Research Shows Colostrum Is Effective Against Food And Water-borne PathogensThat’s Good News For The 30 Million Americans Who Get Food Poisoning Every Year!
Even in the U.S., where sanitation and food inspection is fairly thorough, food poisoning is quite widespread (see other articles in this issue). In other parts of the world, food and water-borne bacteria are even more common, hence the well-known terms “travelers’ disease” or “Montezuma’s revenge”. Now officials are also becoming concerned about the safety of the large amounts of food imported into the U.S., especially during the winter months. Although some of the food that comes into the country is inspected, there are simply not enough inspectors to deal with the volume.
Sloppy food preparation can aggravate the problem. Cooks, whether in a restaurant or at home, are often not very knowledgeable about the correct way to prepare and cook food so that it is as safe as possible in terms of bacterial infestation.
When these food-borne bacteria attack us, they must first attach to our intestinal tissue. That is the first stage of the process of infection.
Recent clinical studies show clearly that colostrum helps prevent infection in two ways — first by inhibiting this intestinal attachment, and second, by killing the bacteria themselves. Colostrum has been proven to destroy many different bacteria, including Campylobacter, E.Coli, Helicobacter pylori, Listeria, Streptoccocus (5 different varieties) Staphlococcus and Salmonella.
Previous studies have also shown colostrum’s antibiotic effectiveness. In 1978, the Journal of Pediatrics reported that research done by Drs. Ho and Lawton showed that Leukocytes in colostrum were effective against E Coli and the yeast Candida Albicans. In 1983 The Lancet published a study showing the prevention of Rotavirus infection by bovine colostrum. Rotavirus is the leading infectious killer in third world countries with poor sanitation and contaminated water supplies. It is spreading rapidly to industrialized nations, thanks to large-scale immigration and inexpensive world travel and is the leading cause of diarrhea world-wide.
Two other leading diarrheal killers are the infectious clostridium bacteria and shigellosis. In 1987, studies reported in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology showed colostrum’s effectiveness in killing clostridium, while trials performed by a group of doctors at Fort Deitric, MD, the US Army’s prestigious infectious disease research facility, showed colostrum’s effectiveness against Shigellosis.
The primary reason for conducting this research was to determine the effectiveness of colostrum in combating infections for those traveling abroad. This was tailored particularly toward the prevention and healing of diahrreal diseases in US troops in third world countries — situations where the greatest threat to our soldiers’ health is intestinal disease.
The researchers specifically recommended that oral administration of bovine colostrum protects against these bacterial scourges and can be useful in preventing infection.
So, whether you like to travel or you just like to eat — always have some colostrum handy!
