Okay, maybe I didn’t attain Nirvana but Colostrum made this girl feel like a million bucks. While “girl” is pushing it, this 45-year old has been facing the second set of puberty weirdness we call menopause. And I was gifted with that kind of chemistry that found me on an SSRI anti-depressant long before Prozac made the cover of TIME. I also have an under active thyroid and no metabolism to speak of. This makes the idea that I have good skin and hair seem not all that important when you add up the gene lottery. But I was coping.
Then I moved to Arizona and this summer has been worse than every other summer I’ve been here. No longer the fabled “dry heat” we’ve been 115 with 60% humidity. Some days I wanted to cry if I knew I had to stop more than one place during the day. Getting in and out of car AC when the interior is 129 degrees and the next errand wouldn’t even cool it by 5 degrees was making me sick. I hardly wanted to get out of bed. I worried I had Type 2 Diabetes or renal failure…or I was just done for. And without insurance, I didn’t have a doctor to be able to go back and forth and take test after test. So I did the one thing a writer knows how to do – research.
First I wanted to find out what regulates heat in a body. Turns out it’s the hypothalamus and boy is it an amazing thing for something the size of a grape. It’s in your brain and it regulates temperature, sure, but it also affects metabolism, nervous system, endocrine system and hormones. Why isn’t everyone studying this guy? But I wanted to know even more what would stimulate and increase the functioning of this all-important hypothalamus. Something called Leptin does just that.
So what’s Leptin? It’s a wonderful little protein hormone. Okay, so where do you get some? Turns out Colostrum is the source for Leptin. Leptin had been studied for weight loss but they gave up since it’s not a traditional appetite suppressant. But for me eating a piece of broiled chicken and some steamed broccoli always made me feel like a snake that ate a pig. Bloated, distended stomach and just plain icky. All food, good and bad, had the same effect. And regularity is an icky subject but I think I personally kept the retro brand Swiss Kriss in business.
All in all, I was not functioning and now I find out Colostrum might help. Check some of those diet aids with Leptin-like names and you’ll see Colostrum is sometimes an ingredient. Skip the $100 or more price and head to your local Sprouts, Henry’s, Whole Foods or any kind of market or Health Food store that has at least three aisles of vitamins and supplements. And there you’ll find capsules of Bovine Colostrum. I take 2 (two) 475 mg every morning on an empty stomach and 1 (one) at night. The cost? About $12 for a bottle of 120 capsules.
Okay, I wish I invented or own or distribute Colostrum, but I never even had children so this protein that is part of mother’s milk (cow’s are mom’s too) is nothing I have to sell. And I’m not a doctor, I’ve never studied medicine and with a lack of insurance, I don’t even have a doctor to ask, but I do know how I feel.
And how do I feel? Like a new person. Yes, I take my anti-depressants and my thyroid, but I feel good. Really good, like the way I always felt some people looked and would answer when asked, “How’re you doing?” Before I would lie and say, “Fine,” but now I’m great. Food is not an issue. I eat good foods, process them well (ick) and feel energetic. I’ve shifted and maybe even dropped a little weight and I actually put on a size 10 denim mini skirt the other day at The Gap and ran out to look at myself in a three-way mirror. Okay, size 10 is death to all the girls in US magazine, but for a regular woman, 10 is a nice size.
My mood is improved and while I take some HRT along with birth control, I see a big difference in the symptoms of menopause. Like huge! Soy’s great, this stuff rocks.
I’ve had five female friends all try Colostrum and they’ve had similar wonderful results. Not identical, but lots of increased energy and stamina, weight loss and improved mood and hormone functioning. Do I know how it works? Absolutely not, but I do know that for 12 bucks a month, I want to keep taking this forever.
