Colostrum may improve rheumatoid arthritis symptoms – exciting findings

Colostrum from especially immunised cows may be able to reduce inflammatory activity of rheumatoid arthritis, a team explains in the Journal of Dairy Science.

The onset of rheumatoid arthritis is complex and one factor believed to play a part is infection. As a consequence, many foods have been studied as possible dietary therapies, including cow colostrum (the milk produced just before and after the birth of a calf) as it contains higher levels of nutrients, immune factors and immunoglobulins than milk.

Hyperimmune milk and colostrum is produced by dairy cows that are immunised with a polyvalent bacterial vaccine, and has been shown to suppress inflammation and even reduce symptoms of osteoarthritis in humans.

Now a team has looked at if hyperimmune colostrum can alleviate the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in mice. Mice were fed colostrum from immunised cows, either 5mg/day or 10mg/day for 49 days. Compared to mice not fed hyperimmune colostrum, they had lower total swelling scores, collagen-specific antibody, inflammation-associated antibody and the inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha and interleukin levels.

“The results strongly suggest that colostrum from immunized cows may have anti-inflammatory activity in a mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis,” the authors conclude. “Additional research would be needed to determine whether hyperimmune colostrum could alleviate the inflammatory symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in humans.”

Click here to read the original research.

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