Hey if it's good enough for baby it's probably good enough for you I'm Thomas DeLauer on
behalf of Antler Farms, and today I want to give you the 411 on colostrum.
So, colostrum is technically the form of milk that is produced right after a baby is born,
but in reality it's not even really a milk, it's more of kind of a clearish yellow liquid
that again is produced right after a baby is born.
So, the whole purpose of colostrum is to deliver a quick shot of immune support to an infant.
What we found over the last couple of decades is that colostrum is not so much nutritional
as it is truly just a powerhouse of immune support and also specific nutrients that are
needed to allow tissues to grow, especially in an infant's digestive tract.
So, the main goal of colostrum is to reinforce an infant's immune system, specifically in
the upper respiratory tract.
So, when you look at an infant when they're born a lot of times their respiratory system
isn't even fully complete, that's why everyone has to be very, very careful with an infant
right when they're born.
They need as much immune support as possible, and that's why nature has given us colostrum.
It gives us the shot of the immunoglobulin A that we need as infant to make sure that
our upper respiratory tract is nice and protected from all the craziness of the world.
Now, additionally there's also these tissue and growth factors that are included in colostrum
that help an infant grow to be big and strong.
But it's not doing this by giving it specific nutrients and calories, it's doing this by
having specific insulin like growth factors and other tissue regenerating compounds that
allow a baby to utilize nutrients better, but more importantly allow a baby to develop
its digestive system, and develop the smooth muscle tissue that is required to ultimately
digest the milk that it's going to consume in the days to come.
So when we look at colostrum it's rich in a few things, but specifically what is called
IgA.
IgA stands for Immunoglobulin A, and it's a specific part of the immune system that
like I mentioned before is responsible for respiratory infections.
But it's not just upper respiratory infections, it's also responsible for all kinds of acute
infections, the things that we want to of course be aware of as an infant, but also
be aware of as adults too.
If you've ever gotten a cold, or you've ever gotten strep throat, or anything like that.
Your IgA response is what likely comes in to save the day.
Now additionally, colostrum also has something known as Lactoferrin in it.
Now I'm partial to Lactoferrin, I love the stuff because I think Lactoferrin has some
very, very powerful properties when it comes down to detoxing the body, but also allowing
the body to become a powerhouse when it comes down to immune system strength, but also mineral
utilization, and I'll explain more about Lactoferrin in just a moment.
Additionally we have an increase in what are called Leukocytes and Macrophages.
This is our immune system as a whole.
So, in addition to the Immunoglobulin A we also have an overall increase in the Macrophages,
the ability for the body to fight infection as a whole, not just in one Immunoglobulin
category.
Now when it comes down to today's utilization of colostrum for an adult population most
of it is derived from bovine colostrum, which means that the colostrum is collected from
a cow shortly after calving.
And again, right now colostrum is mainly used as a supplement to improve our immune response,
but you might be thinking, "Well, I don't get sick very often, I don't really need an
immune support."
Well the reality is if you're working out or you're just trying to adopt a healthy lifestyle
you do need the immune support, because it's going to help you recover quite a bit better.
So let's dive in and talk about the Lactoferrin side of things for a second.
So Lactoferrin just like the name implies responds with iron in the body.
It helps the body utilize iron.
So, even if you're someone that is borderline anemic or anemic the chances of you truly
having a deficiency in iron are actually quite low, it's more likely that your body isn't
utilizing the iron better.
And when we have a situation where Lactoferrin is in place our body can metabolize and utilize
that iron better.
You see, Lactoferrin binds or keyltes to excess iron in the body.
So, I want you to visualize something for a second.
If you were to leave some iron out in the elements what would happen?
It would start to rust, right?
It would oxidize.
Well literally iron is the same mineral and it does that inside our bodies if we have
too much as soon as it's exposed to oxygen, so it causes free radical damage.
So when we have Lactoferrin the mix it binds to the iron, allows our body to use the iron
so it's not just aimlessly floating around through the bloodstream causing free radical
damage.
This alone supports the immune system because now the body isn't having to utilize its resources
to fight free radicals all the time, it's able to do what it needs to do to make you
a healthy person.
Now the other really cool thing that colostrum is starting to show some promise in is activating
something known as Gc protein-derived macrophage-activating factor.
What that stands for is the big red button that turns on your immune system when necessary.
So because it's a macrophage-activating factor that means it's a white blood cell activating
kill switch.
So what that means is you have this basically this big red button that your body needs to
press if you ever have the need to activate your immune system fast.
By stimulating this process you make it so your body is able to flip that switch really
quick whenever necessary, therefore heightening your immune system without actually making
you draw from your immune system all the time.
It makes you ready to flip that switch and fight whatever illness comes your way.
Now to add to this, there was a recent study where researchers took a look at colostrum
and how it affected the immune system.
So they looked at 152 participants and they found those that consumed the colostrum had
a 44% reduction of upper respiratory infections.
So, what that simply means is whenever they were taking colostrum they were less likely
to acquire the common cold, or an upper respiratory infection, or the flu, or strep, or a staph
infection, or anything like that.
Now again, if you're someone that exercises a lot you know that it's easier to get a cold,
and it's easier to get the flu 'cause you're compromising your immune system.
So this all has to do with the IgA, but also this macrophage-activating factor.
So it's all fine and dandy to look at it from the immune system side, but what about from
the body side?
What about from the physical side?
What about the performance side?
Well there's a study that was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology that took
a look at participants that consumed 20 grams of colostrum every day for a few weeks, and
what they found is that those that did consume the colostrum ended up having a 17% increase
in what is called insulin-like growth factor, IGF.
They also had a massive increase in their IgA production, a 33% increase.
So they had two things happen, they were able to produce more muscle because they had more
IGF, but at the same time they were able to improve their immune system directly with
the IgA response by 33%.
More muscle, better immune system all while training.
But if that's not enough for you here's another study.
This one was published in the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, and it
took a look at participants that were avid cyclists.
So it took a look at 42 cyclists and it divided them into a few groups.
One group consumed whey protein only at 60 grams per day.
Another group consumed colostrum only at 60 grams per day.
And another group consumed whey and colostrum, 40 grams of whey and 20 grams of colostrum.
And what they wanted to measure was who had the bigger performance boost.
So what they found at the end of eight weeks was the group that consumed only the colostrum
had an improvement of 132 seconds on a two hour ride.
Then the next group that was the whey and the colostrum group had an improvement of
158 seconds on a two hour ride.
Compare that to the whey protein only group that only had a 37 second improvement.
So obviously right then and there we see that when colostrum is added into the mix we get
an improvement in our overall performance.
This could be because of the IGF or it simply could be because the immune response, allowing
our body to recover faster even at the smallest possible scale when we're working out.
So when it comes down to getting colostrum and making sure that you're making the right
moves to enhance your body's immune system and your ability to grow muscle, and stay
lean you're going to want to make sure that you check out Antler Farms Bovine Colostrum.
Directly sourced from New Zealand grass fed beef, so you're not dealing with all the nonsense,
all the grain, and all the soy that's in most bovine situations.
So as always make sure you're keeping it locked in here with Antler Farms and I will see you
in the next video.