Colostrum Benefits For Digestive Health: A Deep-Dive

Introduction

At the time of writing this as we are getting close to the launch, we are surprised by how few know about colostrum in general, never mind about colostrum for gut health. The knowledge about this is lacking not only as a colostrum supplement, but as an essential part of the beginning of human life. Out of countless conversations we’ve had about colostrum throughout the development of Gutlinks, only mothers and doctors seem to know what colostrum is and how valuable it can be. Even still, only one or two people seem to have heard of colostrum as a supplement, and even those weren’t sure what is colostrum and its purpose.

So, let’s start with one of the major health areas that colostrum benefits, and why we started Gutlinks.

What is Colostrum?

Colostrum is the type of milk produced by mammals right after they give birth. This early milk is supercharged with nutrients and antibodies designed to give newborns a strong health boost, helping develop their gut microbiomes, immune systems and protecting them from infections.

It is now known that this first form of milk is beneficial not only to newborns, but also to adults. Colostrum’s benefits include helping to restore the gut barrier function, playing an important role in managing gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, and aiding with daily digestive discomfort, such as gas and bloating.

What is the Gut Barrier and Why is It Important for Digestive Health and Beyond?

The gut barrier is like a protective wall inside our digestive system, made up of intestinal cells, mucus, and immune components. It encompasses 80% of your immune system and serves as the primary defense against everything you breathe and consume from the external environment. Its main job is to let nutrients and water in, while keeping harmful things like bacteria and toxins out.

Exposure to pollution, chemicals, continuously high stress, and unhealthy diets can weaken this barrier. When it gets weakened or damaged, it can let harmful substances into our bloodstream, causing inflammation and contributing to various health problems, like digestive issues, autoimmune diseases, and widespread chronic (long-term) inflammation.

Knowing that ongoing low-grade inflammation is the precursor for many chronic diseases, keeping your gut barrier healthy is crucial not only for good digestion, but also for overall wellbeing.

In this article, the focus is on digestive health and managing related gut health concerns, but if you’re interested in learning about colostrum benefits for inflammation and immunity, you can read this article.

Colostrum Benefits for Digestive Health

1. Colostrum for Gut Permeability

Gut permeability is often referred to as "leaky gut", despite it not being an official scientific term. It is a condition where the intestinal lining becomes more permeable or leaky than what is considered normal, allowing undigested food particles, toxins, and bacteria to enter the bloodstream.

This is how this can happen: imagine a wall built of bricks tightly cemented together. No unwanted materials can get through this wall. However, over the years the wall gets worn out  by the weather (external environment), its increasing age and diminishing quality of its materials over time. If maintenance works are not done, the wall gets more and more worn out over time, developing gaps in between the bricks. Toxins and other compounds that should stay out, start flowing into what is the bloodstream, causing inflammation. Colostrum is the cement that glues the bricks back together, while also improving the quality of the bricks.

Apart from the modern way of living that may contribute to “leaky gut” due to high-pressure, high-stress, past-paced environments, athletes are another group that suffers from intestinal permeability. This occurs due to the stress of vigorous athletic training. The good news is that when bovine colostrum was used as a supplement during peak training for competition in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, “leaky gut” was completely healed from significantly elevated to completely healthy levels. The positive results were maintained post intervention (Halasa et al. 2017).

2. Bovine Colostrum for Gastrointestinal Disorders

Colostrum contains special compounds like immunoglobulins, growth factors, and antimicrobial peptides that are crucial for the support of the immune system and keeping the gut healthy.

• Immunoglobulins are proteins that act like soldiers, fighting off harmful bacteria and viruses. 

• Growth factors help repair and rebuild the gut lining, making it stronger and healthier. 

• Antimicrobial peptides work like natural antibiotics, killing harmful germs.

Together, these compounds can help manage various digestive issues by reducing inflammation, healing the gut lining, promoting mucosal healing, and preventing infections. This makes colostrum the perfect option for treating gastrointestinal problems caused by inflammation within the digestive tract. This includes conditions, such as irritable bowel disease, which entails Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

3. Colostrum Supplements for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

Inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, is a long-term condition that keeps coming back. It is not yet fully understood what causes it. As a result, the treatments we have aren't quite good enough. Current treatment options, such as anti-inflammatory drugs, focus on addressing problems with the immune system, which are often linked to changes in gut bacteria. These changes play a part in ongoing gut inflammation. Other lifestyle treatments like eating a well-balanced diet, living a healthy lifestyle, avoiding stress, and taking dietary supplements are recommended alongside medications. However, lifestyle advice tends to be basic and generic, leaving IBD sufferers on a long journey of exploration seeing what works for them.

Recently, colostrum supplementation for IBD treatment has come up on the horizon, but due to the novelty of the substance, most studies done to date have been in vitro, on animals or on healthy humans. However, promising results have been shown consistently, which now need to be replicated in large human trials. For example, it’s been shown that bovine colostrum can help rebuild the epithelial cells of the gut, this way contributing to lowering inflammation. Moreover, colostrum’s healing properties can be attributed to its ability to positively change immunity-regulating mechanisms (Bodammer et al. 2011).

Despite the current lack of larger randomised controlled trials in humans suffering from IBD, bovine colostrum is safe, making it a good, safe new option to try. As with all supplements, it is recommended to take a course for about three months before evaluating its effectiveness.

4. Colostrum Benefits for Diarrhoea and Stomach Bugs

Gastrointestinal infections are particularly common in children, who are still building their immune system, as well as in those who travel to exotic places. This is often due to poorer food hygiene and different microbial exposure, which can cause food poisoning.

A systematic review of 22 studies, involving 1427 individuals, showed that colostrum supplements are linked with reduced stool frequency, in other words - reduced diarrhoea, as well as improvements in abdominal pain (Hajihashemi et al. 2024).

Another study, a double-blind randomised controlled trial, explored the benefits of colostrum in children with acute diarrhoea. After 48h the colostrum group consisting of 80 children, had a significantly lower frequency of vomiting and diarrhoea, compared to the placebo group. Colostrum supplement was equally beneficial for the treatment of Rotavirus or E. coli infection (Barakat et al. 2020).

I, Gabi, the co-founder of Gutlinks, had the chance to test the effectiveness of Gutlinks for the prevention and treatment of food poisoning on a recent family trip to Vietnam. Knowing that there is an increased likelihood of catching a bug from all the street food, I was talking Gutlinks Colostrum for 1 month before the trip as well as throughout the holiday. Of course, this is anecdotal evidence and you can take what you like from it, but I was happy to find out that due to Gutlinks or not, I was one of three people who did not get food poisoning out of a group of 10 people. Also, when some of my family members caught a bug, a few doses of Gutlinks, alongside lots of liquids and good rest, seem to have shortened their food poisoning period compared to those family members, who chose alternative methods - a range of non-prescription gastrointestinal medications and Coca-Cola.

5. Bovine Colostrum for Acid Reflux

Colostrum’s ability to heal and recover extends to repairing the sensitive inner layers of the esophagus and stomach, having the potential to help with heartburn or acid reflux.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and acid reflux are common digestive conditions where stomach acid flows back into the esophagus, causing discomfort and potential damage to the esophageal lining.

Colostrum supplements can prevent Helicobacter and other pathogenic bacteria from attaching to specific fats. By potentially interfering with the attachment of H. pylori to the stomach lining, colostrum might help reduce the inflammation and damage caused by this bacterium, this way possibly reducing heartburn (Bitzan et al. 1998). However, more research is needed to confirm the effectiveness of colostrum specifically for heartburn relief.

In addition, some pre-clinical studies show that bovine colostrum can potentially reduce the gastrointestinal damage caused by pain killers, otherwise known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (Playford et al. 1999).

Moreover, a clinical trial isolated bovine lactoferrin was tested on 50 patients infected with H. pylori. The patients were split into two groups: one group received standard treatment (clarithromycin, omeprazole, amoxicillin, or metronidazole), while the other group received the same treatment plus lactoferrin. Adding lactoferrin significantly improved the success rate of eradicating H. pylori compared to the standard treatment alone (92% versus 68%), showing that lactoferrin can effectively help treat this infection (Fawzy et al. 2017). Since lactoferrin is vastly found in colostrum, it can be assumed that colostrum supplements could have similar healing effects.

6. Bovine Colostrum Benefits for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, is a disorder of the digestive tract that leads to symptoms such as abdominal cramps, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation. These symptoms can appear intermittently and may last for days, weeks, or even months. It's generally a lifelong condition that can be quite challenging and significantly affect daily life. Although there's no cure, changes in diet, gentle movement, medications, and stress management can usually help manage the symptoms. Because the exact causes of IBS are unclear, similarly to IBD, management takes a bit (or a lot) of experimentation to see what works for you. 

Having said this, IBS is closely linked to higher levels of inflammation in the body. Factors that contribute to IBS include abnormal gut movement, increased sensitivity in the gut, and mental health issues. Research suggests that the immune system in the gut lining may be overly active. A substance called endotoxin, produced by certain harmful bacteria, triggers inflammation by activating immune responses like cytokines. This inflammation can make the gut wall more "leaky," allowing more endotoxin to enter the bloodstream. People with IBS often have higher endotoxin levels, pointing to a hidden form of gut inflammation associated with the condition.

Since colostrum is known to heal the gut lining, heal “leaky gut”, and influence positive changes in immune responses, it is likely that colostrum may be highly beneficial for those with IBS. Also, colostrum’s ability to ease abdominal discomfort, which includes gas and bloating, could be another way how colostrum may be therapeutic for IBS.

7. Colostrum for Coeliac Disease

In celiac disease, gluten ingestion triggers an autoimmune response that damages the intestinal lining, leading to inflammation, flattening of the villi (villous atrophy), and overgrowth of crypts (crypt hyperplasia). Villi are tiny finger-like projections lining the small intestine that help absorb nutrients from food by increasing the surface area, while crypts are small pits or pockets at the base of the villi, where new cells are produced to replace old or damaged ones. Damaged villi and crypts reduces the surface area for nutrient absorption, causing malabsorption and related symptoms.

Again, since one of the issues that causes Coeliac disease symptoms is damaged gut lining, colostrum supplements may be a safe option to try if you or someone you know is seeking alternative treatment options, powered by nature.

Conclusion

Colostrum, the nutrient-rich first milk produced by mammals, offers a range of benefits for digestive health, extending far beyond its initial role in supporting newborns. Research is promising regarding colostrum for gut health and shows that bovine colostrum can significantly improve gut permeability  or “leaky gut”, effectively manage various gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, and help with common digestive discomfort like gas and bloating.

Its bioactive compounds, including immunoglobulins, growth factors, and antimicrobial peptides, have the power to enhance immune response and promote gut healing. These properties make a colostrum supplement a valuable therapeutic option for various GI conditions, including the management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and even coeliac disease.

Although large human trials in some of these areas are still to come, colostrum powder supplement does not have many contraindications or risks, and is therefore safe to try for most that are looking for a natural alternative to traditional advice.

If you have any preexisting health conditions or if you are taking medications, consult with a healthcare provider before starting a colostrum supplement or any other supplements.

References

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