You’ve probably heard that, on average, breast-fed babies are healthier, and even smarter, than babies who aren’t breast-fed.[1]
But do you know why?
There are lots of reasons – but one of the big ones is colostrum, the so-called “first milk” that is produced by the mother for a few days after giving birth. As we all know, the first days of an infant’s life are crucial, and anything that happens during this period has the potential to set the stage for lifelong health outcomes.
In light of that, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that colostrum contains special protective factors that help stabilize the baby, and prime it for good health in both the short and long term.[2] That’s why colostrum is prized as an especially nutritive food (or supplement).
Immune Revival! Soul Performance Colostrum and Lactoferrin
However, babies aren’t the only ones who can benefit from colostrum. It’s increasingly taken as a supplement by adults as well. Add in the powerful protein molecule lactoferrin, and you have an incredibly powerful — yet simple — immunity supplement. And that’s exactly what we get from Soul Performance Nutrition Nova Immune Revival.
We’ll explain why below, but first, check The PricePlow news and deals:
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Soul Performance Nova Immune Revival Ingredients
In a single 4-capsule serving of Nova Immune Revival from Soul Performance Nutrition, you get the following:
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Bioactive Colostrum (from Bovine (Bos taurus) (min 30% Immunoglobulin G)(as ColostrumOne Ultra Skin) – 1,000 mg
So, now that we have a little background on colostrum, let’s talk about the specific protective factors it contains.
First, colostrum is directly anti-microbial, thanks to the fact that it contains antibodies. Remember, ordinarily your body needs to make the antibodies it requires for an immune response. Taking colostrum is basically supplementing antibodies, which is a pretty cool and unusual benefit.
The primary antibody of bovine colostrum is immunoglobulin G,[3] which accounts for 75% of circulating antibodies in human beings.[4]
Gastrointestinal health
Colostrum contains factors that are great for improving gut health, particularly by reinforcing the integrity of the gut lining (i.e., helping prevent leaky gut).
We actually have a human study that used 500 milligrams of bovine colostrum two times per day , which is the same dose (1,000 mg) that you’ll get from a single serving of Nova Immune Revival!
In this study, 16 healthy and actively competing mixed martial arts fighters, aged 20 to 43, received either colostrum or a placebo for 20 days. Intense exercise is known to increase gut permeability by compromising the integrity of the gut lining, and the researchers wanted to see whether colostrum could prevent this.
To this end, the study authors tracked zonulin levels of the volunteers. The reason this matters is that zonulin is known to increase gut permeability, so lower levels are better.[5]
By the end of the study period, the colostrum group’s zonulin stool concentrations were lower than the placebo group’s, and the difference was statistically significant![5]
According to a 2021 research review, bovine colostrum was shown to positively affect markers of immune health and function in athletes. More specifically, it seems to help athletes maintain immune function and gut lining integrity, both of which can be negatively affected by intense training.[6]
Colostrum also contains high amounts of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and other growth factors, which could potentially aid in muscle protein synthesis during recovery from exercise.[6]
However, the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) has warned against the consumption of colostrum by drug-tested athletes on the grounds that increasing IGF-1 above baseline may produce suspicious, or even disqualifying, test results. Still, WADA stopped short of actually banning colostrum itself.[6] Obviously, if you’re an athlete who’s not drug tested, this isn’t an issue for you at all.
Endurance training is infamously hard on the immune system, so it’s cool to know that a 12-week study in runners showed a 79% increase in circulating immunoglobulin A (IgA), thanks to bovine colostrum supplementation.[7] However, this study was very small and used a much larger dose of colostrum. Further research is definitely needed.
Another study in cyclists found that 10 grams of colostrum per day, taken for 5 weeks, significantly attenuated the reduction in immune function that’s typically seen after intense training.[8]
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Lactoferrin – 300 mg
Have you heard of the miracle molecule?
Before you scoff, that seemingly hyperbolic description isn’t ours. We actually transcribed it, verbatim, from the title of a peer-reviewed article published in 2022 by the journal Molecules summarizing the many miraculous benefits of lactoferrin.
The “Secret Weapon” of Mother’s Milk
Lactoferrin is a globular glycoprotein that’s naturally present in the whey protein fraction of most mammals’ milk – including humans and cows.[9] Our first major clue to lactoferrin’s importance is its naturally high concentration in colostrum. And, as it turns out, lactoferrin is one of the most important substances in colostrum.[2] Mature milk refers to the milk produced by the mother after the first few days following birth. While it contains some lactoferrin, colostrum contains 7 times as much as mature milk does![10]
More Than A Protein
Of course, whenever we talk about proteins, people’s minds jump instantly to a macronutrient-based perspective that emphasizes protein’s role in building muscle. This is understandable – the supplement industry (including yours truly) basically never shuts up about protein’s importance as a building block for new cells and tissues.
However, as we’ve been discussing a lot in recent PricePlow Blog articles, not all proteins are created equal. Many proteins have important informational properties and are crucial for optimal health because of how they modulate genetic or hormonal expression.
Lactoferrin definitely falls into this category. It’s not just a protein, but both contains and activates lots of important informational factors in the human body.
Lactoferrin’s Immunomodulatory Functions
Perhaps the most important informational pathway in the human body is the immune system. And when it comes to optimizing immunity, lactoferrin plays several important roles.
Anti-bacterial – binds to gram-negative lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) are important components in the cellular membranes of gram-negative bacteria, a category that includes heavy-hitter pathogens like E. coli. While we typically associate E. coli with acute infection, dysregulation of the microbiome can lead to chronic LPS burden, which is unfortunate since LPS is profoundly inflammatory. The higher your burden of these bad bacteria, then, the more systemic inflammation you’re liable to experience.[11]
Because LPS is produced by bacteria internal to the human body, it is sometimes referred to as endotoxin.[12]
Due to the far-reaching impact that chronic inflammation has on the body, endotoxic burden can be a serious health detriment. The routine inflammatory cascades caused by LPS production are a major contributor to age-related decline. Individual tolerance for endotoxin generally decreases as we age,[13] and a person’s overall LPS burden has been shown to correlate inversely with life expectancy and quality of life.[14] Perhaps unsurprisingly, low LPS levels are consistently found in centenarians, and high LPS levels are associated with heart attacks.[14]
So, with all of that in mind, it’s exciting to learn that lactoferrin can bind to LPS.[15]
This has two important effects:
Bacterial permeabilizing agent
First, it is a direct antimicrobial mechanism. Lactoferrin’s interactions with LPS as part of the cellular membrane have a permeabilizing effect on the bacterium, meaning that antibody access to antigen binding sites is enhanced. This basically makes antibodies more effective, thus enhancing the overall immune response to the pathogen.[15]
Decreases LPS-induced inflammation
Second, lactoferrin’s ability to bind free LPS – meaning LPS that is no longer attached to a bacterium (usually because the bacterium is dead) – decreases the inflammatory response to LPS.[15]
Lactoferrin’s remarkable ability to mitigate the damage of LPS-induced inflammation was shown clearly in a pig study. We specifically mention that it was done in pigs because their biology is similar in some key respects to that of humans.[16]
In this study, piglets were fed either lactoferrin or bovine serum albumin (BSA) prior to being administered intravenous E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The dose of LPS was big enough to kill, but while 74% of the BSA pigs succumbed to toxic shock, only 17% of the lactoferrin pigs died.[17]
Sequesters iron from pathogens for bacteriostatic effect – nutritional immunity
We all know that iron is an essential nutrient for humans, which is why the FDA has set a recommended range for daily iron intake.
Pathogenic bacteria need plenty of iron too, as iron is an important cofactor in key bacterial processes like respiration, DNA replication, electron transport, peroxide reduction, stress response, and cell division.[18] Without enough iron to carry these processes out, bacterial pathogens either die or fail to reproduce, effectively ending the infection and its threat to the health of the host organism.
This brings us to one of lactoferrin’s most intriguing mechanisms of action, which is to sequester iron away from pathogenic bacteria. In essence, the host organism uses special glycoproteins like transferrin and lactoferrin to bind iron precisely in order to starve invading organisms— a process called nutritional immunity.[18,19]
Among the iron-chelating immune factors, lactoferrin is best for this purpose because of its ability to retain iron at a low pH.[18]
Of course, the evolutionary arms race never stops – iron is so important for bacterial reproduction that certain species have actually evolved to assimilate lactoferrin in order to utilize the iron bound to the molecule.[18]
Improves iron balance
So, given that lactoferrin binds iron, do we need to worry about it causing iron deficiency? The answer appears to be no. Lactoferrin basically just makes iron work better, and can actually improve iron absorption at the same time that it protects against iron excess.
For example, a recent study in children found that lactoferrin is an effective treatment for anemia, thanks to its ability to help iron work better in the body. The authors specifically mention that it’s actually a safer treatment than supplemental iron, since extra iron has a much greater potential to cause negative side effects via iron overload.[20]
Anti-viral
Besides being anti-bacterial, lactoferrin has been shown to possess anti-viral properties as well – both by inhibiting viral replication and by blocking viral receptor sites in human cells (remember, viruses reproduce by essentially hijacking human cells).[21,22]
Viruses against which lactoferrin has documented anti-viral activity include, but are not limited to, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus, human immunodeficiency virus, human hepatitis C and hepatitis B viruses, rotavirus, and adenovirus.[21,22] Lactoferrin inhibits each virus by a different mechanism of action, so a full discussion of how this takes place is beyond the scope of this article.
Notably, lactoferrin also seems to have immunological activity against COVID-19, and its anti-inflammatory properties have been shown to help control the dreaded cytokine storm associated with severe cases.[23]
Conclusion: A simple yet novel immunity supplement
Hippocrates famously said that all disease begins in the gut. After reading the literature on colostrum, it’s easy to see what he meant. There’s a near-perfect synergy between colostrum’s ability to improve the integrity of the gut barrier, enhance immune response, inhibit microbial replication, and also tamp down on inflammation.
Soul Performance Nutrition Nova Immune Renewal – Deals and Price Drop Alerts
Get Price Alerts
No spam, no scams.
Disclosure: PricePlow relies on pricing from stores with which we have a business relationship. We work hard to keep pricing current, but you may find a better offer.
Posts are sponsored in part by the retailers and/or brands listed on this page.
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