Repairing Leaky Guts

Researchers suggest bovine colostrum can reduce gut permeability known as leaky gut syndrome, a condition in which an abnormally-permeable gut wall allows toxins to leak through.

Leaky gut syndrome can possibly lead to heart stroke in athletes as gut disorders induced by exercise are common among athletes and soldiers. (As the body works to respond to increased permeability or "gut leakiness," symptoms such as diarrhea arise to avoid toxins from gut organisms from entering the bloodstream, thus leading to heatstroke.)

Led by Ray Playford, professor of Medicine at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, this study looked at athletes who were asked to run for 20 minutes at 80 per cent of their aerobic maximum. Urine samples measures recorded subjects' gut-leakiness. The condition increased 250 percent and their body temperatures rose by two degrees after exercise.

Following two weeks of drinking dairy colostrum (a form of milk produced by the mammary glands of mammals in late pregnancy), the rise in gut leakiness was reduced by about 80 percent, even though temperatures rose the same and the same amount of effort was put forth.

The findings could mean better preventive techniques and protection for athletes and desert-war troops at risk of developing life-threatening heat stroke.