chips, chocolate and pizza did not.

Writing in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, the researchers said that sex and growth hormones naturally found in cow's milk may trigger spots.

In an accompanying article, acne expert Dr William Danby said the human body isn't designed to deal with the high levels of hormones found in cow's milk.

'Viewed objectively, human consumption of large volumes of another species' milk, especially when that milk comes mainly from pregnant cows during the human's normally post-weaned years, is unnatural,' he said.

Other recent research has shown that women who eat low-fat dairy products when trying to conceive may be dramatically cutting their chances of pregnancy.

Drinking a pint of semi-skimmed or skimmed milk or eating two pots of yoghurt a day almost doubles the risk of anovulatory infertility, in which women stop ovulating.

However, Britain's milk producers said that milk has many health benefits and stressed that finding a link between milk and acne is not the same as proving that milk causes acne.

Dr Judith Bryans (CORR), of the Dairy Council, said: 'Unnecessary exclusion of dairy from the diet can compromise nutrient intakes.

'This is especially important for teenagers who are most likely to suffer with acne, and for whom the bone-building nutrients naturally found in dairy foods are so important.'




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