Episode 27: The benefits of colostrum

00:00:32 Glenn:       Welcome back to Natural Health for People and Pets. I'm co-host of the show, Glen Cooke. It's been quite a while since episodes, but I'm going to welcome the host of the show, Noelle Cooke.  

00:00:42 Narelle:       Hello everyone. Great to be back, and I do apologise that it's been quite a while, but life got busy. Much busier than I thought it would be, but it's been very exciting times.  

00:12:49 Glenn:        Alright, what are we talking about today?  

00:12:51 Narelle:      I wanted to talk about an ingredient that most people are familiar with in a vague way, but don't really know the full extent of the health benefits that it provides. Any guesses what we might be talking about?  

00:13:02 Glenn:        No, I don't. I've got no idea what you're doing.  

00:13:04 Narelle:        Colostrum.  

00:13:05 Glenn:        Oh yeah. Now I recall because you were saying that you need to talk about it.  

00:13:09 Narelle:        The aim of the show today is to expand people's knowledge about colostrum. What it is, what it does, the various health conditions that it can be helpful for, what to look for when buying a colostrum product, and then the safety aspects of colostrum. Colostrum's been known for centuries for its health benefits and there's lots of really good current research on the benefits of colostrum for human health. One paper even stated that bovine colostrum may be one of the most promising nutraceuticals for the prevention or mitigation of various diseases in humans. So that's pretty significant. But there's also a growing amount of research on animals. So that includes farm animals because there's some great production benefits to adding colostrum into the feed as well as our domestic cats and dogs.  

00:13:52 Glenn:        I know, for example, that if we've ever been involved in a litter of puppies, I get very anxious if the mother doesn't start producing milk at a very early age, because she's not also not producing colostrum. Which is absolutely beneficial in kick-starting the immune system in the puppies when they get going. So it's a huge concern if you've got a female that's not milking very early on and those little puppies aren't getting that vital couple of days of colostrum that's usually produced first, and then the milk starts coming in after that.  

00:14:21 Narelle:        Absolutely. The mother will start making it in her body in the weeks leading up to giving birth. But you know, that first 24 hours particularly is when the colostrum's released. It's called the First milk, or the early milk, you're spot on. The mammals make colostrum like newborn mammals. They're basically born without a competent immune system. So they really do rely on those antibodies, or those immunoglobulins that come through the colostrum from the mother in that first 24 hours basically to survive. The other great thing about colostrum is that it's rich in protein and fats and lots of other goodies that I'll go through in a bit more detail shortly. And it looks a bit different. I guess not many people are gonna see colostrum come straight outta the mother but, because it's got a much different nutrient profile, it's thicker and tends to be a bit yellower 

00:15:05 Narelle:        So before we get into the details a bit more about colostrum, I guess I wanna clarify, most times when people are talking about colostrum as a supplement, they're generally referring to bovine colostrum, so cow colostrum. Most of the research is actually done using bovine colostrum and the main reason that that's the case basically comes down to production volume and accessibility. So while it varies a little bit, depending on which source you read, baby cows generally need three to four litres of colostrum in the first few hours of life, yet dairy cattle can make, you know, two or three times that amount. So it's just more available as a product than milk in a cat for example.

00:15:47 Glenn:       You made me think of Meet the Fockers when you said that.   

00:15:50 Narelle:       I don’t follow.

00:15:50 Glenn:        There's a scene in it where he talks about milking a cat. Robert De Niro who plays the father in that. He goes, well I have nipples, Greg, would you milk me? You'll have to watch that now. 

00:16:03 Narelle:       I have to watch it, yep. There's three main components of bovine colostrum that make it so amazing for us and our dogs. You've got the nutrient component, you've got immune factors and you've got growth factors. So they're all quite separate with their own unique beneficial profiles. But of the nutritional components, colostrum is very rich in protein and fat. It contains all of the fat soluble vitamins. So things like vitamins A, D, E, and K. It contains the water soluble B vitamins. It's rich in several essential minerals. Things like calcium, copper, iron, zinc, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus. And it's all of these, you know, vitamins and minerals that are important for the correct functioning of the metabolic processes of the newborn, and just for healthy growth and development. So even though colostrum's got amazing immune factors and newborns need it for that side of it, you know, it's also a complete food source for puppies, or you know, whatever baby animal.  

00:16:59 Glenn:        Absolutely.  

00:17:00 Narelle:        It is as well. Then you've got the immune factors. I'm not gonna list all of them 'cause there's quite a list, but these tend to be referred to as bioactive components and they're known to strengthen and enhance the immune system and to increase resistance to infections, and that could be infections caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi. Some of the key immune factors that people may be familiar with, one of them is lactoferrin. It has antiviral antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. And the way it works in terms of killing bacteria, it actually destabilises the outer membrane of the bacteria, which then allows the immune system to attack them more successfully. And in terms of its antiviral properties, it attaches to the virus and prevents it from entering the cells because the virus is replicating our cells. So that's pretty cool. The other one we've already touched on, immunoglobulins, they're probably the most important immune factor that comes with colostrum.  

00:17:54 Narelle:        That's what confers immunity to the newborn from the mother. There's lots of others. I'm just looking at a list of all the immune factors, but one that I'm gonna talk about a bit later, and which is most relevant to our dogs, are called proline-rich polypeptides. So they stimulate a weakened immune system, but they can also stabilise an overactive immune system. And this is what we tend to see in autoimmune diseases and allergies. So we'll talk more about proline-rich polypeptides when we talk about allergies. And then finally growth factors, and again, there's a long list of growth factors in colostrum. Some that people might be familiar with growth hormone, epithelial growth factor, insulin-like growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, platelet derived growth factor. So you can see very anabolic, our growth factors. All of these nutrients, immune factors, growth factors, that's what's making it an essential part of the development and the health of the newborns. And it's what's also led to its use in the treatment and prevention of diseases in humans. So if we look at it then from the other side, and I think you touched on this earlier. It's for all of those reasons that the absence of colostrum, like immediately following birth, if a puppy doesn't get their intake, their share, that can lead to a whole raft of different health disorders and diseases and you know, likely death. So it's, it's just such a fundamental part of the beginning of our puppy's lives.  

00:19:12 Glenn:       Can I just ask a question quickly there. You said the word anabolic before. I know what that means and some people will know what that means. What does it mean for some of the listeners out there who aren't really sure what the term anabolic means? What does that mean?  

00:19:25 Narelle:        Well the easiest way to think of anabolic is to build up. Anabolic growth factors when we're talking about muscles for example, is you know, supports the growth of the muscle. Whereas catabolic, which is the opposite of anabolic, is the breakdown of something. So you might have a breakdown of muscle tissue. So that's a catabolic process.  

00:19:44 Glenn:       Right, okay, cool.  

00:19:45 Narelle:        Before we get into the individual health conditions that Colostrum's used for, I just wanna address, I dunno if this is something you've heard. But I hear it pop up quite a bit on social media when people are talking about giving colostrum to puppies beyond that first 24 hour period, or giving it to adult dogs, or you know, humans taking it. And I hear them say, ‘Well what's the point? How can there be a benefit? You know, it won't get taken up into the bloodstream, you know, it's a waste of money’. And that's true to an extent in terms of it not being taken up into the bloodstream, but there's a lot more to it, which I think it's important for the listeners to understand. So have you heard that?  

00:20:21 Glenn:       I have heard that, yes. I heard somebody talking about it on one of the breakfast shows on TV a while ago. They weren't just talking about colostrum, they were talking about collagen in one form, and poo-pooing that, and they were doing the same thing with colostrum as well.  

00:20:36 Narelle:       Oh, that would've been interesting to see.

00:20:37 Glenn:        Yeah, I just, I was walking in and outta the room and I could hear, I think it was Dr. Carl or something like that on the Morning show and I heard him poo-pooing and then, but I heard a counter to that sometime after that. Where there was somebody saying, oh, I heard what this doctor was saying on the show and there were a couple of things that aren't quite true.  

00:20:55 Narelle:        Probably easier. I'll talk about what happens in the first 24 hours of life and then I'll talk about why it's still beneficial.  

00:21:01 Glenn:       And there's evidence around this, isn't there? Yes, there is.  

00:21:04 Narelle:        We've already said that, you know, initially newborns don't have a functioning immune system. One of the roles of colostrum is not only to provide nutrition, but to also provide those maternal antibodies to protect the newborn from infection, and although at birth, like the gastrointestinal system, it's completely formed from a structural viewpoint. So you know, you've got the whole tract from esophagus down to anus, like it's all there. But even though it's all there, it's still like, it's like the immune system, it's still not fully functional at that very early stage. And you know, we might think that having a gut that's not functioning properly, or fully initially is a bad thing, but it's due to the immaturity of the intestinal mucosa. So the gut lining in those first few hours after birth, that actually allows for what's called the passive transfer of large macromolecules.  

00:21:53 Narelle:        So normally our guts are very tightly sealed, but for a newborn it's quite leaky. So they've got the typical leaky gut, but that's the beauty of the design. So it's this perfect scenario to get as much of those large immune compounds. So those immunoglobulins can then go from the baby's newborn's gut, into the bloodstream because the gut is so leaky. So that's what we want. But then pretty quickly, within 24 hours that gut lining seals back up to become a non leaky gut.And that's where those immune compounds don't then go into the bloodstream. But just because that doesn't happen, it doesn't mean there's no benefit to giving colostrum. Studies have shown that even after the first 24 hours, the immune factors are still highly effective at protecting against infection from pathogenic organisms.  

00:22:43 Narelle:        For enhancing gut health, generally for reducing the incidence of a range of different gastrointestinal diseases for promoting skin health, immune health and other things that we'll talk more about as we go along. So the mechanism is slightly different. It's not going from the gut directly into the bloodstream, but the health benefits and the immune benefits, and the whole body benefits are absolutely still there. And clinically proven there is so much research as to the benefits for adults, humans, or dogs. Another interesting thing, studies have shown that giving the mother pre and probiotics during pregnancy actually increases the quality of the colostrum, and makes it contain a higher concentration of those immune compounds, so those immunoglobulins. Why that's important is that puppies feeding on colostrum with more immunoglobulins, will have a stronger immune system and a stronger better gut health, which is gonna make them more resilient to infection and environmental allergies and food intolerances and food allergies down the track. So it's so important. This is something I speak about at my seminars briefly. You know, what happens in utero can set the dog up for life. From a health perspective and a behavioural perspective when we're talking about stress hormones, which I think you touch on a little bit too, but you know what the mother eats, whether the mother's stressed, all of that affects the baby.  

00:23:59 Glenn:        Oh, it has such a compounding effect on what develops and how the brain develops, which is, it's frightening when that is limited.  

00:24:06 Narelle:        Yeah. We could do a whole show on that.  

00:24:08 Glenn:       We could, that's just terrifying if the brain is impaired during that point in time and flood with cortisol and adrenaline. It really has an effect on whether the brain will grow and function properly or not.  

00:24:19 Narelle:       Let's look at diarrhoea. Diarrhoea and puppies. They tend to go hand in hand. It's usually due to changes in diet. when you know a new puppy comes home, stress from being separated from its mother and its litter mates. All of this is happening at a time where their immune system, it's still not fully competent. It's better, but it's still not fully developed. And this combination of events increases their susceptibility to gut infections and diarrhoea. So a group in Japan, did a randomised placebo controlled clinical trial with 70 puppies that were between 40 and 50 days old. And the purpose of the study was to determine the impact of adding bovine colostrum as a supplement into the puppies diet. And then to assess the faecal quality over a 10 day period. They added either 500 milligrams of colostrum, so that's bovine colostrum powder to one group of puppies and then skimmed milk powder to the other group.  

00:25:10 Narelle:        What they found was that although the faecal quality tended to improve in both groups during the course of the trial, the colostrum supplemented puppies showed us statistically significantly greater improvement in their faecal quality compared to the pups that didn't get any of the colostrum. So basically what that means, is the pups that got colostrum had a much better poo than the other puppies. So, better formed, more solid good poos. So the authors concluded that supplementing puppies with bovine colostrum does improve faecal quality when pups are subject to, you know, the stresses of changing diet, changing environment and things like that. So that was great. And look, even though that study itself wasn't particularly well written up, there have been multiple other studies looking at exactly that. Like the gut related issues and how bovine colostrum, when supplemented can benefit those in dogs. So it's been shown to have a positive effect on the microbiome. It increases what's called immunoglobulin A levels. We've already mentioned it affects, I mean, improves the faecal consistency. It works to suppress gut inflammation, and the growth factors in bovine colostrum also help to actually heal the gut lining. If there's any damage, which I think I talk about in another study shortly, anyone with a puppy has experienced diarrhoea. I mean we went through it with Mando.  

00:26:27 Glenn:        Oh I think we've gone through it with every puppy that we've ever had. There's no way around it. It's going to happen at some stage where you're gonna get a little bit of the scours with pups. And it happens with yourself as well. Like there's not a person I know that hasn't had an episode of diarrhoea, and there's not a dog that I've ever seen that we've had probably except for Ladybug. Ladybug's probably the most amazing producer of poo we've got.  

00:26:49 Narelle:        Perfect poos.  

00:26:50 Glenn:        Yep. She's the perfect pooing Ladybug. Yeah. I'm gonna touch wood while I'm saying that because, yep, I don't want that to change. 

00:26:55 Narelle:       I mean, she's on Gut Protect.  

00:26:57 Glenn:       Well she was the one that started you on your journey. 

00:27:00 Narelle:       And that’s why I created Gut Protect. 

00:27:01 Glenn:        That's why you created Gut Protect for Ladybug. 

00:27:03 Narelle:        Because of her and perfect poos.  

00:27:04 Glenn:       Yep. She has an amazing consistency with poo.  

00:27:07 Narelle:        Yep. When we first bought Mando home, I mean he's such a chilled pup, so I don't think it was a stress issue for him, but you know, something upset his system. So for the first few days he had quite bad diarrhoea and popped him on colostrum.  

00:27:18 Glenn:        Yeah, well I think he was out the back eating stuff as well.  

00:27:21 Narelle:        Yes. So if we move on to the benefits for adult dogs, there was a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition that showed that feeding dogs bovine colostrum on top of their regular food for 40 weeks significantly enhanced their immune response. And the way they demonstrated that was by measuring vaccine response compared to a control group. So the colostrum supplemented dogs produce more antibodies in response to the vaccine, which means they're gonna have more protection against whatever the vaccine was against. And for a longer period of time, which is why we titre test. You know, when we titre test we wanna see a high antibody reading and that demonstrates ongoing protection for our dogs, and I think Ladybugs up to year five of titre testing since her original vax and she's still fully covered. So that's really great. And they also found with these dogs that it increased the diversity of the gut microbiome. And we know, science has shown that greater diversity is linked to better health outcomes and lower diversity is linked to poorer health outcomes and disease. So for example, in dogs lower bacterial like microbiome diversity is generally associated with intestinal inflammation, compromised immune function and gastrointestinal dysbiosis not what we want for our dogs. And the study also showed absolutely zero side effects from the supplementation of bovine colostrum.  

00:28:39 Glenn:       Can I just step back in time and talk about Ladybug just a little bit there? And I know that we've sort of mentioned bits and pieces on this in different episodes before, but it should go without saying that to a large degree Ladybug was the test subject in many of what you were producing at the time. Because in the early days of when we brought her home after she had her original surgery and the vet basically gave us a very, very bleak outlook, we had nothing to lose at that point in time. Like, there was absolutely zero reason for not trying a lot of these things on her and we did it ethically. It's not like we just ploughed into her with, you know, all these ridiculous chemicals or anything like that. I mean it's something that Narelle rigorously, and I mean rigorously researched to find ways to get her walking again and getting her spine to start signalling her brain again, and especially to make her gut a lot happier and healthier. And that was largely the journey that you went on a lot of these things. But even just in her demeanour, we saw significant improvement in her demeanour. Things where she was getting easily agitated or, and I mean, she's just a little pocket rocket, which is to her detriment sometimes. But there's a lot of things that have had an exceptional outcome in Ladybug's demeanour when she's been on a lot of these remedies and concoctions that you put together before you actually.  

00:29:57 Narelle:        Yeah, herbal and nutritional.  

00:29:58 Glenn:        Herbal and nutritional. Yeah, that's right.  

00:30:00 Narelle:       We keep coming back to it. The gut really is the key to health. And everything I do with Ladybug, it's working on the gut and the immune system, and working on the gut supports the immune system. Which is what colostrum's doing, which we are talking about today. But I can't stress enough that if you've got a dog with a chronic or recurrent health condition, or even acute flare ups of something, gut health is critical.  

00:30:20 Glenn:       Paramount  

00:30:20 Narelle:       And Ladybug's had multiple surgeries now and she's bounced back every time. And I truly believe her resilience and her ability to recover so quickly and with no complications, like we've never had complications from her recoveries, is due to supporting her gut health and immune health through the natural supplements I give her.  

00:30:38 Glenn:       She just recently, we're gonna reveal it on air. She just recently ate another part of another bed that we gave her. She's relentless in this. Like we've gotta be so…  

00:30:47 Narelle:        And it needed to be surgically removed.  

00:30:49 Glenn:       It needed to be surgically removed. We've gotta be so mindful with Ladybug because, I said before, she's got so much energy behind her and so much drive, that when the dogs out the back get excited and she can't be a part of that, she'll start hoeing into her bed or anything that she can get. Needless to say, we've gotta remove it from her during the day and go through a lot of routines that uh, it's quite a pain in the neck to be honest. But yeah, she ate it, but we love her. That's why we do all these sorts of things. I mean we just adore her to death. She's just amazing in so many ways apart from that one issue. But even, even coming back recently from a surgery, you know, where she had to have be opened up, have it removed from her stomach and then stitched back up again. Straight back into eating well, bouncing around lots of vigour. You know, we have to maintain and keep her quiet so she doesn't injure herself again. And back into perfect poos again. 

00:31:40 Narelle:        Never stops.  

00:31:41 Glenn:        Perfect poo. It's just incredible.

00:31:43 Narelle:        Sorry, so we'll keep going with the benefits of colostrum. And this, I mean Ladybug, I've had her on colostrum as part of her recovery from the latest surgery because I mentioned some of the growth factors in colostrum. Things like epithelial growth factors, they've got healing effects and have been again demonstrated to reduce the permeability of the gut and to repair the damage done to the gut. Any damage done to the gut. And there's even been studies shown that it can help to repair damage done by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. So NSAIDs are really commonly prescribed to our dogs, but they do cause gastric ulceration, and are very damaging to the gut lining. So colostrum's been shown to help remedy that and other general gut issues. Colostrum's great for inflammatory bowel disease, diarrhoea, any broad spectrum GIT disorder. And they even looked at athletes, like human athletes because human athletes are more susceptible to intestinal permeability.  

00:32:36 Narelle:        I don't think a lot of people realise that when you do intense exercise, your gut becomes more permeable. And they found that supplementing human athletes with colostrum significantly reduces that permeability. So that was good. If we look at sort of a different side of tissue repair and recovery from injury, bovine colostrum is being used to help humans and animals recover more quickly from injuries and that's because of the dozens of those different growth factors present, which can actually accelerate the healing of damaged tissues. For example, the platelet-derived growth factor can help to stimulate collagen production, Fibroblasts growth factor and epithelial growth factor I've already mentioned can help the repair of muscle fibers, tendons and ligaments. So studies on soccer players and cyclists and skiers have all shown an improvement in strength and stamina and quicker recovery time if they're taking colostrum. So that's really good.  

00:33:28 Narelle:        But if we bring that back to dogs, so in terms of performance and recovery from intense exercise, bovine colostrum would be perfect to give to dogs that are involved in, you know, agility, flyball, any of the working dog sports. Like why wouldn't you? Studies have shown that bovine colostrum reinforces bone healing, it promotes calcium absorption and it actually works to increase bone density and it's the lactoferrin that does that. So it accelerates bone regeneration. The way it does that is by activating the proliferation of a type of cell called an osteoblast. So osteoblasts are involved in building up bone, and the lactoferrin in colostrum stimulates that process. Allergies, I get inundated every day with inquiries from customers and clients about allergy support for their dogs.  Allergies are categorised as a hypersensitivity disorder of the immune system.  

00:34:21 Narelle:        So an overreaction of the immune system to a substance that shouldn't trigger that.. So if we look at pollen or protein in certain foods, it shouldn't trigger an overreaction, but it does. And the proline rich polypeptides that I mentioned earlier, they work to sort of regulate the immune system so they help bring it back to homeostasis.The research has identified these proline-rich polypeptides as one of the main components in colostrum that helps to improve symptoms of allergies. And the way they do that is by inhibiting or dampening down some certain types of cells that are released in the body, as a reaction to allergens that come in. So that's really good. And the proline enriched polypeptides have also been shown to improve or eliminate symptoms of autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. But I actually haven't gone down that rabbit hole personally to see if that's the case or not.  

00:35:13 Narelle:        We can look at respiratory disease. So upper respiratory tract infection is another common condition in veterinary practice. Think canine cough when we are thinking about our dogs, bovine colostrum has been shown to be really highly effective in preventing recurrent upper respiratory tract infections in humans, particularly children and athletes, but there's also studies on the respiratory benefits for horses. So I haven't seen any research on dogs specifically, but it's proposed that it could be beneficial as a preventative agent against upper respiratory tract infections, if given before and during boarding for example. Or if they're in any sort of environment where they may be exposed to an infected animal.  

00:35:54 Glenn:        That's a good preventative. 

00:35:55 Narelle:       Yeah, I mean again, it's so safe and gentle. I mean, if your dog is in a high risk environment, why wouldn't you try it?  

00:36:01 Glenn:        Yeah. Well it's got other health benefits anyway, so you know it's only up from there. 

00:36:06 Narelle:        Another disease that colostrum's been shown to be great for is periodontal disease. This is a huge issue for dogs and the claim is that by two years of age, about 80% of dogs have some form of periodontal disease. One of the drivers of dental disease is the oral bacteria. Some of the antimicrobial factors in bovine colostrum, things like lactoferrin, lacto peroxidase, lysozyme, you know, they could all have a direct effect on reducing that bacterial load that contributes to the development of the disease in the first place. Then you've got the immune modulating factors in bovine colostrum that can help to reduce the inflammation that comes with dental disease. And then you've got the growth factors in bovine colostrum, things like the fibroblasts growth factors and the epithelial growth factors that can actually aid in the repair of any damaged gum tissue.  

00:36:55 Narelle:        So you've really got a three-pronged approach when it comes to the benefits of colostrum for dental disease in dogs. But for all of those amazing benefits when it comes to choosing a bovine colostrum supplement, ‘oils ain't oils’. You really do need to keep in mind a few key points when it comes to selecting a high quality product. So one of the things you need to look for is the IgG percentage. So IgG stands for immunoglobulin G and it's the primary immunoglobulin or immune factor in bovine colostrum that does all the good work. . So if it's not mentioned on the label, because sometimes there's regulatory restrictions about what you can put on a label. You should be able to find it on the website. But if you can't, you know, if you ask the manufacturer they should provide that information.  

00:37:42 Narelle:        If they don't or won't, then that's sort of a red flag. And if you do go with a product with a lower percentage of IgG, you know, it's not that it's bad necessarily, but it just means you'll need to use more product to get the same health benefit. And to give you an idea, the CanineCeuticals Pure Colostrum contains between 28 and 32% IgG. A lot of products on the market will be sort of hovering between 15 and 20%. And also the more concentrated the product, you will pay a higher price for it because it's more potent, but again, you use less of it. Makes sense.  

00:38:16 Glenn:        Yep.  

00:38:17 Narelle:        Purity. So a lot of companies will add fillers, you know, soy, silicon dioxide, they might add preservatives such as hydrogen peroxide. So make sure you're looking out for that on the label. And depending on how the cows are raised, the bovine colostrum's harvested from some may contain antibiotics, pesticides, or even synthetic hormones. Again, CanineCeuticals Colostrum is 100% pure human grade freeze dried with nothing artificial, no fillers, anything like that.  

00:38:45 Glenn:        I was just about to ask, why did you source your brand where you sourced it from, but you've, I think you've just answered that then.  

00:38:51 Narelle:        I'll answer it a bit more fully in one of the other what to look for points that I'll touch on. How the colostrum’s processed is a really important key to the effectiveness of the product, because many of those immune factors and growth factors and nutrients are heat sensitive. The ideal processing is low temperature and freeze drying. So when it comes to the CanineCeuticals Pure Colostrum, that is the case. It's done at very low temperatures and freeze dried, but it's validated. So every batch is validated to ensure that the full complement of all of those bioactive compounds are actually present in the amount stated before it's released to the public. That's really important. It's gonna do what it claims it does. It's important that the ethics surrounding the way the colostrum is harvested. You know, most companies that have an ethical procedure will talk about it on their website.  

00:39:40 Narelle:        You should be able to read about that. This is one of the other reasons I went with the colostrum that I chose for CanineCeuticals. It's collected from cows in South Gippsland Victoria, so that's in Australia. But these cows are raised on grass pastures in their natural environment all year round. So no intensive feedlot practices. Literally, every tub of CanineCeuticals pure colostrum can be traced back not only to the farm of origin, but to each cow that it came from. And that's because the CanineCeuticals pure colostrum, it's hand harvested from a really small number of select family farms. And these farmers really do care about the welfare of their calves.  

00:40:19 Glenn:        South Gippsland is just a beautiful part of the world. 

00:40:22 Narelle:        Oh, isn't it. You know, there are guidelines for the collection of colostrum that are put out by Dairy Australia for farmers to follow. So, you know, anyone doing good manufacturing practices should be following that anyway, but sourcing colostrum from grass fed cows from boutique farms, like it does come with a cost. And that was a business decision I had to make. I could have got cheap, cheap colostrum out of the US from feedlot cows if I wanted to and you know, it's always tempting when you're like, ah, the profits would be so much better. But from an ethical standpoint, I literally couldn't bring myself to go down that path. So I am paying a premium for my colostrum, which is why it's priced the way it is, but the quality is just exceptional.  

00:41:05 Glenn:       I know you've talked about this before and  it doesn't even have to relate anything to CanineCeuticals or anything like that or any of the other companies, but even when, you know, like I was speaking to David Ellsworth who's the head of Antinol, he's one of the owners, or the CEO or something like that. I'm not sure exactly what his title is, but he was explaining to me the mussel extraction they do for Antinol when they're doing it, and you know how each capsule has four green lip mussels in it from New Zealand.  

00:41:30 Narelle:       I'll just say Antinol Rapid. That's the product.  

 00:41:32 Glenn:       Antinol Rapid. Yeah. For people who are doing it right. With all the companies that you were talking about before. Everybody who's doing it right, they're sourcing some of the highest quality materials in the environment. I know people are on a budget with things, but why mess with things which are talking about your long-term health, even short-term health. Why mess with it or why go cheap, for something that follows you round for the rest of your life or the rest of lives of things and animals and pets and children that you actually care for. That doesn't make any sense to me when people do things like that. Like I know you and I have never compromised on, no matter where our salary packets work, we never compromised on our own health and wellbeing. Even though I'm, I openly admit on air to everybody that I don't follow everything you tell me to.  

00:42:16 Glenn:        I know 100% and I should  'cause I feel great when I do what you ask me to do. But one of the things is we've never ever compromised on making sure we get some of the highest quality supplements and herbal, or remedies or whatever we are looking for. We just make sure, and you can tell when you get something which is low quality to something that's high quality, you don't save on low quality. Because you have to have so much more of it or you just don't get the benefits at all.  

00:42:43 Narelle:        Yeah. What I think is a big part of the issue, which is really sad, is that the average consumer just doesn't understand  

00:42:50 Glenn:       Through marketing. 

00:42:51 Narelle:       Well, Let's say fish oil for example, and this is why I'm so passionate and supportive of Antinol Rapid because of just the purity and the quality and the efficacy of their product. But if you buy a tub of cheap fish oil, and this is what I think a lot of people don't understand, chances are it hasn't been purified. Chances are, it contains heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants and all the nasties that are in the oceans now, they're not paying to remove those. That's why it's so cheap. And you know, if the strength is then weak, who's gonna take 10 fish oil capsules a day to get the therapeutic benefit? They're not. So they're not gonna feel better. Plus they're taking a contaminated product. So yeah, it doesn't make sense to us, but we understand why.  

00:43:31 Glenn:        And it's probably rancid too.  

00:43:31 Narelle:       And it's probably rancid too. You get what you pay for.  

00:43:34 Glenn:       Well that's what you said before when you're led with ‘oils and oils’.  

00:43:38 Narelle:        The great thing about the bovine colostrum, it's really palatable. So if you've got a dog that's got a poor appetite, you can sprinkle it. It sprinkles well onto kibble as well as fresh food, mixes in really well easily with food, but it's a bit sticky, so it doesn't sort of just fall through the kibble. It sits sort of on it a bit better. And in terms of safety, it's so safe. It can be used in conjunction with, you know, veterinary medicines, human medicines, even antibiotics. There's no, you know, interactions or contraindications. They say there's no side effects generally to colostrum. But if I was gonna say what might occur, you know, maybe some transient excess gas for a day or two, but that should pass as the body adjusts.  

00:44:21 Narelle:        The only reason not to give colostrum at all would be if a dog or a human had a true milk protein allergy. So you definitely wanna avoid that situation. Another concern might be the lactose content for dogs. Because even I'm always saying, dogs don't need milk, they're lactose intolerant. But the great thing is that bovine colostrum already has very low levels of lactose. So it has 2.5% to give a comparison. Human colostrum has around 7% lactose and canine colostrum is 1.5%. So it's only a little bit higher than natural. 

00:44:55 Glenn:       That’s good to know.  

00:44:55 Narelle:       But the great thing is the CanineCeuticals Pure Colostrum has even less lactose than the standard bovine colostrum because it's specifically formulated to be a low lactose formula and that's because it's got the addition of lactase in it. So that's perfect. It makes it perfect for dogs being a low lactose formula.  

00:45:15 Glenn:        So ethically harvested and low lactose. Great  

00:45:19 Narelle:       Dogs shouldn't really react with any symptoms at all from the bovine colostrum, that's colostrum in a nutshell. So provides a potent array of immune factors, growth factors and nutrients that are beneficial to dogs of any age. It can help to reduce allergy symptoms. The anti-inflammatory components, you know, can stimulate the repair of gut health and reduce any damage caused by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Can help dogs with IBS and IBD. It's been shown to reduce the incidence of diarrhoea and puppies and oh my gosh, that's reason enough to be getting colostrum. It may help with respiratory tract infections and it may help with dental disease. So an amazing all round safe product.  

00:46:00 Glenn:       There's so many benefits there, just what you've listed there.  

00:46:03 Narelle:       Also the musculoskeletal benefits as well. So tissue repair, exercise recovery, increased strength and stamina. 

00:46:10 Glenn:        So really good. That must be, it's something that, I dunno why most people haven't got their dogs on it. If  

00:46:14 Narelle:       If you are gonna try it on the CanineCeuticals Pure Colostrum label, there are dosing guidelines and you might follow them as a maintenance amount. But if you did have a dog that had serious bloody diarrhoea or just had a full on intensive weekend of high activity or something like that, you absolutely could up the dose. You might do two or three times the label dose for a short period of time just to get them through that acute phase.  

00:46:40 Glenn:       Safe to do so.  

00:46:42 Narelle:       Absolutely safe to do so. And then just drop it back down to maintenance again. So like with Ladybug, you know, she's been on a slightly high dose for the week following her surgery, but I'll be able to sort of pop that back down for Mando. He's not on it unless he's, I mean, he hasn't needed to be on it since his first little diarrhoea episode when we brought him home. So it's a very flexible product. You know, you can have it in the cupboard and use it as needed or you can have dogs on a lower maintenance dose to keep them in optimal shame.  

00:47:07 Glenn:       And I guess there's plenty of information that you've got on your CanineCeuticals website isn't there?  

00:47:12 Narelle:       Yeah. So you can read all about it on the website, so that's canineceuticals.com au. If you've got any questions about the show, you can jump onto the Facebook page, Natural Health for People and Pets. If you wanna get in touch with me directly, narelle@canineceuticals.com.au or narelle@naturalhealthandnutrition.com au. Both will get to me.  

00:47:32 Glenn:       Yeah, that's great.  

00:47:33 Narelle:       Check it out. Check out the other products on the website. There's a lot of really good information and great products for a whole variety of different health conditions in our dogs.  

00:47:42 Glenn:        And considering there's people out there who have been telling us to hurry up and put more episodes out, if you like the show, why don't you go online to Spotify or to Apple Podcasts and leave a review.  

00:47:53 Narelle:       Yeah, that would be great if you could share the love and tell others about the show and leave a review.  

00:47:58 Glenn:       Yeah, definitely do that. Tell others about the show. And Narelle’s been great at reaching out to our fan base, entering questions and helping people out. And we especially want to give a big thanks to everybody, even though CanineCeuticals is Narelle’s company, I'm her husband. So I still get the benefits of not only seeing it grow and do well, but also seeing so many happy people coming through. Narelle has most of her businesses online, but occasionally she'll get people dropping in to pick up products if they're local. It's so nice to hear and see people talking about what benefits they've had with their dogs. People who've come in and done courses with me, or done training sessions with me have been talking about how they've already got their dog on, how wonderful it is, what big change it's made. So that's great to hear because we fundamentally got in it when we got into a diabolical mess with Ladybug. That's why Narelle did so much research, because as you know, we've talked about so many times, it was just killing us, what was happening to her. And it's nice to see people getting a turnaround and a positive net effect from their dogs when they're changing their diet. When they're supplementing the right way with somebody who's done all the hard work and the legwork for everybody. 

00:49:10 Narelle:        Yeah, I just wanna jump in quickly there. If you do have a really sensitive dog, because just like people like Glen and I, we can take the same supplement and Glen might get an upset stomach and I don't. The same thing can happen with our dog. So if you do have a very sensitive dog and you're not sure about a product or the dosing, please, that's when you need to email me and we can structure the introduction of the product and the dosing to make sure that there's not gonna be any issues. So that everything can be tailored and tweaked. You just need to get in touch with me.   

00:49:40 Glenn:       Well, she's given you all those details, so if in doubt, just go straight to the CanineCeuticals website, which is… 

00:49:47 Narelle:       canineceuticals.com.au.  

00:49:48 Glenn:        Okay, well that's a good place to leave it. Thanks everybody.  

00:49:51 Narelle:       Thank you. Bye.