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Bovine colostrum (BC) taken during intensive exercise may be useful not only for preventing the stomach nausea that often accompanies such stressful activities but simultaneously for extending life span.
A study, published in the American Journal of Physiology, Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, finds BC taken during intensive exercise stimulates the body to produce additional amounts of a heat shock protein (HSP) called HSP70, known for its anti-aging properties. A second study confirms this finding.
The body releases HSPs when it undergoes stress. This ancient genetic protein has a “switch” that senses other damaged proteins. HSPs circulate in the bloodstream, “examining” other proteins, “assessing” their stress-related damage. If these proteins are found to be damaged—what some experts call “misfolded”—HSPs attempt to unfold and refold them to restore them to their proper structure. If a protein cannot be repaired, HSPs designate it for destruction, and the immune cells attack it, eliminating a potentially dangerous substance from circulation.
How Stress and Longevity Link
Dr. Marc Tatar and colleagues from the University of Minnesota find that a brief genetic response to heat stress can increase a fruit fly’s life span at normal temperatures. The researchers exposed fly strains to short doses of nonlethal warmth, inducing expression of an HSP dubbed HSP70. Flies bred to contain extra copies of HSP70 genes responded to the warmth by producing extra HSP70s, which increased their life span substantially over a two-week period.
Only a brief low level of genetic expression was required to obtain a long-term improvement in survival of the flies.
The finding provides additional evidence that HSPs may be extending human life because our capacity to moderate stress on all organ systems is the mechanism of human aging, Dr. Tatar said.
BC Boosts HSP70
Twelve volunteers completed a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover protocol for 14 days prior to standardized exercise. Besides discovering that BC markedly truncated the rise of intestinal permeability by 80%, the study found, “Colostrum increased HSP70 expression.”
In a 2016 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has similar findings researchers examined whether zinc carnosine (ZnC), a health-food product taken alone or in combination with bovine colostrum (a source of growth factors), would moderate the effects of gastrointestinal permeability. Using a similar protocol with eight volunteers, they found that “ZnC or colostrum truncated the rise by 70% after 14 d of treatment. The combination treatment gave an additional benefit, and truncated exercise induced increase at 2 d.”
“Mechanisms of action included increasing heat shock protein 70 and truncating temperature-induced changes…”
Make a first-milk BC supplement the top of your sports performance-enhancing supplements to amplify the anti-aging benefits of your efforts.
