Transfer Factors Molecules And The Immune System

Transfer factors are tiny molecules found in colostrum which provide "immune knowledge" from a mother's immune system to her baby used in recognizing and fighting outside threats. By transferring information from cell to cell, transfer factors serve as "teachers" to the new cells, ensuring a strong immune system capable of surviving, even thriving, in its new environment.* Transfer factors are not species-specific and can therefore be extracted from any mammal and then be given to another mammal with the same efficacy.

There are over 3,000 published papers and 50 years of research on transfer factors. There has also been a lab study and a human study done with these products. In addition, the International Transfer Factor Society sponsors an International Symposium every three years on the findings of transfer factor research. The Eleventh International Transfer Factor Congress was held in Monterey, Mexico in March of 1999.

We all know the importance of an optimal immune system, not only after surgical procedures or fighting disease and serious illness, but also in your patient's or pet's everyday wellness. Recent in vitro and in vivo studies on Transfer Factor documented an increase in Natural Killer cell activity by 248% and 269% respectively, over baseline immune response. The NK cell is the animal's first line of defense against many pathogens... bacteria, viruses, parasites, and of course malignant tumor cells.

Rob Robertson, MD - "Transfer factors are tiny protein molecules that are produced by immune cells called T-cells. It allow the immune system to remember conditions for which immunity has already been established. When a person has been infected, for example, with chicken pox in childhood, their body develops a memory of that illness, and prevents the person from becoming re-infected with it later in life. In the future, the specific immune transfer factor molecule for chicken pox will endow the immune system with the exact ‘blueprint’ of what chicken pox looks like, and the body will be able to quickly recognize and respond to any possible re-infection. Many of these transfer factors - or "immune memory molecules," were introduced to us from our mother’s milk or colostrum, which is the richest source of concentrated transfer factors known to scientists. Transfer factors in colostrum have the sole purpose of transferring immunity from the mother to the baby’s immature immune system. All mammals produce transfer factor, but scientists prefer to work with chicken and normal bovine colostrum. A healthy cow already produces millions of different transfer factors, but when the cow comes into contact with a pathogen such as a virus, it produces a new transfer factor for that specific virus or pathogen. For individuals challenged by specific pathogens – such as those suffering with chronic illnesses like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, supplementation with the appropriate transfer factor molecule may provide the ‘missing link,’ thereby allowing the immune system to target and destroy the offending pathogen, and mitigate the symptoms of the disease." Dr. Robertson is a former Emergency Room Physician. He received his medical degree from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1974. He served as the Director of Emergency Services at Western Baptist Hospital in Paducah, KY.

In 1949, Dr. H. Sherwood Lawrence made a revolutionary discovery while studying tuberculosis. He determined that an immune response could be transferred from a donor to a recipient by injecting an extract of white blood cells (leukocytes) from a previously infected, now healthy, subject into a newly infected patient. He found that this extract contained a factor capable of transferring immunity. He named the substance "transfer factor."