Sport may challenge the spirit, cleanse the mind and toughen the body, but it doesn’t always lead to moderation. It can be tough to keep off the road if you’re getting good results or if there’s a competition on the horizon. Too much enthusiasm can lead to overtraining, when the work outweighs the rest and the muscles don’t complete their recovery.
Top elite athletes in cross country, marathon and ultra distance endurance competitions are learning to pay attention to this balance through the clever use of a traditional food to keep their bodies in harmony and are getting the race results to show for it. It’s called Neovite colostrum.
Sharon Gayter, 2009 Commonwealth 24 Hour Champion and Great Britain’s top female 24 hour runner for the last thirteen consecutive years, 42, ran the staggering distance of 837 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats and in the process broke the all comers record by 17.5 hours.
Over the 12 days Sharon was on the road she overcame the sufferings of her body and completed the distance. “Stage races and ones that last 24 hours are usually won by women in the 40-45 age range, so I definitely feel that I am at my peak right now,” says Sharon.
This feat was fraught with all the stumbling blocks you’d expect, namely, injuries. “I was averaging 65 miles a day and had a lot of soft tissue damage to my muscles,” says Sharon. “The main obstacles were a niggling Achilles heal injury, asthma attacks, sleep deprivation blistered and swollen feet. But disaster stuck just past the halfway point when I pulled my leg muscle and couldn’t bend my knee. At this point I resigned myself to walking for the rest of the way. I anticipated being out for at least 6 weeks with this type of injury. At the time I genuinely felt the record was out of reach.”
Sharon did soldier on and attributes her triumph to the performance and recovery benefits of Neovite colostrum. “The improved recovery from training first attracted me to colostrum. On the advice from my sponsors, I put a little Neovite in all my sports drinks while running and couldn’t taste it at all. It was my like little security blanket. The mineral density of my bones is well below normal and I was really scared of getting a stress fracture. After I pulled the leg muscle, I thought my fears were coming true but to my amazement the colostrum got me back to running after just 4 days. I couldn’t believe it was possible. It worked incredibly well and the end result was that I took over 17 hours off the record. Absolutely stunning.”
In March 2008, Sharon set another record in the Libyan Challenge, an extremely hot non-stop desert race, at just over 36 hours. Neovite helped maintained her energy levels throughout the race with no stomach discomfort at all. Just three weeks later she recovered enough to run the Marathon Des Sables.
Proud of her achievements Sharon says “In December last year I set the World’s Best Indoor 24 Hour Performance for 2008 and a new British Indoor Record of 219km. Husband Bill was supporting me and put a teaspoon of Neovite in all my drinks taken.”
Neovite colostrum is the first milk produced by cows during the first 48 hours after birth. Colostrum provides newborns with the essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals and amino acids they need to make it through the first days of life. The product is imported from New Zealand from the surplus after the calves have been fed. It is a rich source of bioactive components such as immunoglobulins, cytokines, interleukins and growth factors.
Colostrum is recommended by the English Institute of Sport performance nutritionist Nigel Mitchell, who advises British Cycling. UK riders have a regular supply from the leading brand Neovite which offers products that have been screened by drug testing laboratory HFL Sports Science.
Neovite powder can be mixed with energy drinks or foods to give the immune system a boost and reduce illnesses from colds and flu. Marathon runners taking colostrum increased their levels of salivary antibodies (IgA) by 79%, their front line of defence against colds and throat infections. But better results are not just down to keeping healthy. Supplementation in hockey players resulted in improvements in sprints and jumps. In another trial, competitive cyclists had an overall 2.2% increase in performance in a 40k time trial after intense training.
Professor Ray Playford, eminent gastroenterologist, has published research showing dairy colostrum to be effective for colitis and inflammatory bowel disorders as well as preventing gut damage caused by the use of NSAID pain-killers.
Research on marathon runners has also found that their antibody levels drop significantly after long periods of training and they have discovered that one in seven runners come down with respiratory infections after running a marathon. These kinds of odds can put a serious dampener on long term training goals for both the individual and the club. However, it is possible to improve the body’s defences.
In a colostrum study of distance runners, salivary antibodies (IgA) increased by 79% after 12 weeks use. These are essential defences against respiratory tract infection.
All too commonly runners have IBS or ‘Runner’s Trots.’ It’s not yet known precisely why runners suffer with these problems but colostrum is making headway in their treatment. “It’s clear that colostrum can offer people a greater choice in treating a wide range of unpleasant and sometimes life threatening gut problems,” says Professor Ray Playford, the UK’s leading research gastroenterologist and deputy head of Queen Mary’s School of Medicine, University of London.
“This discovery is exciting because it is a completely natural food that studies have shown to have extremely positive results in the treatment gastro-intestinal conditions and gut injury.” Professor Playford is currently conducting further studies to measure how colostrum reduces the gut permeability suffered by distance runners, a condition that can lead to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome if unresolved.
Aberystwyth University has recently completed a study where Neovite colostrum was used to counter exercise-induced immunodepression. Twenty healthy, active men cycled for 2 hours at 64 % VO2 max after 4 weeks of daily Neovite or placebo. In measures of their innate immune response, Neovite speeded the recovery of neutrophil function and limited the decrease of salivary lysozyme, two more first line defences against respiratory infection.
Author Dr Glen Davison says, “The results confirm that bovine colostrum supplementation has some beneficial effects on the immune system and limits some of the effects induced by physical stressors such as exercise. This may confer some benefit to our defences against infection and may help to explain the findings from previous studies in athletes, where those taking bovine colostrum reported fewer days with illness”
Getting peak performance from athletes is achieved by keeping them healthy over a sustained period of time. But this is tough if their training is working against their goals. “Running is hugely taxing on the body and can suppress the immune system, making you more susceptible to colds and flu, especially in the winter,” says Joe Beer, renowned endurance sports coach and author. “It’s common after an illness for your running times to be slower, your heart rate to be elevated and for there to be a sweeping drop in your training momentum.”
Athletes he trains who use colostrum have improved recovery rates, increases in strength, and lean muscle mass and better performances against the clock. However, the most positive reports are that clients are having fewer bouts of illness and less stomach trouble. “Colostrum provides a gradual accumulation of better health and consistency in my athletes’ training which results in faster running times,” says Joe.
Joe Beer is not alone in the results he is achieving. Matt Lovell, Elite Sports Nutritionist and advisor to RFU had this to say: “Colostrum is valuable support to your nutrition during periods of intense training. It offers background immune support and is a great benefit to digestive health and wellness. I use colostrum for both athletes and the general public.”
Colostrum is the first food we all taste when we’re born. Collecting first milk from goats and cattle has been part of our diet for the last 10,000 years. Sports people will always seek the cutting edge for performance and health nutrition. National squads and champion clubs in rugby and soccer already use our colostrum, with individual winners and record breakers in cycling and running. The benefits they gain serve as markers for the rest of us.
We see it becoming a cost-effective tier of treatment for inflammatory bowel disease, colitis, IBS, recurrent respiratory infection, wound healing, muscle loss, chronic fatigue and auto-immune disorders. Colostrum, a taste we all forgot, has a long future in human health.