Since I am involved with biestmilch/colostrum, the diagnosis of lactose intolerance seems to have spread like an epidemic. Self-diagnosis and the diagnosis made by physicians – sorry to say so – as an easy way out for all kinds of functional gastrointestinal disorders has become so common that one has to develop reservations.
If you take your time and read the latest research done on this topic, doubts about the reliability of this diagnosis appear more than justified. Don’t get me wrong, there is no questioning about people suffering gastrointestinal symptoms, only the given reason may be highly questionable.

The topic is of great relevance for athletes who very often suffer from functional gastrointestinal disorders due to stress, be it mechanical, biochemical or mental. My impression is that these problems are rarely adequately analyzed and diagnosed, but overhastily labelled either as infectious, lactose- or stress-induced (means vegetative). The following paragraphs can only give you a very superficial idea of a complex problem.

Lactose and lactase, what is it about? A more state-of -the art view on intolerance

As far as it is known, lactose has no special nutritional value for adults. It is the most important source of energy during the first year of a human’s life, providing almost half the total energy requirement of infants. Lactose has several applications in food industry. It is used in sweets, confectionery and sausages because of its physiological properties: lactose provides a good texture and binds water and color. To be absorbed it needs to hydrolyzed. This is what lactase is doing. Lactase is found abundantly at the beginning of the small intestines. It is found at the tip of the intestinal villi and is therefore more vulnerable to intestinal diseases that cause cell damage (other enzymes that degrade other sugars are located deeper in the cell lining).  If lactase secretion drops about one tenth or less of suckling level after weaning, then this is referred to as primary hypolactasia. Congenital lactase deficiency is extremely rare. Secondary hypolactasia or maldigestion may be due to operations or damaged mucosal lining of the gut (infections, inflammatory diseases). This is where biestmilch comes in. The minimum amount of lactose that may cause symptoms is not known, and may be a very subjective thing. On average amounts of dozens of grams have to be ingested to cause symptoms (e.g. 50 grams are used in the lactose tolerance test for diagnostic reasons). Don’t forget that you ingest lactose with many kinds of foods!

Biestmilch is low in lactose. It only contains 5% to 7% of the amount of lactose in milk. (more…)

Endurance performance is always accompanied by minute lesions of muscles, tendons, connective tissue and capillaries. These micro traumata are the preconditions that muscles adapt and allow a performance on a higher level. The lesions can apply to muscle cell membranes, single fibers or bundles of fibers. Depending on the dimensions of the lesions muscle pains occur. Tendons and connective tissue suffer from ruptures as well. Small vessels can tear apart.
Micro-lesions happen due to the mechanical forces on the locomotor system, temperature changes within the tissue, disturbances of blood circulation, pH changes and the piling up of oxygen free radicals. The degree of muscle lesions can vary, but it is impossible to avoid, if your goal is to achieve some training effect. Injuries induce the inflammatory process that is the precondition for healing and adaptation of muscles to a higher level of performance. Both are interdependent processes initiated, controlled and performed by the immune system. An intact immune system need 3 to 5 days for the healing of these micro-lesions.
It is definitely a high skill to dose the training load in a way that muscle lesions are not too massive. If you do otherwise you may suffer from DOMS* that is a well known  complication of a training overload among elite athletes. Muscle pain is subsequently not caused by excessive lactate production but by inflammatory substances.
If micro-lesions don’t heal due to an impaired immune system and lacking recovery times, then muscle ruptures or injuries of tendons may occur. The consequences may be delayed healing processes and an increased disposition for injuries.
As there are never all muscle fibers activated at a time – recent studies talk of a maximum of 50% in elite athletes – the muscle tissue tolerates overloads comparatively long. Fibers are activated following a sort of rotation principle. Even during one and the same training cycle the activation pattern of fibers changes. For this reason parts of the same muscle have time to regenerate, even if the the muscle as such does not get sufficient time for regeneration.

*delayed onset of muscle soreness

And did you know already…
…, that biestmilch modulates inflammatory processes and therefore influences recovery positively?

Biestmilch (Colostrum) is like an immune serum. It strengthens immunity, but not only in the sense of containing infections. Also other healing processes are fostered, as there are the muscle lesions occurring during training.

A growing body of research is showing that regular exercise—as simple as a brisk 30- to 45-minute walk five times a week—can boost the body’s immune system, increasing the circulation of natural killer cells that fight off viruses and bacteria. And exercise has been shown to improve the body’s response to the influenza vaccine, making it more effective at keeping the virus at bay.
As you can see the recommendations of Dr. David Nieman, director of Appalachian State University’s Human Performance Lab in Kannapolis are quite moderate. Here one of his quotes published in the Wall Street Journal:

“No pill or nutritional supplement has the power of near-daily moderate activity in lowering the number of sick days people take,” says David Nieman, N.C. Dr. Nieman has conducted several randomized controlled studies showing that people who walked briskly for 45 minutes, five days a week over 12 to 15 weeks had fewer and less severe upper respiratory tract infections, such as colds and flu. These subjects reduced their number of sick days 25% to 50% compared with sedentary control subjects, he says.

But there are other studies that show how easy you can overdo it and provoke an impaired immunity.

There is also evidence that too much intense exercise can reduce immunity. Research is showing that more than 90 minutes of high-intensity endurance exercise can make athletes susceptible to illness for up to 72 hours after the exercise session. This is important information for those who compete in longer events such as marathons or triathlons.

Intense exercise seems to cause a temporary decrease in immune system function. Research has found that during intense physical exertion, the body produces certain hormones that temporarily lower immunity.

Cortisol and adrenaline, known as the stress hormones, raise blood pressure and cholesterol levels and suppress the immune system. This effect has been linked to the increased susceptibility to infection in endurance athletes after extreme exercise (such as marathon running or Ironman-distance triathlon training).

This data is clearly indicating why biestmilch/colostrum as a unique immune strengthening  substance is justified in endurance sports, and nothing to laugh about. Yes, this still happens which is strange because biestmilch is detrimental for mammals to survive the first weeks after birth, actually nothing to ridicule.

Immunity is right in the centre of healthiness, success, performance … one name it. Without immunity death is the only perspective you have got. This sounds rather drastic, but it is just a reality.

During the last weeks I did a lot of things that were in the name of Biestmilch, but were not focusing on biestmilch as a substance, as precious food that should be part of your diet. Today I read an article in the Irish Times about sports nutrition and the controversial relevance of food supplements. This publication is very much in line with our way of thinking at Biestmilch Seven and so, it stimulated me to add my thoughts to this topic.

Since 2002 Biestmilch and so am I involved in triathlon. Coming from the medical field Biestmilch was really starting from scratch there. My understanding about the effects of biestmilch in an athlete’s body was and is growing slowly since then. And I am very happy to notice that the awareness of the importance of immunity for performance and recovery increased tremendously. Today immunity is right in the centre of concern in sports.

(more…)