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Posted 6/4/2008 4:25 PM (GMT 0)
Remicade has messed me up more and my next option is Humira.  In the meantime, I'm looking at some more natural ways.  For one, I'm going to start eating healthier.  Goodbye fast food and sugars!  That I should have done anyway.  I've found some interesting information about Colostrum, which is available in pill form.  Here's a tidbit.

 

Colustrum is an initial shot of Colostrum in its mother's milk that gets the newborn antelope or zebra from the surface of the savanna and, within minutes, running with its mother from the hyenas and lions! Without it, it is barely be able to stand and would die almost immediately. Colostrum is a promoter of immune enhancing qualities facilitating natural chemical health mechanisms. These mechanisms cover the anti-viral, the anti-bacterial, the anti-inflammatory, and the anti-fungal. Additionally, Colostrum is a potent anti-oxidant. 

 

In reading more into this, there looks to be no effects to taking it that would be bad.  So i'm going to give a try and see if it helps. The best makers look to be "New Life" and "Primal Defense" I'm only on Pentasa right now and that doesn't seem to be doing anything.  I figure, if I'm not in pain right now, why not try something before I fill myself back up with drugs?  Any thoughts?

Posted 6/4/2008 6:02 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, colostrum supplements are suppose to be geared towards helping IBD and gut issues...I tried it for about 3 months (an entire bottle) with no success but that's just me, I'm sure many have success with it and I hope you do too...be sure to share your experiance and think positive...at the time I tried it, I didn't alter my diet or anything so that could have factored into why it didn't help me, but I can't say for sure...I just hope you find success with it.

:)
Posted 6/4/2008 6:37 PM (GMT 0)
I also tried it for about a month and did not notice any differences. Then again, I don't respond to pretty much any drug but steroids!
Posted 6/4/2008 7:22 PM (GMT 0)
Hello there, If there really is an immune system boost in this product. . . it might actually make chron's worse. Our immune system attacks our healthy tissue . . . Some of the meds we take are immuno-suppressants for that very reason. Just a thought. Blessings!
Posted 6/4/2008 8:03 PM (GMT 0)
You said it can't hurt you. What about your pocketbook? Colostrum is produced by mammals, including humans, for their newborn. It is designed to be transferred from mother to baby at the breast in the early hours after birth. It confers an extension of the immuno-protection the baby enjoyed through the placenta while in utero and sort of jump starts the baby's still immature immune system and it is tailored not just to the species but to the individual child.

The immunological value of colostrum depends on the mother's immune system. Those things that the mother has built up immunities to will be present. It is a live organism and very quickly becomes degraded once excreted from the breast. I find it difficult to believe that colostrum purported to be from mammals found on the African savannahs will A) confer immunological benefits to humans and B) will have retained the properties that might benefit a baby antelope after being manufactured and distilled into a bottle.

So how much does this Zebra pill cost and where are the manufacturers sourcing the colostrum?
Posted 6/4/2008 9:17 PM (GMT 0)

It's usually derived from bovine (cows)...here's a link and it is geared towards those with crohn's disease...

http://www.pdrhealth.com/drugs/altmed/altmed-mono.aspx?contentFileName=ame0273.xml&contentName=Colostrum&contentId=433

It's known to strengthen the immune system.

:)

Posted 6/4/2008 11:39 PM (GMT 0)
Arggghhh! Primal Defense rears its fraudulent expensive head yet again!!! What is it? Garden of Life producst by the same fraudulent guy? Fergeddit!

If you MUST go natural, at least find a reputable "natural" store like maybe GNC. Or a good local pharmacist who handles some "natural" products along w/script meds.
Posted 6/5/2008 3:29 AM (GMT 0)
Sorry, I don't always appreciate that sarcasm doesn't always come across when text messaging. Of course it is made from bovine (cow) sources. I really didn't expect that the antelopes and zebras were being hooked up to milking machines.

I don't know under what conditions this "colostrum" product is being produced, but I suspect, since colostrum is only produced for 24-36 hours after birth, it is coming from cows who are not allowed to suckle their calves, even briefly. How inhumane.

I reiterate, there can be no comparison between the colostrum received by a baby antelope, cow, zebra, human nursing at the teat and this product that has been processed and manufactured. Colostrum is a living organism and most of the properties that confer its true immunological boost to babies do not survive long outside the body.

As well, there are no magical properties in colostrum that confer to baby antelopes, zebras, cows, horses or any other mammals the strength to stand up and start running shortly after birth. That is the result of thousands of years of evolution, in the same way that infant chimps are born with the strength to cling to their mothers. Anyone who has ever spent time in a breeding shed has seen foals, calves and other mammals exhibit the same properties, with or without having had access to their mother's teat.

I have no problem with people seeking out complementary health products. I do have a problem when the promotion of these health products is based on mis-leading, over-blown and/or false claims and information.

In fact, when I see these products being promoted on sites like this, I often wonder whether the posts might be part of the products' promotional campaign and the posters a plant.
Posted 6/5/2008 4:32 AM (GMT 0)

belleenstein said...
In fact, when I see these products being promoted on sites like this, I often wonder whether the posts might be part of the products' promotional campaign and the posters a plant.

I don't think anyone is "promoting" colostrum, only enquiring about it and there's nothing wrong with asking if others have experiance with natural or other types of ways in dealing with this disease other than the RX that the pharmaceutical companies happen to be getting filthy rich off of... infact I speak highly of the benefits I get from taking bee propolis and I don't sell it.

It's important to have some degree of skeptisism, but I'm sure glad I put some of mine aside and gave bee propolis a shot because it's helped me more than any oral RX ever has...and I havn't had any side-effects from it either.

:)

Posted 6/5/2008 11:02 AM (GMT 0)
PB4 the people selling it are promoting it and investing it with powers it does not have, to the most vulnerable, desperate people in our culture. This isn't about scepticism, it is about correcting known falsehoods. This stuff may have benefits, but to suggest it is "colostrum" is a lie. It may be made from colostrum but it is not colostrum and it simply cannot have many of the powers that colostrum confers. It's like saying that a steak is a cow.
Posted 6/5/2008 3:38 PM (GMT 0)
I don't think anyone on this thread is trying to sell it, they're simply enquiring about it and there's no harm in that.

:)
Posted 6/5/2008 5:09 PM (GMT 0)
Umm yeah I'm not selling it. I have Crohn's. I'm only looking at other alternatives because Remicade gave me crazy side effects, depression, acne, rash, and it didn't seem to do anything. (the prednisone did) now I had to go to my primary doctor today b/c I'm urinating every hour. she said, "well you were on Prednisone before and the Remicade which are immune suppresants which can lower the rest of your body's abilities. I see no harm in trying some other things. not to say I want go back and try something like Humira soon.
Posted 6/5/2008 6:15 PM (GMT 0)
mtbcubs,
Always be leary of anything that sounds too good to be true. If anyone purports a "cure" for Crohn's and does not or will not reference studies in peer reviewed journals that support their claims; they're a fraud at worst and incompetent at best. So when looking for alternative and complimentary treatments read *everything* (even scientific studies) with a skeptical eye.

If you're interested in seeing broad stroke reviews of various research, complimentary medicine and otherwise, the Mayo Clinics website grades (A-F) various purported treatments for various conditions. Some complimentary treatments are scoring B's! (though I don't believe that was for Crohn's...)

I'll see what links I can dig up and post them. (It's been a few months since I read that part of their site...)
Posted 6/5/2008 11:21 PM (GMT 0)
mtbcubs2004 I want to belatedly welcome you to the healing well family. I see that you are a new member and I want to make sure you understand that my comments on this thread regarding bogus health claims have not been directed at you. I understand the desperation that leads people with chronic illnesses to investigate alternative therapies. I am one of those who, at the beginning of this long journey, 30 years ago, turned my back on the medication then being offered -- steroids and the early 5-ASA drugs -- and went the naturopathic route. I felt great for awhile -- the placebo effect is a powerful force. Using natural remedies, eating healthy and ditching my medicines gave me a real sense of power over this crazy disease.

But it was all based on a chimera. All it did was fed my denial and I ended up with severe strictures caused by scar tissue that developed in that year or two I was without any medication. By the time i started back on medication, it could no longer ease the daily pain associated with the obstruction, although it did enable me to manage for almost a decade before the bowel closed completely and I required emergency surgery.

So I always worry when I read that someone is being influenced to stop medication in favour of untested and, in some cases, false claims of a cure or control. I am a journalist and in my responses to your post I have been trying to deal with facts. The claim you have read about antelopes and other wild animals owing their ability to bound up after birth to colostrum is not true. They would bound up with just as much energy if their first drink was from a bottle. It is the energy they derive from the proteins and other macro-nutrients, and evolutionary biology that enable them to get up and run. Colostrum is a miracle of nature. It is individiually formulated and tailored to meet the needs of the individual baby by the mother in whose womb that baby has developed. It confers much subtler forms of protection and to much smaller enemies than the lions prowling on the serenghetti. Colustrum contains immunological factors from mother to baby. But what is being sold in a pill as colostrum just isn't that miracle of nature and any advertising or promotion of the product that suggests such is false.

That doesn't mean the product you are thinking of trying is without merit. I don't know what active ingrediants remain after a living product like colostrum is adulterated by processing and manufacturing so I can't comment. If you do try it, please keep us informed as to the benefits, if any, you derive from it. And equally important, if you end up thinking you've wasted your money, please post and let us know that too. Just don't think that you are benefiting from the same properties that colostrum confers on a baby calf nursing at a mother's breast.

With my very best wishes ...
Posted 6/5/2008 11:27 PM (GMT 0)
It is also important to recognize that there are different "types" of CD, like stricturing CD and fistulizing CD...luckily for me and some others, I've/we've not experianced that type of CD so I'm thinking the chances are a little better in going the natural route and having some success with it (even mixing naturals and oral RX could benefit many)...but as far as those with CD types like stricturing and/or fistulizing, it may be less effective to use the all natural route.

It varies from person to person since no 2 CDers are alike....trial and error with just about anything you try.

:)
Posted 6/6/2008 12:46 AM (GMT 0)
Hmm. If it comes from cows, is there a chance it could transmit MAP?

Sorry if this sounds dense - am tired and brain foggy :-)
Posted 6/6/2008 12:55 AM (GMT 0)

I just want to say two things:

1. I would not take colostrum due to the possibility that MAP organisms are inherent in the product.  People who sell it claim how wonderful it is since it's raw.  Hmmm.  Also, I personally have much worse symptoms on dairy, whether it is "feeding" MAP or not, I don't know.  To me it is not worth the risk.

2. The idea that Crohn's is from a too-strong immune system is outdated.  The newest idea is that it is an immune system which is "off-key", not correctly attacking some pathogen, whether it is a mycobacterium or bacterium, instead attacking the host.  And the immune system is in some ways weakened by years of making these attacks.  If my immune system were so darned strong, I'd never get sick and in fact, I get sick if someone with a cold looks at me!

Posted 6/6/2008 1:21 AM (GMT 0)
Yes, they went back and forth for eons about it being an over-active or under-active immune system, they've finally seemed to settle on "wacked-out" immune system...how helpful.

:)
Posted 6/6/2008 11:29 PM (GMT 0)
I don’t believe there’s any reason to think that would work. As was mentioned earlier, it’s individual specific. The same way we shouldn’t be drinking the lactations of other animals (milk) we should probably avoid their colostrum too. It’s yet another ploy to exploit sick people.
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