7 mind-blowing benefits of colostrum

Colostrum is backed by both the wisdom of our ancestors and scientific research. It has been used for thousands of years by cultures throughout the world. Not too long ago, colostrum was used to help those with vulnerable immune systems get a boost.

Prior to the advent of sulfa drugs, colostrum was used as a natural antibiotic. In the 1950s, colostrum was prescribed by doctors to patients suffering from arthritis. And at around the same time, Dr. Albert Sabin, developer of the polio vaccine, recommended colostrum for children with compromised immune systems.

Regular use of colostrum can bring about many immune and health boosting benefits, such as:

1. Modulating the immune system 

Proline-rich polypeptides (PRPs), also known as colostrinin, are short chain amino acids that were originally isolated from colostrum more than 40 years ago.

PRPs help regulate the thymus gland, which plays an important role in the immune function. Through this regulation, the body can effectively fight off viral and bacterial infections and down-regulate inflammation at the same time.

In other words, PRPs are capable of balancing the immune system by stimulating an underactive immune system to fight off infections and simultaneously, calm down an overactive immune system, which may result in autoimmune disease.

2. Inhibiting cancer cell proliferation

Cancer cells have two characteristics that help them proliferate and spread rapidly.

- The first one, angiogenesis, is their ability to create their own web of new blood vessels that provides them with food to grow.  

- The second is immortality. All healthy cells have a feature called programmed cell death. Meaning they all die automatically after certain time. This feature becomes dysfunctional in all cancer cells, which become immortal.

Lactoferrin, which is particularly abundant in colostrum, has been proven to have strong tumor inhibitory activity through both blocking angiogenesis (1) and triggering apoptosis (2) which is programmed cell death. 

Lactoferrin has strong tumor inhibitory activity via apoptosis, blocking angiogenesis, modulating carcinogen-metabolizing enzymes, and iron scavenging (3).

3. Supporting healthy iron levels

This is yet another way how lactoferrin helps support our health. A wide array of pathogens and tumors, such as cancer, feed on our iron reserves to support their growth and reproduction. In normal cases a healthy body should be able to respond to such pathogens and tumors by sending large amounts of lactoferrin to the troubled area where lactoferrin binds to iron and starves tumors and pathogens to death. However, when the immune system is suppressed its ability to do so diminishes rendering us vulnerable to disease.

4. Helping heal leaky gut

Professional athletes are among those at higher risk of developing leaky gut because of the stressful strenuous training regimens that they adopt. And, one of the very strong indicator of leaky gut is stool zonulin. Studies found that supplementation with bovine colostrum decreased leaky gut and stool concentrations of zonulin in athletes.

SIgA is an antibody that is found in our mucous secretions such as the tears and saliva. It is also present in high amounts within the mucous membrane that lines our gut. What it basically does is attach itself to invading pathogens then trap them in the mucosal surfaces and neutralize them. 

Low levels of SIgA open the gate for all sorts of bad bacteria to cross over from the gut to the blood stream, making us more prone to develop allergies, food sensitivities, eczema, autoimmune disease and other sorts of ailment.

Colostrum is well documented in being a rich source of SIgA, which explains a lot about its gut healing properties.

5. Neutralizing bacteria and viruses

Colostrum is rich in antibodies IgG, IgM, IgD, and IgE, which help neutralize toxins and microbes in the lymph and circulatory systems, and destroy bacteria and viruses.

Consuming colostrum has been known to transfer these important bacteria and virus busting antibodies to our immune system.

Giving further food for thought, a PubMed study published in 2007, demonstrated that supplementing bovine colostrum is three times more effective in preventing flu infection than taking a flu vaccine. 

6. Helping balance blood glucose

Diabetes can have many detrimental effects on the health including, skin infections, brain health issues, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and gum disease. 

A 2008 study that was published in PubMed suggested that supplementing cow colostrum can decrease the levels of blood glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides in Type 2 diabetic patients. The study, which spanned over 4 weeks, had the patients take 5 g of colostrum on an empty stomach in the morning and another 5 g on an empty stomach at night.

7. Helping regenerate the skin

The beauty of colostrum is that it can help heal the whole body and repair the DNA. This in turn regenerates the skin on the cellular level.

Epithelial growth factor (EGF), which is a critical component in colostrum, helps reverse the signs of skin aging through repairing skin damage resulting from normal aging to damage caused by the sun, chemical burns or puncture wounds. Growth factors, as the name implies, encourage cells to accelerate their capacity for repair and replication, thereby more quickly replacing old layers of skin with new ones.

This is the same mechanism by which Retin-A and other retinol-type skin products work.

Things to remember from this post 

The many health benefits of colostrum include,

1. Modulating the immune the system

2. Inhibiting cancer cell proliferation

3. Supporting healthy iron levels

4. Helping heal leaky gut

5. Helping balance blood glucose 

6. Helping regenerate the skin

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