Growth hormone in milk doesn’t affect human growth
Dr. Keith Roach
Question: You recently wrote about growth hormone. I believe there is a small group of cows with growth hormone in their milk. This milk is why we almost never see very short people under a certain age. Is this the major source of growth hormone, or is it something else? — W.T.T.
Answer: In the United States, about 17 percent of cows are treated with bovine growth hormone, called rBGH, which increases milk production. The milk produced from these cows has no more growth hormone than milk produced from cows who are not given the hormone. Further, growth hormone is not well-absorbed, and bovine growth hormone is not active in humans. So, there is no effect from cows treated with this hormone in terms of height of human children.
Cows treated with rBGH do get infections more frequently, so trace amounts of antibiotics are found more commonly in cows treated with rBGH.
Q: About seven years ago, I had to have carpal tunnel surgery on both my wrists. I also had a trigger finger fixed on my left hand. While the carpal tunnel surgery fixed the numbness problems I had in both hands, I have been back five times to have different fingers on both hands fixed for the trigger finger trouble. I asked my doctor if the carpal tunnel surgery could have caused the resulting trigger fingers. He said it shouldn’t have had any effect. But I find it strange to have had such trouble since the original surgery. Do you know if the two are related? — D.F.
A: Carpal tunnel syndrome happens when there is increased pressure in the carpal tunnel, an anatomical space in the wrist composed of bone and connective tissue. Nine tendons of the hand, as well as the median nerve, pass through it. The increased pressure damages the nerve, causing pain, numbness or weakness in the hand. Treatment includes stop- ping the activity (say, repeated high-intensity impacts, such as a jackhammer operator might experience), reversing any contributing medical condition (such as low thyroid levels), splinting, steroid injection or surgery.
A trigger finger is when a finger gets stuck in the flexed position. It is caused by a tendon being trapped in the pulley system of the finger. Trigger finger often can be treated with injection of a corticosteroid, although a given area may require up to three injections. Sometimes surgery is necessary.
It’s appropriate for someone with either a trigger finger or carpal tunnel syndrome to be evaluated for the other condition, since they so frequently occur together. There does seem to be an increased likelihood for someone with carpal tunnel syndrome to have a trigger finger.
Having diabetes seems to be a risk factor for both of these conditions. Otherwise, it’s not known why they both tend to run together.