ORAL SUPPLEMENTATION WITH BOVINE COLOSTRUM (INTACT_®) INCREASES VERTICAL JUMP PERFORMANCE

JD Buckley, MG Abbott, GD Brinkworth, PBD Whyte
Centre for Research in Education and Sports Science, University of South Australia

Bovine colostrum is secreted by cows during the first few days after calving and is a rich source of bioactive components, including growth factors (Donovan and Odle 1994) .  Oral supplementation with a whey fraction of bovine colostrum for 8 days during a strength and speed training program has been shown to significantly increase serum insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) concentrations with no effect on vertical jump performance (Mero et. al. 1997).  The present study employed a double-blind, placebo controlled, parallel, randomised design to determine the effect of supplementation with bovine colostrum powder (intact_®, Numico Research Australia Pty Ltd) on plasma IGF-1 concentrations and a number of functional measures of muscle power output. 

After an initial familiarisation period in the two weeks prior to commencement, 51 males, aged 18-35 years, completed an 8 week resistance and plyometric training program (6 days per week), whilst consuming 60g/day of intact_® bovine colostrum (n=26) or whey protein (n=25).  All subjects followed dietary guidelines provided by the researchers and kept food diaries throughout the study period for subsequent dietary analysis.  Subjects performed a battery of four exercise tests twice at weeks 0, 4 and 8 of the study, with each performance of the test battery separated by 20 min of recovery.  The test battery consisted of 2 x 20m sprints, 3 x 10 second bouts of maximal cycle exercise (MCE), 3 x maximal vertical jumps (VJ) and 2 x maximal knee extensions (KE) and knee flexions (KF) on an isokinetic dynamometer.  The best of the 3 attempt at each exercise was recorded for each performance of the test battery.  

There were no differences in plasma IGF-1 concentrations between the groups at week 0 (colostrum 255.8 + 15.5 ng/ml, placebo 259.7 + 23.0 ng/ml; P=0.87). and plasma IFG-1 did not change in either group during the study period (P=0.58).  The training volumes completed by each of the two groups wre the same for both the resistance (P=0.37) and plyometric programs (P=0.57).  By week 8 the colostrum group had improved their VJ significantly more than the placebo group during both the first (colostrum 3.0 + 0.6cm, placebo 1.3 + 0.7cm; P=0.004) and second (colostrum 2.5 + 0.6cm, placebo 0.8 + 0.7cm; P=0.002) performances of the test battery.  There were also trends for the colostrum group to exhibit greater improvements in absolute and relative peak power outputs during MCE (P=0.09) and peak force generated for KF (P=0.07).  Creatine kinase (CK) activity tended to increase less in the colostrum group (P=0.14), particularly during the first 4 weeks of the study (P=0.06).

These results indicate that oral supplementation with intact_® bovine colostrum facilitates a greater improvement in maximal power output in response to the same training program.  Some of the greater performance improvement may be attributable to a reduction in muscle damage.

Reference:
Donovan S.M., Odle J. (1994): Ann. Rev. Nutr. 14, 147-167.
Mero, A., Miikkulainen, H., Rishi, J., Pakkanen, R., Aalto, J., Takala, T. (1997):  J. Appl. Physiol. 83,114-1151.

Proceedings of and oral presentation given by Dr. John Buckley to the:-
4th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, Rome, 14-17 July, 1999, p658. .