Why should people take colostrum?
Taking a colostrum supplement has shown to be beneficial for your immune system and in athletic performance.
There are two main areas where colostrum has shown to be useful for humans:
- To support your immune system.
- For Athletic Performance.
Immune Support
Taking a daily colostrum supplement can help your immune system stay at its normal levels to fight off infection and disease.
It has even been suggested that colostrum is an effective and practical solution to help your body maintain its natural immune system against influenza episodes. This is due to the high number of immune supporting compounds and substances that occur naturally in colostrum including lactoferrin.
Some of these substances, like IGF-1, Lactoferrin, and Lactoperoxidase, can be sufficient in a low concentration to support normal immune protection and provide nonspecific defense. Lactoferrin, a natural defense protein that is found in secretions like saliva, is particularly important because of its antibacterial, antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties.
Colostrum can play an important role in intestinal and stomach health. It is already documented that colostrum is used to help combat chronic diarrhea in HIV infection and diarrhea caused by rotavirus infection in children.
When taken consistently, colostrum provides immune support to help your body against infection resulting in fewer influenza episodes.
Athletic Performance
Whether you are a committed athlete or a weekend warrior, if you are looking to build lean muscle mass, improve performance or recover from training, then colostrum powder is an ideal supplement for you.
Due to the strenuous nature of exercise, in order to see the best results from colostrum supplementation you will need to have a daily intake of 20 g consecutively for 8 weeks. Colostrum is especially suited for distance athletes who favour lean muscle mass and performance- this includes triathletes, runners, kayakers, cross-country skiers, and anyone else engaged in an activity that requires high anaerobic power.
In one study conducted in highly conditioned cyclists, a comparison was made in the performance of groups supplemented with 20 g colostrum, 60 g whey protein powder, and 20 g colostrum with 40 g whey protein powder. The greatest increase in endurance was seen in the group supplemented with both colostrum and whey protein.
It’s not just the increase in performance that makes colostrum an attractive supplement option; it’s the ability of it to help your body recover from exercise.
Studies suggest that colostrum can help your body recover and get back to your previous performance levels after just 20 minutes.
One of the most interesting potential benefits of colostrum supplementation is that it may have a role in preventing heat stroke. Heat stroke occurs partly due to the increased intestinal permeability of toxins brought on by heavy exercise – basically your body has to process more toxins than it normally does.
Bovine colostrum has been shown to reduce the permeability in the gut brought on by heavy exercise.
Colostrum can be taken as a daily supplement to help your immune system, increase lean muscle mass, and help your body recover from athletic activity.
Colostrum has many applications for people and is taken as a daily supplement to help with immune function and general health. Athletes take colostrum to help their stomach during peak athletic activity and to help the body with lean muscle growth.
It can be easy to just concentrate on the globulin proteins found in colostrum but there are many factors in colostrum which help boost immune support and athletic performance. These can be broken down into 4 major areas: Nutrients, Cytokines, Growth Factors, and Immune Factors.
- Nutrients include Vitamin A, B12,C,E, Selenium, Calcium, Magnesium, and Omega-3 Fatty Acids
- Cytokines include Colony Stimulating Factors, Interferon Y, Interleukin 1B
- Growth Factors include EGF, IGF 1 and IGF 2
- Immune Factors include Lactoferrin, Casein, IgG, IgA, IgM
Bovine colostrum allows these elements to work in concert to provide you with that little extra support to help boost your immune system and aid your body’s recovery time from work outs.
SCCL has developed products suited to your colostrum needs. If you are looking for an Immune Booster or if you want to take advantage of the beneficial properties of colostrum as an athlete, we offer Eterna Gold.