colostrom [Archive] - CNP Professional Forum

OLD FORUM ARCHIVE

10-09-2009, 10:28 AM

kk - Over the past few years, we have all been hearing wonderful, healthful things about colostrum. Do we even understand what colostrum is? Is it really that good for us? Every now and then, we get asked, “Why doesn’t CNP formulate some products with colostrum?”
Colostrum is the “first” milk produced by mammal mothers after a baby is born. Colostrum doesn’t look like milk. It is a yellowish liquid with a strong smell and a high immunoglobulin and growth factor content. This first milk, colostrum, is only secreted for about 72 hours after the birth of a baby. The best colostrum, by far, is the colostrum secreted within the first 12 hours after birth. The colostrum of the first 12 hours after birth has a nutrient profile and immunological composition that is substantially different from that of regular milk. After the first 12 hours, through 72 hours after birth, the chemical and protein make-up of colostrum changes to become more similar to regular milk.

Why is colostrum important? All newborn mammal babies are born without a functioning immune system. Newborn mammals acquire immunity to certain common infections that could prove fatal from their mother’s colostrum until their own immune system kicks in. Colostrum plays a much more important role in baby cows, calves, than it does in human babies. For that reason, much attention has been paid to bovine (cow) colostrum. Many claims of growth factors and immune system strengthening have been promoted for bovine colostrum. Do these claims have any validity?

First, let’s examine what type of bovine colostrum is generally made available for sale to the health food and sports nutrition market. Is it the healthful colostrum from the first 12 hours after the calve’s birth or is it the colostrum from the second or third days? The answer is firmly that it is not the colostrum from the first 12 hours that is sold to the public. That early colostrum is given to the calf. Over the years, farmers have tried to give calves synthetic colostrum preparations, but they don’t work. As we have already stated, baby cows are born without a fully functioning immune system. Feeding colostrum provides the calves with a source of pre-formed immunoglobulin, some of which is actively absorbed intact into the calves’ blood and provides protection against systemic disease. If a calf does not receive its mother’s colostrum for at least the first 12 hours after birth, its survival chances decrease significantly. Farmers spend too much money on cows to watch them die in infancy because of a poorly functioning immune system. Therefore, every farmer will feed a newborn calf its mother’s colostrum for about 24 hours after birth. No farmer is crazy enough to risk the life of a valuable newborn calf just to make a little extra money selling the early (12 hour) colostrum. The colostrum that they then have available to sell for human consumption is second and third day colostrum – a “milk” that contains significantly less immunoglobulin and growth factors than the colostrum of the first 24 hours.

Why are farmers willing to stop feeding colostrum to newborn calves after 24 hours? Because numerous studies have demonstrated that the health value of colostrum to any newborn mammal is in the absorption of intact molecules of immunoglobulins and growth factors into the baby’s blood. A newborn mammal baby is born with a trypsin inhibitor in the stomach that prevents the stomach from hydrolyzing, or tearing apart, the immunoglobulins and growth factors in the colostrum. As a result, these anabolic molecules empty from the stomach intact and are able to be absorbed into the blood intact, as a bioactive molecule. However, numerous studies have also shown that about 24 hours after birth, the trypsin inhibitor disappears and the mammal baby then begins to hydrolyze the immunoglobulins and growth factors in the stomach during digestion. Within 36 hours after being born, a calf is only able to absorb about 7% of the immunoglobulins that it is fed. The rest are “digested” and of no use for immune system support. Farmers have figured out that it is useless and a waste of money to feed a calf colostrum past 24 hours after birth. The same holds true for mature human beings. Our digestive system will hydrolyze colostrum components in the stomach so that very little of the healthful benefits make their way into our blood. Colostrum ceases to be of benefit to a human baby after 4 or 5 days of life.

If that last statement is true, why then do so many people make health claims for colostrum? We really can’t figure that out. It is a little known fact that the original formulations of ProPeptide and Pro MR did contain colostrum. We, like everyone else, thought that that colostrum had some anabolic benefits. When we searched scientific literature for proof of those benefits, however, we couldn’t find any proven benefits. As a result, we took colostrum out of the formula. There was no sense in making our customers pay top dollar for an ingredient that had no scientific backing. There are quite a few studies, on the other hand, that show no anabolic value for colostrum. Here are just a few:

1.) In elite level athletes (17 female and 18 male field hockey players) a study by Hoffman et al published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism in 2002 (Volume 12, pages 461-469 entitled, “The Effect of Bovine Colostrum Supplementation on Exercise Performance in Elite Field Hockey Players”) found that supplementation with colostrum had no influence on endurance performance and was not found to improve body composition when compared to a whey protein concentrate control.2.) Nine male track athletes participated in a double blind, placebo trial where Colostrum supplementation was compared to supplementation with an equivalent amount of whey on serum IGF-1 (Intrinsic Growth Factor) levels over a period of 8 days. The results of the study were published by Mero et al in the Journal of Applied Physiology in 1997 (Volume 83, pages 1144-1151 entitled, “Effects of Bovine Colostrum Supplementation on Serum IGF-1, IgG, Hormone, and Saliva IgA During Training.”) After 8 days, the actual IGF-1 in blood serum was similar in the two groups and no significant difference in IGF-1 was found between whey supplementation and colostrum supplementation. In fact, baseline levels in the placebo group (whey) were higher than the ending values of IGF-1 in the colostrum group.3.) These same researchers looked at changes in insulin, testosterone, growth hormone, and cortisol levels in the nine track athletes over the same 8 day period. No significant differences in insulin, testosterone, growth hormone, or cortisol levels were observed among the groups. No significant differences in secretory Immunoglobulin A or serum Immunoglobulin G were observed. Jumping performance was also examined and no measurable differences were observed.

From previous studies, and fortified by the results of the above studies, we concluded that colostrum supplementation provides no better anabolic benefit to a human athlete than supplementation with a whey protein concentrate. Because these studies pointed out that supplementation with colostrum does not lead to the market hype increases in growth hormone, testosterone, immunoglobulins, or any anabolic hormones, we decided to remove colostrum from the ProPeptide and Pro MR formulas and save our future customers their hard earned money. We only use ingredients that are proven to work. We will not get carried away with unscientific marketing hype. Unless an ingredient has real, valid scientific studies that show its benefit to human beings, it is a waste of your money to consume it. That is why we won’t stoop to adding hyped up colostrum to our list of ingredients.