Spirulina & the Thyroid

Spirulina is a blue-green algae, and although it is a food, it is better known as a dietary supplement. It is commonly touted for all sorts of health-promoting purposes and sold in both powdered and capsule form. Due to its nutrient profile, spirulina may be beneficial for certain thyroid conditions, but no clinical studies have confirmed its usefulness for treating thyroid disorders.

Spirulina for Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism, an insufficient production of thyroid hormones, is caused by a variety of factors, among them an iodine deficiency. Consuming a diet that is too low in iodine can cause your thyroid gland to become sluggish. Although the introduction of iodized salt has reduced the likelihood of having an iodine deficiency, many pregnant women in the United States and people who consciously avoid iodized salt are still low in it. Since your body cannot make iodine, you need to get it from dietary sources, and spirulina is naturally very high in it. As such, natural health practitioners sometimes recommend spirulina to help treat hypothyroidism; however, this recommendation is based on anecdotal evidence alone.

Spirulina for Thyroid Health

Even though it has not yet been clinically proven to help fight hypothyroidism, the range of nutrients in spirulina make it a beneficial addition to a thyroid health-supporting diet. The potent antioxidant properties of spirulina may help prevent certain thyroid gland diseases by protecting the thyroid from the harmful effects of free radicals. Spirulina is also rich in a range of minerals including selenium, which is well-known for its thyroid-supporting properties. Finally, spirulina is an excellent source of protein and contains a healthy dose of vitamin B-12, which is helpful because many people with hypothyroidism are deficient in B-12.

• When Not to Take Spirulina

Some people are allergic to the iodine contained in spirulina, and you should talk to your doctor before self-medicating with it. This is especially important if you have a thyroid condition because too much iodine can be harmful for those with hyperthyroidism -- an overactive thyroid -- as well as those with Hashimoto’s disease, an immune system-related thyroid disorder. People who are most likely to benefit from spirulina are those with hypothyroidism or subclinical hypothyroidism, but even these people need to be careful, especially if they eat a lot of iodine-rich foods. A study published in 2012 in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" found that while iodine usually helps stimulate the thyroid, too much iodine -- more than about 800 micrograms per day -- can actually cause the thyroid to become less active.

Considerations

Always buy spirulina from a trusted brand because it can be contaminated with toxic substances. Also, depending on the water where it was grown, spirulina may contain high levels of heavy metals. A standard dose of spirulina for supporting health is 500 milligrams per day, but spirulina may interact with certain medications. People with the metabolic condition phenylketonuria should not take spirulina.

SSpirulina is a type of blue-green algae available as a dietary supplement in powdered, capsule or tablet form. According to MedlinePlus, spirulina is marketed as an alternative treatment for cardiovascular, digestive and immune system problems, but none of these claims are supported by scientific evidence. Like other sea vegetables such as seaweed, spirulina has a high concentration of iodine. If you have thyroid problems, talk to your doctor about what effect the iodine from spirulina supplementation may have on you.

Iodine Requirement

Most Americans get enough iodine from foods like iodized salt. However, vegans and strict vegetarians who don't consume iodized salt, seaweed or fish may become deficient. If your diet lacks iodine, your thyroid gland will not be able to produce adequate triiodothyronine, or T3, and thyroxine, or T4, essential thyroid hormones. Healthy adults need approximately 150 micrograms of iodine each day to prevent the development of goiter, or enlarged thyroid gland, and hypothyroidism. Pregnant women should have 220 micrograms daily and nursing women should consume 290 micrograms. A typical 3-gram dose of a commercial spirulina supplement supplies 15 micrograms of iodine, or 10 percent of the daily requirement for most men and women.

Effect on Hypothyroidism

Although being deficient in iodine may help cause hypothyroidism, the American Thyroid Association cautions that trying to rectify the disorder by consuming large doses of iodine -- including iodine supplied by sea vegetables like spirulina -- may worsen the symptoms of the condition. This is especially true if the hypothyroidism is caused by Hashimoto's disease, an autoimmune disorder in which thyroid tissue is attacked by the body's own immune cells. Excess iodine may stimulate these cells into increased action.

Effect on Hyperthyroidism

Hyperthyroidism occurs when the thyroid gland produces too much thyroid hormone. This can cause insomnia, a rapid and irregular heartbeat, weight loss, anxiety, bulging eyes and goiter. Regularly consuming large doses of iodine-rich products like spirulina can contribute to the development of hyperthyroidism or exacerbate the disease's symptoms. People who have spent most of their lives consuming a diet relatively low in iodine can develop iodine-induced hyperthyroidism from even a moderate increase in their iodine consumption.

Expert Recommendations

Individuals with hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism need to be cautious about using any supplements like spirulina that are high in iodine, advises registered dietitian Cheryl Harris. If your doctor does say spirulina supplementation is a safe option for you, always adhere to her dosage recommendations. Over-the-counter supplements like spirulina aren't regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and may be contaminated by potentially poisonous bacteria and heavy metals. Look for brands that have been tested by an outside agency such as the U.S. Pharmacopeia.

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BOVINE COLOSTRUM : What is it ??

What's colostrum? 
Colostrum is the first milk your breasts produce during pregnancy. Most mothers don't even know it's there unless they leak a bit toward the end of the pregnancy. Your body starts making it about three to four months into pregnancy, and it may leak from your breasts while you're pregnant.

What colostrum lacks in volume it makes up for in power. Some people refer to colostrum as "high octane" milk. It's full of antibodies and immunoglobulins, which not only help protect newborns as they come into our world of bacteria and viruses, but also has a laxative effect that helps them expel the tarry first stools called meconium.
When you feed your baby colostrum, which may appear as clear fluid or be a deep golden color, it's as though you're giving him his first vaccination. 

Organic colostrum benefits and rebuilds the human body at a deep foundational level~the immune system to it's top fighting form
~the digestive system to it's optimal function
~and it even provides you with every basic essential nutrient known
People originally got interested in bovine colostrum because of the high antibody levels. They thought that the antibodies might prevent intestinal infections in people, but they seem to be wrong.
Some athletes use bovine colostrum to burn fat, build lean muscle, increase stamina and vitality, and improve athletic performance. Bovine colostrum is not on the banned drug list of the International Olympic Committee.

Bovine colostrum is also used for boosting the immune system, healing injuries, repairing nervous system damage, improving mood and sense of well being, slowing and reversing aging, and as an agent for killing bacteria and fungus.
Bovine colostrum is used in the rectum to treat inflammation of the colon (colitis).
Researchers have created a special type of bovine colostrum called “hyperimune bovine colostrum.” This special colostrum is produced by cows that have received vaccinations against specific disease-causing organisms. The vaccinations cause the cows to develop antibodies to fight those specific organisms. The antibodies pass into the colostrum. Hyperimmune bovine colostrum has been used in clinical trials for treating AIDS-related diarrhea, diarrhea associated with graft versus host diseasefollowing bone marrow transplant, and rotavirus diarrhea in children.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted hyperimmune bovine colostrum “orphan drug status.” Under the Orphan Drug Law, drug makers who invest in the development of treatments for rare conditions enjoy special market advantages; for example, permission to sell the drug without competition for 7 years. If these special incentives were not in place, pharmaceutical companies might not develop drugs for rare conditions because the potential market is so small.

How does it work?
There is some concern about the possibility of catching "mad cow disease" (bovine spongiform encephalitis, BSE) or other diseases from products that come from animals. "Mad cow disease" does not appear to be transmitted through milk products, but it is probably wise to avoid animal products from countries where "mad cow disease" has been found.
Special Precautions & Warnings:
Allergy to cow’s milk: If you are allergic to cow’s milk or milk products, you may also be allergic to bovine colostrum. In that case, it is best to avoid it.
Are there any cow colostrum side effects?

How Does Colostrum Work?

Colostrum is rich with valuable vitamins and nutrients, including proteins, vitamin A, and sodium chloride. At the same time, colostrum contains a much lower amount of carbohydrates, fats, and potassium than ordinary milk.

Bovine colostrum is particularly rich with nutrients. It contains vitamins E, A, C, B6, and B12along with calcium, chromium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. As if that wasn’t good enough, there are also 9 amino acids within colostrum, including arginine, cysteine, glutamic acid, alanine, tyrosine, glycine, proline, aspartic acid, and serine.

While the vitamins, minerals, and amino acids in colostrum are important, the most pertinent bioactive components in colostrum are growth factors and antimicrobial factors.

The antimicrobial factors are powerful antibodies which protect the newborn against disease pathogens. The growth factors, on the other hand, supercharge the growth of the gut, which means the newborn can begin to accept regular breast milk with higher fat content.

The antibodies in colostrum have actually played an essential role in medical history: when researchers discovered the first oral vaccine against polio, they used the immunoglobulin from bovine colostrum.

Ultimately, when giving babies (or any newborn mammal) colostrum, it’s like giving them their first vaccination. It’s also like giving them a super powered protein powder and multivitamin supplement all rolled into one.

Health Benefits of Colostrum

You already know why newborns need colostrum from an evolutionary standpoint. But why are more and more people around the world taking colostrum as a health supplement?

In scientific studies and clinical testing, colostrum has indicated some surprising health benefits. Here are some of the suggested health benefits of colostrum:

— Support Healthy Digestion: Colostrum is given to newborns to help them pass their first stool. It does this by acting as a mild laxative.

— Boost Immune System Functionality: As mentioned above, colostrum is rich with immunoglobulins, which act as a natural type of vaccine. That’s why naturopathic medicine and homeopathic medicine often recommend colostrum as a natural alternative to antibiotics.

— Improve Athletic Performance: Colostrum is similar to other types of dairy-based protein, like whey protein. That’s why it’s commonly used to improve athletic performance. Some athletes use colostrum to decrease recovery time and improve performance. In one study, Dutch field hockey players improved sprint performance and vertical jump performance while taking colostrum as a supplement. Colostrum does this by improving lean muscle mass.

— Improve Recovery Times: For the same reasons listed under “Improve Athletic Performance”, colostrum is also used to improve recovery times following athletic exertion or physical activity.

— Increase Lean Muscle Mass: Colostrum is similar to whey protein. In most studies, however, it’s actually proven to be superior to whey protein in terms of increasing lean muscle mass.

Colostrum is the first food of life – naturally designed to maintain health and prevent disease. This is a baby’s first food and as such is incredibly effective at keeping a baby healthy while providing the foundation for growth. Sadly, most people (including health professionals) have never been taught its health benefits.

Colostrum is the secretion from the mammary glands before a mothers milk starts to flow. It is provided in the first 24 to 48 hours, and provides essential nutrients for the immune system. Bovine colostrum is biologically transferable to all mammals – including man. It even has identical factors to those of human colostrum and is actually many times richer in immune factors.

How to bring your body back to life

One of the primary functions of colostrum is gut health. The health of our gastrointestinal tract which consists of the mouth, esophagus, stomach and the intestines is essential to preventing disease. The gut has also been called our “second brain” and digestive issues are usually the source of most physical dis-eases.

We don’t need to look further than the gut when looking to alleviate most illnesses. Gut health is thought of in terms of diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, heartburn, and other GI problems. Unfortunately, we tend to ignore intestinal health when looking at conditions that seem unrelated such as: food allergies, autoimmune disorders, Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

A healthy digestive system is your first line of (disease) defense

When the bacteria in the gut are out of balance, dysbiosis is one of the consequences. In other words, the proportion of beneficial bacteria is out numbered by harmful bacteria – which leads the way to a “leaky gut”. Don’t ignore digestive disorders – look for a qualified, naturopathic physician to help you heal the gut.

Leaky gut is when the permeability of the gut lining increases so that toxins and pathogens (normally held in check) pass though the gut lining – moving freely throughout the body. The intestines now become the gateway to freedom for every type of bacteria, fungus and toxin – causing fatigue, brain fog plus many other chronic health problems.

Boost immunity with nature’s first food

Leaky gut can be devastating and the effects can last a lifetime. Colostrum has a cornucopia of essential immune boosting substances known to help heal leaky gut. There is a reason it’s the first feeding for a human being. Thankfully, breast feeding is making a popular comeback and will certainly help future generation – providing mothers keep their body healthy and strong.

In the book Colostrum, Life’s First Food, Dr. Daniel G. Clark’s message is loud and clear – bovine colostrum “rebuilds the immune system, destroys viruses, bacteria, and fungi, and accelerates healing of all body tissue, while helping with weight loss and builds lean muscle, while slowing down and reversing aging.”

According to Clark and the well-known naturopathic physician Dr. Bernard Jensen, colostrum plays a therapeutic role in AIDS, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, allergies, herpes, bacterial, viral and parasitic infections, gingivitis, colds and flu.

Is your diet filled with “superfood” nutrition?

Bovine colostrum is not for everyone – especially vegans. Ultimately, it’s up to each individual to choose what’s best for them. And, naturally, there are many other ways to rebuild the health of the colon such as, eating fermented foods; supplementing with prebiotics or probiotics and minimizing the use of antibiotics.

Keep in mind, the best quality colostrum comes from healthy cows that roam on chemical-free pastures without hormones or antibiotics. The processing has to be done without the use of high temperatures and pasteurization. And, powdered colostrum is more concentrated than its liquid form with a longer shelf life.

Did you know that conventional doctors once used colostrum for its antibiotic effects before the introduction of penicillin? Are you using colostrum? Post your health recovery story below.

About the author: Blanche Levine has been a student of natural healing modalities for the last 25 years. She had the privilege of working with some of the greatest minds in Natural Healing including Naturopaths, Scientist, and Energy Healers. Having seen people miraculously heal from all kinds of dis-ease through non-invasive methods, her passion now is to help people.

To understand how bovine colostrum benefits your health, you have to first understand what it is and what it's composed of. All mammalian mothers produce colostrum milk for a short period of time after they've given birth. This "first milk" is available for a set amount of time (it varies from species to species) after the mother has given birth and then her milk transitions over to regular milk, which is produced for the rest of the suckling stage of her offspring. Colostrum is vastly different in it's nutritional composition than regular milk and this is what makes it one of the most powerful and rejuvenative antiaging foods available.

The health benefits of colostrum can be attributed to the fact that it contains 97 immune factors (constituents that build and improve different aspects of the immune system), 87 growth factors (bio-identical hormones and hormone precursors) and a variety of different probiotics along with prebiotics that help grow and feed the beneficial flora in the colostrum and in your gut! When harvested within 6 hours (for bovine colostrum) after a calf is born and exposed to as little processing as possible, colostrum benefits 4 aspects of the human body. It builds, repairs, strengthens and restores:

~the hormonal system back to levels associated with youth 

When the Australian Olympic swim team won more gold medals than the Chinese in both 2000 and 2004, they attributed it in part due to their us of colostrum supplements. It is popular among athletes as the health benefits of colostrum milk include decreasing recovery time, increasing strength and performance gains and preventing sickness due to overtraining (a common phenomenon among peak performers). This makes raw colostrum both a powerful yin jing tonic and a live superfood!Colostrum is a milky fluid that comes from the breasts of humans, cows, and other mammals the first few days after giving birth, before true milk appears. It contains proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and proteins (antibodies) that fight disease-causing agents such as bacteria and viruses. Antibody levels in colostrums can be 100 times higher than levels in regular cow’s milk.

Colostrum is collected from cows that have been vaccinated to produce antibodies that fight the bacteria that cause diarrheal disease. These antibodies appear in the colostrum that is collected as medicine. Though the hope is that these cow antibodies will help fight human disease, the cow antibodies do not seem to be very active in humans.

Bovine colostrum seems to be LIKELY SAFE for most people when taken appropriately by mouth. When it is given rectally as an enema it seems to be POSSIBLY SAFE for most people. While most people don't experience any side effects from bovine colostrum, there have been rare reports of problems in HIV-positive people such as nausea, vomiting, abnormal liver function tests, and decreased red blood cells.

Pregnancy and breast-feeding: There is not enough reliable information about the safety of taking bovine colostrum if you are pregnant or breast-feeding. Stay on the safe side and avoid use.

When people who are lactose intolerant learn about how effectively bovine colostrum benefits human health, they are sad because they think that it will trigger their dairy "allergy". As a matter of fact, most people's intolerance to cow's milk (and other types of milk) is for the most part due to the fact that they have only ever consumed pasteurized dairy. After pasteurization, lactase (the enzyme naturally found in milk that is needed to break down the milk sugar lactose) is destroyed and thus people get indigestion when they drink milk.

If you consume truly raw colostrum milk (or fresh) then you will be getting lactase within it to help digest it. On top of that, colostrum benefits the regeneration of your digestive system in a way where many people can eventually consume dairy once again after many years of being "allergic" to it (especially if they make a point to just consume raw dairy from cows, goats and/or sheep).

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