Colostrum is nature's perfect first food. It is the pre-milk substance produced from the mother’s breasts of all mammals during the first 24 hours of lactation. From 24-48 hours this is called transitional milk. After 48 hours milk is defined. Colostrum supplies immune and growth factors and a perfect combination of vitamins and minerals to insure the health, vitality and growth of the newborn.

Medical Research has shown that the most important immune and growth factors for humans can be provided from bovine colostrum. It is biologically transferable to all mammals including man and is much higher in immune factors than human mother's colostrum.

Laboratory analyses of both immune and growth factors from bovine colostrum indicate that they are identical to those found in human colostrum except for the fact that the levels of these factors are significantly higher in the bovine version. Bovine colostrum is actually 40 times richer in immune factors like IgF-1, IgG, and TgF A and B than human colostrum. For example, human colostrum contains 2% of IgG (immuno-globulin G) while cow colostrum contains 86% of IgG, the most important of the immuno-globulins found in the body.

Doctors also discovered that cows' colostrum contains special glycoproteins that are extremely effective at protecting the immune and growth factors in colostrum from destruction by adult human digestive enzymes.

The past 20 years has witnessed the publication of over 2000 research papers strongly supportive of both colostrum and its numerous components. Human trials in the 1990’s reported that IgF-1 stimulates glucose utilization. It can help balance blood sugars when taken with meals. Supplementation with colostrum has also shown the ability to decrease insulin needs in type 2 diabetes. Inadequate levels of IgF-1 are associated with an increased incidence of type 2 diabetes and difficulty in losing weight despite a proper nutritional intake and adequate exercise. Additionally, IgF-1 and GH in colostrum helps to normalize LDL-cholesterol while increasing HDL-cholesterol concentrations (the good cholesterol).

What is IgF-1?

Kotaro Yoshimura M.D.
IgF-1: insulin-like growth factor-1; a growth factor with a configuration which closely resembles insulin, is produced in the liver and other tissues (skeletal muscles) by growth hormone. Many of the actions of the growth hormone (GH) are through IgF-1. While GH has a direct action in metabolizing fat, and glucose tolerance by anti-insulin action, IgF-1 does not have such actions. On the other hand, IgF-1 has a similar action to insulin. Insulin connects to insulin receptors on the cell membrane, and IgF-1 connects to IgF receptor type 1, and a signal is transmitted into a cell. These two kinds of receptors form a hybrid in diabetic patients, and this is one of the reasons for insulin resistance, but IgF- 1 connects strongly with this hybrid receptor, and its main benefit is that it can show insulin-like action in diabetic patients, in which insulin cannot work well.

There have been many documents which compared insulin to IgF-1 and reviewed them for protein metabolism, glucose transport, and glycogen and triglyceride compositions. IgF-1R (type 1 IGF receptor) is known as a receptor of IgF-1, and binds to IgF-1 or IgF-2 (500 times higher affinity than that of insulin).

According to research IgF-1 stimulates glucose transport in skeletal muscle. It delays the clinical onset of diabetes, reduces the occurrence of beta cell destruction, and reduces the likelihood of the occurrence of clinical diabetes when administered to those at risk of developing type I diabetes. Combining the IgF-1 with IgF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) has been found to be even more effective. Diabetic autonomic neuropathy, a condition found in diabetics in which nerve cells of the autonomic nervous system die, may be ameliorated by IgF-1, which has a neuroprotective effect that prevents damage to neurons from the high glucose levels in the blood that are associated with poorly controlled diabetes.

Based on the observation that insulinlike growth factor 1 (IgF-1) can stimulate glucose utilization in nondiabetic subjects and that the action of the IgF-1 receptor is normal in the skeletal muscle of patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), it seems possible that IgF-1 might provide an effective acute treatment for the hyperglycemia of NIDDM.