- Resource Type
- Report or Study
- Doctor recommends
- Dr. Peter Rowe of Johns Hopkins
Dr. Peter Rowe of Johns Hopkins is an established researcher and doctor at Johns Hopkins University with dozens of ME/CFS studies to his name. He was one of the first researchers to find orthostatic intolerance in ME/CFS, to associate Ehlors Danlos Syndrome with ME/CFS, and the first to propose that muscle-tendon problems were impairing range of motion and causing exercise problems.
[bimg=fright|no-lightbox]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/Dg_milk_containers.jpg/800px-Dg_milk_containers.jpg[/bimg]Now he's blazing another trail. He just published a study indicating that milk intolerance is common in adolescents with ME/CFS and is causing them significant distress.
In a robust study of 55 adolescents Rowe demonstrated that dairy commonly caused gastrointestinal disturbances in many young people with chronic fatigue syndrome, that removing dairy removed the gastrointestinal symptoms, and that reintroducing it caused the symptoms to come back.
In a former talk Dr. Rowe went so far as to say that milk caused such problems in those insensitive to it, that unless the problem was recitified (i.e. dairy products were removed from their diet) that significant improvement was unlikely.
The abstract stated that when milk was removed from the diet of milk intolerant adolescents that their health rebounded so that it was similar to others of their age with ME/CFS.
The gist was that milk problems don't cause ME/CFS but they can make make it significantly worse.
Why milk and dairy products can cause such problems in ME/CFS adolescents is unclear. Dr. Rowe's abstract did not indicate that his patients exhibited lactose intolerance which WebMD states in common in adults (but not in adolescents). In my case I only became dairy intolerant as an adult. I am able to tolerate lactose free dairy problems without gastrointestinal symptoms but they still produce increased fatigue.
Dr. Mark Hyman on the Dangers of Dairy
Because an infection can stop the small intestine can from making lactase - the enzyme needed to break down dairy products - a stomach flu can be one route to lactase intolerance.
The IBS Treatment Center, however, states that most cases of dairy intolerance don't involve lactose intolerance but result from an immune reaction begun in the gut to milk. Dairy allergies can result from a reaction to casein in milk and other dairy products and cause symptoms such as fatigue.
