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Colostrum, transfer factor and your immune system

What is colostrum, what is transfer factor and how do they benefit your immune system?

As you move along in life, you bump into various bacteria, germs, viruses and fungus particles.

You catch a cold usually because some virus or germ has entered your system and your body was unable to get rid of the germ before it multiplied and gave you clogged sinuses, sniffles and a runny nose.

If your immune system is functionning well, that bacteria may get inside your body but your immune system attacks the bug before it can multiply.

Antibodies manufactured by your immune system

The first time one of those bugs enters your body, they can cause you to get sick. But your immune system is working hard to manufacturer 'anti-germs' (also called 'antibodies') which attack the bugs. It takes your immune system quite a while to do this. In some cases it may take up to 10 to 14 days to manufacture the new antibodies. Your temperature may already be high because of the infection.

As the antibodies start to destroy the bugs, your temperature will head lower. Do not stop there - this is the primary mistake of most antibiotic administration. People quit too soon - all the bugs are not yet killed. If the antibiotic is stopped at this point, the bugs which are not yet killed are now not likely to be killed by the same antibiotic and you need a new antibiotic. There is such a constant demand for new antibiotics that every drug company wants to get on this gravy train.

Stopping the antibiotic too soon will probably leave some of the bugs still alive, and they are now resistant to the antibiotic - so the same antibiotic won't work next time.

Once your immune system has created a very specific 'antibody' just for this one bug, you then have at least a few of those 'anti-germs' in your body for the rest of your life. Your body is capable of recognizing an incredible 100,000,000 different types of bugs. The electron microscope picture to the right is a macrophage. The macrophage is a 'general purpose' antibody - it eats any type of bug. There are also 'specific' antibodies, which attack only one kind of bug.

The next time that same bug (more technically called an 'antigen') enters your body, those anti-germs (antibodies) which were created the first time, are ready to attack instantly. You don't have to wait for the body to start manufacturing those antibodies. Some of those antibodies start attacking the invading bugs immediately while the body then starts making more. You might not need more if the first defense was enough to kill the invading bugs.

It's important to understand that your immune system does NOT recognize toxic metals in your body. Your immune system does not handle such problems - it only handles 'bugs', organic entities.

Your immune system does NOT handle toxic lead or mercury in your body. That is another job - for heavy metals detoxification, not for a stronger immune system. However, toxic metals such as toxic lead, can cause a tremendous increase in the number of free radicals in your body and they can, in turn, cause cancer, heart disease and other diseases. Once the toxic metal causes cancer, then the cancer is subject to control by the immune system.

Ideally, it's best not to let invading bugs enter your body. The next step, once you have allowed those bugs to enter, is to get rid of them. Your immune system is your first line of defense.

Your immune system goes after 'organic' things - mostly alive, like germs, but it also goes after protein substances which are not alive. While viruses are not alive, your immune system should be able to handle any of them. The same goes with parasites and fungus problems. You will find that the traditional medical paradigm almost completely ignores the immune system - the thinking is that the only solution for a sore throat is an antibiotic.

An army of antibodies

After several years, you can see that you would have a whole army of antibodies, each one different from the other, each one having been used at least once in your body to handle a particular invading bug.

One would think that the older you get, the better your immune system becomes. After all, your immune system is gradually accumulating all sorts of new antibodies so that by the time you are old, your immune system would be ready to attack almost any bug that ever existed.

However, the fact is that as people get older, their immune system is often also going downhill. As scientists studied this problem, they found that one particular part of the immune system seemed to suffer the most as we age.

It is the mechanism through which the body RECOGNIZES an invading bug and matches that bug with what antibodies are already present in the body ready to fight to defend the body. The watchdog is constantly looking for invading bugs. Sometimes that watchdog doesn't recognize a bug as being the same as a previously-encountered bug.

If bug 'X' first attacked Nancy when she was 8 years old, Nancy developed an antibody for bug 'X'. Then, when Nancy was 22 years old, and that same bug 'X' came along, her immune system recognized the bug instantly and sent in the 'X' troops to fight. This was a short fight - Nancy never even knew that she had some invading bug inside her body. It was eliminated quickly.

Nancy's body starts making antibodies for Bug 'X2'. That would be fine, because the mechanism for making antibodies is still working properly and the body will actually make new antibodies for bug 'X', even though it had done already this years ago, and even though there might even exist a supply of them already available. But because the body was slow in RECOGNIZING that it was bug 'X', the bug got a head-start before her immune system could make enough new antibodies.

A declining immune system in old age

So, what you have is old age, and a declining immune system.

So elderly people need some help in recognizing those invading germs and there has previously been nothing which would do that. Older people are vulnerable to invading bugs not because they don't have the antibodies to fight off the infection, or flu, or cancer but because their body is too slow in recognizing which troops to send in to battle, so it makes new ones , slowly.

Because of antibiotics use, it turns out that anyone who has often been sick can have this immune system recognition problem. So, in addition to older people, people of any age can have their immune system lose the ability to recognize the invading germs - and waste time trying to create a new antibody when that same bug has been fought and defeated before. What is the standard medical solution to these infections? Antibiotics.

So, anyone can be vulnerable who has had lots of illnesses. They often get antibiotics to 'cure' the sickness.

What else can cause this immune system recognition problem? Taking too many antibiotics, or taking the wrong kind, or taking them too long or too short. Doctors know this to be true - that the bugs become resistant to antibiotics. The drug companies then develop NEW and better antibiotics. But, we now have 'super bugs' in our world which don't respond to ANY antibiotic - and these super bugs were actually created because of poor use of antibiotics.

Who else has this immune system recognition problem?

Let's switch gears for a moment, and consider one of the most vulnerable people you might know - a new-born baby.

Find out how a mother transfers her immunity to her new born baby on page 2)

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