Pleasant Stone Farm Clinical Reports

Supplements of colostrum from cows may counter the drop in immune function following exercise, says a new study from Wales.

Four weeks of supplementation with bovine colostrum reversed the decreases in the function of immune cells that accompanied intense exercise, according to findings published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

“The main findings of the present study are that 4 weeks of bovine COL supplementation improved the speed of recovery of neutrophil function after exercise-induced immunodepression and reduced exercise-induced alterations in salivary lysozyme concentration and secretion rate,” wrote Glen Davison and Bethany Diment from the Department of Sport and Exercise Science, Aberystwyth University.

“This is the first study to demonstrate that COL supplementation enhances these innate immune parameters in the recovery period after prolonged endurance exercise that causes acute immunodepression.”

Colostrum is obtained from the first milk produced by a mammal after giving birth. It is considered to be a special boost to health thanks to its high level of immune globulin (IgG), a substance that helps build up the immune system of a newborn mammal.

The colostrum used in this study was provided by Neovite UK, which sources the ingredient from Fonterra, a major supplier of colostrum.

Study details

Davison and Diment recruited 12 healthy, active men and randomly assigned them to receive either placebo or a daily bovine colostrum supplement for four weeks. After this time, all the participants cycled for two hours at 64 percent of their maximal oxygen uptake.

Results showed that there were no differences between the groups for levels of circulating immune cells (neutrophils), and the ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes. However, significant differences were observed between the groups for the function of the neutrophils, and for levels of lysozymes in the saliva. Lysozymes are enzymes that are part of the immune system and a natural form of protection against a range of pathogenic bacteria.

“Bovine colostrum supplementation either speeded the recovery (neutrophil function) or prevented the decrease (salivary lysozyme) in these measures of innate immunity,” stated the researchers.

Commenting on the potential mechanism, the Aberystwyth researchers noted that previous findings only provide speculative evidence and that “further research is required to determine whether this is the mechanism by which oral supplementation with bovine colostrum enhances innate immunity after physical stress in human subjects.

“It is also worthy of note that, in the present study, we only assessed one aspect of neutrophil function. In order to determine the mechanisms of action, future studies should also examine other aspects of neutrophil function, such as chemotactic, phagocytic and oxidative burst responses for example,” they added.

Source: British Journal of Nutrition
Volume 103, Pages 1425–1432 doi:10.1017/S0007114509993503
“Bovine colostrum supplementation attenuates the decrease of salivary lysozyme and enhances the recovery of neutrophil function after prolonged exercise”
Authors: G. Davison, B.C. Diment

A low-risk lifestyle and diet will lead to less instances of hypertension in women, and cost less than pharma remedies, according to a study published in the Journal of American Nutrition (JAMA).

The 20-year cohort study followed more than 83,000 healthy nurses from a pool of about 116,000 who filled out questionnaires every two years and which found significant reductions in self-reported hypertension occurred better when diets and lifestyles were pursued.

Hypertension is thought to be the biggest contributor to preventable death in the US among women.

The researchers found only 37 per cent of women with hypertension had controlled blood pressure compared to 57 per cent taking pharmaceutical treatments.

“Primary prevention of hypertension, therefore, would have major positive public health ramifications,” the researchers wrote.

Factors leading to hypertension included obesity; alcohol and tobacco use and dietary factors such as low folic acid intake.

Low-risk factors for hypertension were a Body mass Index (BMI) of less than 25; an average of 30 minutes exercise per day; a good diet as measured by the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH); alcohol intake of less than 10g per day; use of nonnarcotic analgesics once per day; and intake of at least 400ug per day of folic acid per day.

Over the 20 year period, 12,319 hypertension cases were detected among the population of 27 to 44-year-old nurses – or approximately 15 per cent of the population.

Younger nurses who took more than 1000ug/d of folic acid were found to have 46 per cent less chance of developing hypertension, 18 per cent for older nurses.

Among women who had negligible dietary intake of folic acid in their regular diets, supplementation was shown to significantly reduce hypertension risk.