Transfer Factor in Cancer Therapy …. and many other uses
Extracted from the American veterinary magazine – DVM Magazine - February 2003.
By Kenneth Marcella DVM
Immunotherapy was predicted to be one of the most rapidly expanding areas of medical science in this decade. Proposed advances in our ability to manipulate the protection offered by the body's own immune system were going to make humans and animals far healthier and were promising to increase both the length and quality of life.
Immune agents were going to be our new defences against those micro-organisms that no longer responded to antibiotics, and diseases from allergies to cancer were going to be subdued by this new field.
To date, however, those advances have been slow in coming. We have not been able to manipulate the body's own defences as planned and we have few effective immune stimulants.
Positive research data has been piling up concerning the most promising immune agent in years, though, and immunologists may be finally making good on their earlier predictions.
Transfer factor, as this new immune compound is being called, may be the long-awaited ‘next step’ and it may be everything that was promised.
Richard Bennet Ph.D., an infectious disease immunologist writes, ‘It is our ability to create a really healthy immune system that I think represents the greatest potential gains in health in the world.’
It is the immune system, after all, which provides humans and animals with the ability to recognise and remember potentially harmful foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses. The immune system allows us to then respond to these threatening invaders in our systems.
The consequences of conditions of suppressed or damaged immune systems are devastatingly familiar to veterinarians.
A new agent that would vastly improve immune function would certainly warrant some attention. Transfer factor promises to be this new agent. It is a component of colostrum and is produced to be used as a powder added to the diet.
Transfer factor is also a natural killer cell inductor. These cells seek out and destroy infected or malignant cells and cells infected by viruses.
Transfer factor increases natural killer cell activity five times over normal rates and it is non-species specific. It is believed that this aspect of transfer factor is related to the significant improvements seen in certain cancer patients that have taken this product. Multiple sclerosis patients have also shown improvements.
Transfer factor in cats, dogs, horses, cows and humans is virtually identical structurally and completely identical functionally. This has helped in the production of this product since cows can produce large quantities of colostrum which is then used for extraction of transfer factor.
(Remarkably), Transfer factor is also a suppressor of immune function. It is paradoxical that the same product can both stimulate and suppress immune function but transfer factor function depends on the specific antigens and the status of the immune response.
Transfer factor can stimulate the release of T suppressor cells when down’ regulation is necessary due to over activity. Autoimmune diseases and allergic reactions are situations where the body's own immune response has over-responded to antigenic stimulation. Transfer factor works in these situations because it can slow down this overactive response.
If veterinarians can stimulate a better immune response to respiratory bacteria, skin pathogens and various viruses, then the need to use antibiotics is lessened. If transfer factor can produce such boosts in immunity in 24 hours then the potential for use as a pre-travel protectant, or a post-exposure treatment is tremendous.
Back to:
Transfer Factor
Cancer
A to Z
Extracted from the American veterinary magazine – DVM Magazine - February 2003.
By Kenneth Marcella DVM
Immunotherapy was predicted to be one of the most rapidly expanding areas of medical science in this decade. Proposed advances in our ability to manipulate the protection offered by the body's own immune system were going to make humans and animals far healthier and were promising to increase both the length and quality of life.
Immune agents were going to be our new defences against those micro-organisms that no longer responded to antibiotics, and diseases from allergies to cancer were going to be subdued by this new field.
To date, however, those advances have been slow in coming. We have not been able to manipulate the body's own defences as planned and we have few effective immune stimulants.
Positive research data has been piling up concerning the most promising immune agent in years, though, and immunologists may be finally making good on their earlier predictions.
Transfer factor, as this new immune compound is being called, may be the long-awaited ‘next step’ and it may be everything that was promised.
Richard Bennet Ph.D., an infectious disease immunologist writes, ‘It is our ability to create a really healthy immune system that I think represents the greatest potential gains in health in the world.’
It is the immune system, after all, which provides humans and animals with the ability to recognise and remember potentially harmful foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses. The immune system allows us to then respond to these threatening invaders in our systems.
The consequences of conditions of suppressed or damaged immune systems are devastatingly familiar to veterinarians.
A new agent that would vastly improve immune function would certainly warrant some attention. Transfer factor promises to be this new agent. It is a component of colostrum and is produced to be used as a powder added to the diet.
Transfer factor is also a natural killer cell inductor. These cells seek out and destroy infected or malignant cells and cells infected by viruses.
Transfer factor increases natural killer cell activity five times over normal rates and it is non-species specific. It is believed that this aspect of transfer factor is related to the significant improvements seen in certain cancer patients that have taken this product. Multiple sclerosis patients have also shown improvements.
Transfer factor in cats, dogs, horses, cows and humans is virtually identical structurally and completely identical functionally. This has helped in the production of this product since cows can produce large quantities of colostrum which is then used for extraction of transfer factor.
(Remarkably), Transfer factor is also a suppressor of immune function. It is paradoxical that the same product can both stimulate and suppress immune function but transfer factor function depends on the specific antigens and the status of the immune response.
Transfer factor can stimulate the release of T suppressor cells when down’ regulation is necessary due to over activity. Autoimmune diseases and allergic reactions are situations where the body's own immune response has over-responded to antigenic stimulation. Transfer factor works in these situations because it can slow down this overactive response.
If veterinarians can stimulate a better immune response to respiratory bacteria, skin pathogens and various viruses, then the need to use antibiotics is lessened. If transfer factor can produce such boosts in immunity in 24 hours then the potential for use as a pre-travel protectant, or a post-exposure treatment is tremendous.
Back to:
Transfer Factor
Cancer
A to Z