Helps heal leaky gut
Colostrum, one of the main ingredients in our leaky gut protocol, is truly a miraculous substance. Colostrum is the first milk that is produced by all mammals just before giving birth. Compared with milk that is produced later, colostrum contains a higher concentration of proteins, growth factors, and antibodies. When newborn babies drink colostrum, it stimulates development of the gastrointestinal lining, begins to establish a healthy complement of microorganisms in the gut, and provides passive immunity to protect against disease.
Interestingly, the components in colostrum from cows (bovine colostrum) are bioidentical to those in colostrum from humans and provide therapeutic effects for patients of all ages and with a variety of chronic conditions. One of the main reasons colostrum is such an effective therapy is because of its ability to help heal a leaky gut.
Three important physiological
changes that accompany a Leaky
Gut
First, the intestines become permeable to substances that should not normally be passed into circulation. This is because the mucosal lining and cells of the intestinal tract are damaged and inflamed.
Second, there is often an imbalance of healthy and pathogenic bacteria and yeast that can further promote damage.
Third, the immune system goes into overdrive, producing antibodies and other chemical messengers that create chronic inflammation and even autoimmune disease. It isn’t clear which of these changes occurs first, but amazingly, colostrum is able to address and correct all 3 of these physiological imbalances.
The microbiome is one of the most exciting discoveries of 21st century biomedicine. The microbiome is the ecological community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms that literally share our body space–the mass of trillions of microbes that live on and in your body. Most of them are in your large intestine, but they thrive in your mouth, on your skin, and even in your bloodstream. The human gut contains on average: 40,000 bacterial species, 9 million unique bacterial genes and 100 trillion microbial cells. These hundred trillion microbes render us a walking, breathing ecosystem–more microbe than man.
Why such interest in the microbiome? Because the microbes we cohabit with, particularly those of the gut, help regulate human health and wellbeing, and even influence the brain, neurological function, and behavior. New research shows that beneficial bacteria in our microbiome may help us fight infection anywhere in the body. In fact, gut microbes help our bodies develop immune cells in the spleen and bone marrow.
And that brings us to colostrum: Life’s first food for the developing microbiome in all mammals, our earliest and most potent influence on gut health and bacterial composition. Colostrum provides a cornucopia of nutrients, immunoglobulins, passive antibodies, and signaling peptides that Mother Nature has perfectly honed to protect the newborn infant from infection, and to help train and shape the emerging immune system so it can handle its environment. Ingesting colostrum establishes beneficial bacteria in the neonate’s digestive tract.
“Research shows that colostrum can restore a leaky gut lining to normal permeability levels, and reduce movement of toxins and gut microbes into the bloodstream.”