BENEFITS OF COLOSTRUM

Dr. Welch said, "Colostrum is valuable to me both personally and within my practice. I consider colostrum an important therapeutic aid for all patients who have chronic infections, including bacterial, viral, or fungal. Examples of such infections involve recurrent sinusitis, bronchitis, hepatitis, urinary tract infections [UTI], and other bacterial invasions; herpes, Epstein Barr, and additional viral diseases; plus the yeast syndrome of candidiasis. I start everyone who consults me for acute infections on bovine colostrum. But in my experience, the patients who gain the most from this nutritional supplement are those with chronic and recurrent disease symptoms such as chronic fatigue syndrome, infectious diarrhea, sinusitis, and fibromyalgia.



"Most of my allergy patients who take colostrum get through the hay fever season without difficulty. Additionally, those people who experience three or four yearly UTIs do very well by making bovine colostrum a part of their routine dietary supplementation." Dr. Welch stated. "Without fail, it reduces the recurrence of their UTI. Upon my recommendation, the few lung disease patients in my practice now are also taking colostrum because it contributes to improved functioning of their lungs.
"So generally, I am administering bovine colostrum as an immune system booster. I think its use would be good for all people prophylactically, and I suggest its use to any patient who needs that kind of immunological pickup. As a wholistic-minded physician, I strongly believe in employing it for a minimum of one out of three patients. That's what I do in my practice, and I take colostrum myself," acknowledged Dr. Welch. "That's because I have a history of metastatic breast cancer. This nutritional supplement has become a part of my routine immune-boosting protocol. Any time I become exposed to a contagious patient or some other source of infection, I immediatelly increase my colostrum intake.

"The use of colostrum as a promoter of health and well-being has been recognized for centuries and its use is deeply rooted in the act of 'filial piety' in Ancient Chinese Culture...
Antigen-specific transfer factor (TF) can be obtained from colostrum or milk that is secreted by the mammary gland of a mammal that has been exposed to a variety of environmental antigens.  The idea that a fraction of colostrum contains TF that can be administered to transfer cell-mediated immunity is very intriguing, given the widespread availability of colostrum of bovine origin and the establishment of techniques for the collection of concentrates of TF and its purification for use as a  dietary supplement."

  Colostrum, since it is as old as motherhood, is the original and most primordially known nutritional substance for enhancing immunity.  Four main immune system enhancing fractions exist in colostrum.  They are (1) the growth factor fraction,   (2) the immunoglobulin fraction, (3) the putative permeability fraction, (4) a fraction containing enzymes, proteins, odd peptides, and other compounds of lesser interest.

Thus, colostrum contains not only calories and nutrients but additionally, certain powerful growth stimulators such as the insulin-like growth factor (IGF).  The two peptides labeled IGF-2  and the far more potent IGF-1 are mini-proteins resembling their namesake, the hormone insulin.  IGF promotes protein synthesis without stimulating the storage of fat tissue.  Also these IGF peptides are closely related to the hormone somatotrophin, better known as human growth hormone, about which there has recently been massive amounts of excitement for its rejuvenation effect.

  Ingesting Bovine Colostrum Provides hGH
Human growh hormone (hGH) works by its variable effects on IGF inside the muscle cell.   Ingesting the IGF present in colostrum mediates the actions that hGH directs, but it does something more.  Bovine colostrum's IGF promotes muscle growth by itself and stimulates muscle growth even in the absence of hGH.  While everybody requires the physiological production of hGH, it's likely that if one supplements with bovine colostrum the taking of extra hGH becomes unnecessary.

 Today's nutritionally-oriented endocrinologists and other medical scientists know that all of these benefits are available without the need to take drugs containing human growth hormone.  My research reveals that any of us may acquire similar hGH effects by adding dried, powdered bovine colostrum to our diet.  It contains a higher concentration of IGF-1 than human colostrum, and its structure is virtually identical.   Human IGF-1 and bovine IGF-1 differ by only three amino acids in the sixty-seven amino acid chain that makes up the IGF-1 molecule.  Because of this similarity, bovine IGF-1 is just as potent as the human form and, I judge it's probably a lot safer than synthesized hGH.


In addition to IGF-1, bovine colostrum contains a more viable version of hGH, designated as truncated IGF-1 [or des (1-3) IGF-1].  This truncated IGF-1 is ten times more potent than regular IGF-1 and provides powerful cellular growth stimulation for animals even in the absence of growth hormone.  Currently the genetic engineering companies are producing des (1-3) IGF-1 in the laboratory in order to turn it into a pharmaceutical product.
The mechanisms by which IGF in colostrum spurs growth parallels those involving insulin and hGH.  It increases the transport of amino acids into cells and elevates the uptake of blood glucose.  This mechanism slows the rate of metabolism so as to be protein-sparing, even in the face of caloric deficiency and protein deprivation.   Without any corresponding rise in adipose tissue, colostrum's IGF-1 speeds protein synthesis, causes greater utilization of fat for energy, lessens the body's dependency on carbohydrate, and increases lean muscle mass.  The oral administration of bovine colostrum furnishes all of these same physiological attributes which are known to occur with the ingestion of hGH.