Colostrum and Crohns's disease
About Crohn's disease
Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease, which affects anywhere in the digestive system, from the mouth to the rectum, but mostly occurs in the small intestine. It can cause chronic inflammation and scars to the intestinal wall, deep ulcers which do not cover the whole wall, but appear in patches with healthy tissue in between. Crohn's disease, in the rare cases, can also affect the stomach, the mouth and the oesophagus. There are different types of Crohn's disease according to where the disease is located. Crohn's disease inflammation is localized and involves deeper layers of the intestinal wall. At the present, there is no cure.
What are the symptoms?
The main symptoms include pain, urgent diarrhoea, loss of weight and severe tiredness. Crohn's disease is often part of other inflammatory conditions, which attack the joints, skin and eyes.
Patients are mostly treated with drugs, including steroids or with special liquid feeds to help the bowel.
The cause of Crohn's disease has not yet been identified.
How holvita™ colostrum help people with Crohn's disease?
It is thought, that cytokines release is important for regulation of normal gastrointestinal immune responses in dis-regulated inflammatory bowel disease. Colostrum has immune regulatory factors and anti-inflammatory factors such as lactoferrin, which is important for control of the immune response and can help to reduce inflammation. Individuals with Crohn's disease are known to have higher secretion of these cytokines. Lactoferrin is helps to regulate immune response and lowers production of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1, IL-6, TNF-alpha (Zimecki)
holvita™ colostrum may help patients suffering with this condition to relieve abdominal pain and other symptoms associated with Crohn's disease.
Kenneth D Johnson states:
“In my experience, the patients who gain the most from colostrum-lactoferrin are those with compromised immunity, chronic and recurrent disease, symptoms such as chronic fatigue symptoms, Crohn's disease, infections diarrhoea, sinusitis and fibromyalgia” (2000)
As reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Playford RJ, July 2000) colostrum sumplementation may be of particular value in young children with this condition.
References:
Zimecki M; Spiegel K; Wlaszczyk A; Cheneau P; Brunel A; et al; Immunoregulatory effects of a nutritional preparation containing bovine lactoferrin taken orally by healthy individual. Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences,Wroclaw, Poland. Arch Immunol Ther Exp [Warsz] 1998;46[4]:231-40.
Ishiguro Y; Mucosal proinflammatory cytokine production correlates with endoscopic activity of ulcerative colitis. J Gastroenterol 1999 Feb;34[1]:66-74
Oz, HS, Ray, M, Chen, TS, McClain, CJ. (2004) Efficacy of a transforming growth factor beta 2 containing nutritional support formula in a murine model of inflammatory bowel disease. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 23(3):220-6. Mice with an experimentally-induced inflammatory bowel disease fed a diet rich in transforming growth factor beta-2 (TGF-ß2) gained more weight, did not develop diarrhea or prolapse, had lower pathological scores and lower serum amyloid (SAA). This study supports the use of TGF-ß2 diets in the treatment of Crohn’s disease.
Pironi, L., et al, 1990, Dig Dis Sci, Vol 35(50 p 582-8; 'Relationship between intestinal permeability and inflammatory activity in asymptomatic patients with Crohn's disease.'