What IBS is, sort of.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome describes a health problem with the digestive tract whose diagnosis is symptom based. Those symptoms can include pain, either diarrhea or constipation (and sometimes alternating bouts with diarrhea and constipation), bloat, flatulence, and sometimes mucus in the stool. If you have a combination of those symptoms without a definite, identifiable cause, then it is usually called Irritable Bowel Syndrome. And if you are diagnosed with IBS, that is another way of saying “We don’t know what is wrong with you. We only know that you have pain, either diarrhea or constipation, or alternating bouts of both, bloat, flatulence, and sometimes mucus in the stool,” which you of course already knew. A number of things can cause IBS-like symptoms and be confused with IBS, such as various diseases and food sensitivities, however the cause of IBS is not known. There are various theories. Infection, both past and active, is a primary suspect, and gender, age, hormonal, and brain-gut interaction are suspected of playing a part. It may be especially challenging for the medical community to treat you if you have IBS, for the obvious reason that, one, they cannot be sure if you really have it, and two, if you do have it they are not sure why you have it or what it is, other than as manifested by symptoms.
The Natural Option with IBS
If all else fails, and it probably has or you would not be reading this, GIVE NATURE A CHANCE. A good friend of mine, who has a PhD in clinical nutrition, once told me that disease is caused by a lack of something, and to cure disease that lack needs to be filled, and she did not know of any disease that was caused by a lack of pharmaceutical drugs. That may be an oversimplification, or is it? A lack of a natural nutrient, vitamin C, causes scurvy, not a lack of a pharmaceutical. A lack of vitamin D can cause rickets, not a lack of a pharmaceutical. According to published research, a lack of colostrum for the newborn may cause autoimmunity to develop later in life. This illustrates the principal that natural problems may require natural answers. If the medical community does not know what causes IBS, nature does know. If the medical community does not know what the body requires to move toward good health with IBS, nature does. There is a basic natural force for all life to be healthy. From the instant of birth, human physiology begins working toward good health, and each instant of each day thenceforth, the human body strives to avoid sickness and maintain good health. The health force is a complex package of biosystems, whose complexity no one could ever fully understand (after all, we don’t even know what IBS really is or what to do about it, for example). We do know however that nature provides the newborn of all mammals, including humans, for their first meal, a substance loaded with hundreds of healthful components, evolved over an estimated period of 150 million years, to ensure the survivability, health, strength, and vitality of the newborn. That healthful substance is colostrum, the fluid produced by the mammary glands before milk. All newborn mammals drink colostrum, and then the mammary glands fill with milk and they drink milk. Colostrum awakens, stimulates, regulates and maintains all body systems – how is that for a gift from nature? Colostrum is nature’s first health supplement, and without a scintilla of a doubt the most healthful substance on the planet, miles and miles ahead of whatever is in second place. Among the multitude of things that colostrum provides the body to help it with the health force, are healing agents and anti-inflammatory components, as well as an army of other healthful components which work together synergistically to support the health force and may be of especial value with IBS. Also, after decades of use by millions of people, there are no known side effects with colostrum. You may not know exactly what is wrong with you or what your body needs to be healthy, but nature and the health force within you know, and nature put a cornucopia of good things for the body in colostrum. It makes sense to try colostrum and give nature a chance. Only colostrum harvested within six hours of calving contains the concentrations and proportions of healthful components that nature designed for maximum synergistic effect.
The Science
“Following birth, the infant gastrointestinal tract (esophagus, stomach and small intestine) undergoes profound growth, changes and functional maturation. These changes are apparently related to the onset of colostrum ingestion… This is due to the hormones and growth-promoting peptides, such as insulin, cortisol, epidermal growth factor (EGF) and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) found at high concentrations in maternal colostrum… Transforming Growth Factors (found in colostrum) are polypeptides which promote cell proliferation, tissue repair and maintenance (wound healing) and embryonic development. Dr. F.J. Ballard, et al, found bovine colostrum contained up to 100 times the mitogenic potency of human colostrum.” — Beth Ley, PhD, Colostrum, Nature’s Gift to the Immune System
“Several colostrum components stimulate wound healing. Nucleotides, EgF, TgF, and IgF-1 stimulate skin growth and cellular growth and repair by direct action on DNA and RNA. These growth factors facilitate the healing of tissues damaged by ulcers, trauma, burns, surgery, or inflammatory disease. Colostrum’s wound-healing properties specifically benefit the skin, muscle, cartilage, bone, and nerve cells.” — Zoltan Rona, M.D.,The American Journal of Natural Medicine, Mar. 1998
“Immune factors in cow colostrum, when taken orally, are effective against disease-causing organisms in the intestinal tract. Ingestion of bovine colostrum’s immunoglobulins may be a new method of providing passive immunoprotection against a host of gut-associated disease-causing antigens (viral and bacterial).” — Dr. R. McClead, et al., Pediatrics Research
Colostrum contains interlukin-10, which reduces inflammation caused by arthritis, infection or injury whether from surgery or trauma. Colostrum contains lactoferrin, which defends against infection and cancerous tumors and is anti-inflammatory. “One of the major benefits of lactoferrin is its ability to reduce inflammation through the regulation of inflammatory cytokines such as Interleukin-1 (IL-1, Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF).” — Beth Ley, PhD Nutrition
“Recent studies suggest that colostral fractions, or individual peptides present in colostrum, might be useful for the treatment of a wide variety of gastrointestinal conditions…” – Bovine Colostrum and Healing in the Gastrointestinal Tract, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Digestive Disorders, IBS and Colostrum Testimonials
Testimonials deleted in deference to governmental regulation.
Synertek colostrum is not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure any disease. According to governmental regulations, only drugs are allowed to make such claims. On the other hand, Synertek reserves the right to disseminate scientific information, as Synertek believes it protected by the first amendment to the constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”