Sunday, February 17, 2008

Growth Hormone: Safe for Beef not Roger Clemens???

Mr. Clemens, "don't inject yourself with growth hormone, just go down to your local grocery store and load up on all the non-organic beef and dairy. We guarantee that you will throw faster than ever!" This should be the next campaign slogan for the USDA.

Seriously, why is it okay for the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Dairy Association to say that it is safe to inject cattle with growth hormone but considered unsafe when professional athletes use it? Almost 80% of the beef and dairy consumed in the US has growth hormone in it, specifically rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone, a genetically engineered ARTIFICIAL growth hormone). So if these hormones are so great for animals and the food they produce why not let everyone inject themselves with this stuff? The truth is because IT IS NOT SAFE! Of course this statement has "never been proven" to be true according to the FDA. Despite the fact that Canada and EVERY European country ban the use of this hormone and reject all of our rBGH beef and dairy for the past 20 years. The rBGH debate is indeed controversial for obvious reasons. Farmers in the US are trying to get more beef and more milk from their cows and Monsanto Corporation the holder to the patent continues to thrive in
profitability.

A couple of key points... Cows injected with rBGH have a 25% chance of developing mastitis, an infection that is treated by antibiotics. We all now how rampant the use of antibiotics have become only making bacteria stronger and more resistant, not to mention how it further affects the food supply. Why would anyone promote something that increases the use of antibiotics to the animal by 25%? Another significant issue is how rBGH increases the amount of Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) in the body. "Almost every cell in the human body is affected by IGF-1, especially cells in muscle, cartilage, bone, liver, kidney, nerves, skin, and lungs. In addition to the insulin-like effects, IGF-1 can also regulate cell growth and development, especially in nerve cells, as well as cellular DNA synthesis." (Wikipedia 2008) Increased levels of IGF-1 can have carcinogenic affects specifically increasing ones chances of getting prostate or premenopausal breast cancers. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2000;85:4258–65, Lancet 1998;351:1393-6). The FDA continues to dance around the safety questions posed by many medical studies and advocates the use of the hormone as if nothing can be further from the truth. Is all this necessary?

We can indeed make a difference by buying free-range, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, organic meats and dairy. Stop focusing on what the athletes are doing, start focusing on what our FDA is promoting!