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Dear Dr. Roach: 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. These cows also make more of a hormone called insulin growth factor 1, but it is unlikely to have a significant effect in humans, since a child produces 100 times more IGF-1 than he or she could drink in milk.
Dear Dr. Roach: Twice in the past six months, I read responses from you in regard to eye twitching. I noticed that you did not mention myasthenia gravis as one of the possible reasons. Twitching was the first thing I noticed. It took two and a half years, two GPs and two ophthalmologists to make the diagnosis. I am hoping to bring awareness to this disease. Maybe you can further the discussion on this. I had to put my finger on the twitch to quiet it. -- V.B.
Answer: Myasthenia gravis is a neuromuscular disorder whose first symptom is weakness in the muscles of the eye and eyelid. I did not read anything about MG presenting with eye twitching, but I have looked it up and have found several case reports of people with undiagnosed MG being inappropriately treated with Botox for the diagnosis of blepharospasm (which my
previous columns were about).