Milk consumption and the prepubertal somatotropic axis.

Background: Nutrients, hormones and growth factors in dairy foods may stimulate growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), and raise the ratio of IGF-I to its binding protein, IGFBP-3. We conducted pilot studies in Mongolia and Massachusetts to test the extent to which milk intake raised somatotropic hormone concentrations in prepubertal children.

Methods: In Ulaanbaatar, we compared plasma levels before and after introducing 710 ml daily whole milk for a month among 46 10-11 year old schoolchildren.