Sat 27 May 2006
Bovine Growth Hormone Causes Twins?
Saturday, May 27th, 2006 at 6:03 amCategories: Food; Health
Posted by Administrator
Accoording to a report published by Scientific American, milk and meat from cows raised on Bovine Growth Hormone contribute to women having more twins:
Over the last 30 years, the number of twin births has nearly trebled. This rise seems to have followed the introduction of in vitro fertilization and a preference for having children later in life. But in the mid-1990s, doctors began limiting the number of embryos transferred in the course of in vitro fertilization and still the proportion of twin births rose. Now new research seems to show that bovine growth hormone in the food supply may be responsible.
Using data obtained from mothers by way of questionnaire, physician Gary Steinman of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center and his colleagues compared the number of twin births from moms who consumed meat and/or milk and those who consumed no animal products at all. They found that the omnivores and vegetarians were five times more likely to have fraternal twins than the vegans.
[Link]
Via Organic Consumers Association
Journal of Reproductive Medicine, May 2006: “Mechanisms of Twinning: VII. Effect of Diet and Heredity on the Human Twinning Rate”
G. Steinman
Genotypes favoring elevated IGF and diets including dairy products, especially in areas where growth hormone is given to cattle, appear to enhance the chances of multiple pregnancies due to ovarian stimulation.
Wikipedia on Bovine somatotropin (BGH) –
Bovine somatotropin (bST), or bovine growth hormone (BGH), is a protein hormone that occurs naturally in the pituitary gland of cattle. It is a factor controlling the amount of milk produced by a dairy cow. Bovine somatotropin is naturally in the milk extracted from a cow.
[Link]
See also Twin @ Wikipedia
One Response to “Bovine Growth Hormone Causes Twins?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Next Post:
O’Reilly Press and Web 2.0
Previous Post:
San Salvador Atenco
June 6th, 2006 at 7:26 am
This study is flawed in several respects, the first being that BST levels in treated cows is not different from that of untreated animals. The second is that the mechanics of the quwstionaire method for retrieving data is open to many factors that can distort the results. The third and last that I will address is that unpublished studies indivcate that Insulin-like growth factor seems to encourage embryo survival, and this may increase the number of twin births.