Take Colostrum!

Cold/Flu Season, Will It Get YOU?

By Julie Riggs, MEd, RD, LD

The days are getting shorter and colder. That only means one thing—the cold and flu season is coming upon us. The relentless runny nose and itchy throat, that annoying hacky cough, and even sometimes, the fever and sinus pressure, then headache that leads you to the doctor for an antibiotic. Well, take a preventative step this year, and beef-up your immune system before this sickly season gets you.

You may never have heard of this supplement. It’s definitely not a household word, like multivitamin or fiber supplement may be. Would you ever think that taking colostrum daily as a preventative measure could boost your immune system so you don’t have to even think of taking a cough drop? Well, it’s true. Yes, colostrum, the stuff infant mammals get from their mothers the first 24-48 hours after birth (before the “milk comes in”). It provides life supporting immune and growth factors that insure the health, vitality, and protection of the baby, and it has now been shown to protect and heal adults when taken as a supplement. It’s also commonly called first milk.

The colostrum commonly used is bovine (from a cow), since cows are regularly milked and have an abundance of it. Bovine colostrum is biologically transferable to all mammals, including humans. It is much higher in immune factors than human mother’s colostrum: including immunoglobulins A,D,E,G, and M. IgG neutralizes toxins and microbes in the lymph and circulatory system, IgM destroys bacteria, while IgE and IgD are highly antiviral. It is used commonly against yeast infections, viruses and the flu, and autoimmune problems. Since a healthy immune system is really the core of the body’s resistance against disease and infection, it should be a no-brainer that simply taking a daily dose of colostrum is a must.

Not only does colostrum boost the immune system, but it has also been used to help relieve symptoms of sinusitis, asthma, herpes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. The growth factors in colostrum can help repair, heal and rebuild the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and help stop leaky gut syndrome, which lends more opportunity for the growth of good bacteria and helps promote digestion and absorption of beneficial nutrients there. People plagued by colitis, gastroenteritis, heartburn, diverticulitis, Crohn’s disease, and other GI disorders have experienced improvements in symptoms when colostrum is taken regularly. For these, to say the least, miserably uncomfortable people, it’s a miracle! The growth factors are also found to help strengthen bones and prevent osteoporosis, as well as, increase lean body mass and burn fat in active men and women.

Research only formalizes the obvious that colostrum is beneficial. Anything that was designed by nature to be the very first food into an infant’s mouth, could only be short of amazing. It has reparative, healing, and building qualities like nothing else on the market. We should thank research for reminding us of this, and “reoffering” it to us as non-infants. The body is an amazing thing, and it can make things man cannot. We should take full advantage of colostrum and it’s benefits to us.