Milk Consumption Linked to Breast Cancer

For the first time ever, a new study directly links Bovine Leukemia Virus (BLV) to human breast cancer. The University of California, Berkeley study found that 59 percent of women with breast cancer also tested positive for infection with BLV, which is 30 percent higher than cancer-free women. According to researchers, “Most humans in Western cultures consume more cow’s milk products in a lifetime than they do human milk, which led us to investigate whether a bovine virus might be an initiating agent for breast cancer.” Researchers concluded that BLV presence was “significantly associated with breast cancer” and found that the presence of BLV increased the odds of having breast cancer by 3.1 times. The study’s lead researcher Gertrude Buehring stated that “this odds ratio is higher than any of the frequently publicized risk factors for breast cancer, such as obesity, alcohol consumption, and use of post-menopausal hormones.” According to a 2007 Department of Agriculture survey, BLV is found in 100 percent of cow’s milk from factory farms.