It is ‘liquid gold’ for newborns. But can it help your health?

New YorkColostrum, the milky substance produced by mothers in the first days after giving birth, provides antibodies, antimicrobial proteins and other vital nutrients to newborns throughout the mammalian world.

For infants in the first, critical days of life, “it’s liquid gold,” said Jennifer Smilowitz, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies the science of breastfeeding.

Currently, several companies are selling colostrum from cows as a supplement for humans, claiming that it helps regulate the immune system, improve digestive health, support skin regeneration, and accelerate recovery after exercise. Can help with, and much more.

Here’s what experts say about those claims.

Most of the research done so far on bovine colostrum, which can be taken as a pill, powder, liquid, or via enema, has focused on how it affects gut health.

In a clinical trial of 160 children suffering from frequent diarrhea, those who took bovine colostrum supplements had less diarrhea or vomiting after two days than those who took a placebo.

It may also ease stomach pain in people with colitis and reduce diarrhea in adults with HIV or AIDS and children with autism.

Experts say it’s not entirely clear how the supplement might help maintain the integrity of the gastrointestinal system and make the stomach less liquid, which could reduce digestive problems in some people.

In newborn mammals, high levels of colostrum antibodies help prevent infection and reduce abdominal inflammation, but there is no evidence that bovine colostrum can work the same way in adults.

In another paper, researchers found in a clinical trial with 445 participants that bovine colostrum supplements may reduce the risk of upper respiratory tract infections.

It may also support the regeneration of mucous membranes and provide antibodies to certain immune cells that kill other cells infected with the virus.

Although human colostrum provides additional protection to the immune system in newborns, adults do not need it and it carries risks, especially if it elicits a certain immune response and prevents the body from fighting bacteria. .

To make the supplement, colostrum is obtained from cows three days after giving birth and is then frozen, pasteurized, and ground into a powder.

However, the heat used in sterilization can “destroy some of the goodness present in the product”, meaning that if bovine colostrum contains beneficial ingredients, it may not end up in the supplement.