Is Lactoferrin the new Treatment for Osteoporosis?

The bioactive milk protein lactoferrin has been used for many years to stimulate the immune system particularly in infant formulas where it has had wide acceptance. Work at the University of Auckland led by Dr Jill Cornish published in 2004 showed the product had strong bone building properties. Subsequent work has confirmed these first findings and it seems likely that lactoferrin may well replace the use of some of the pharmaceutical drugs used to treat osteoporosis. This article looks at some of this research and discusses the results.
Lactoferrin is a bioactive milk protein particularly concentrated in both human and bovine colostrum and has been sold for many years as a nutritional supplement with anti bacterial, anti fungal, anti viral and immune stimulating activities. However the work showing its bone building properties shows even greater potential. Dr Jill Cornish of the University of Auckland has shown it is a natural medicine that stimulates the activity of osteoblasts the cells that build new bone, at the same time it inhibits the growth of osteoclasts. Lactoferrin is doing what no pharmaceutical drug can do, it is stimulating bone growth and slowing the removal of bone at the same time.
Synthetic drugs used for the treatment of Ostepenai or Osteoporosis can only do one or the other of these tasks. Bisphosphonates (Actonel, Boniva, Fosamax) and Calcitonin (Calcimar, Cibacalcin, Calsynar, Miacalcin, Osteocalcin and Salmonine) slow the removal of old bone by inhibiting the activity of osteoclasts. These drugs do nothing to stimulate osteoclasts to create new bone growth. Raloxifene (Evista) and Strontium ranlelate (Protelos) stimulates the growth of new bone but they do not inhibit the work of osteoclasts in their work of removing old bone. So this recent research showing a substance that can do both tasks is really quite exciting. As well many of these drugs have potentially serious side effects that preclude their use by many people. The bone building ability is further shown when it is directly injected to a fracture site where Dr Jill Cornish states that healing rates increase phenomenally.
A company called LactoPharma which is jointly owned by University of Auckland and the dairy company Fonterra have patents on the intellectual property and are currently developing consumer products in the bone health field with USA interests. Meanwhile the knowledge and acceptance of lactoferrin as a bone health product is growing rapidly and many mainstream medical professionals are accepting the research. Internet searches indicate Lactoferrin is freely available and the recommended rates for bone health are two 250 mg capsules per day. Trials with human patients have been carried out as well as the original Dr Jill Cornish work and can be found on the Internet. The product is very safe and I have found nothing in the medical literature suggesting that there would be any negative effects of this treatment approach
To me this is a great example of how natural products can often be better than pharmaceutical drugs which often cause more problems than they cure. There are many other examples. One is where another natural product was tested at Massey University recently for the same bone health qualities and Lactoferrin used as a control. An extract of this product Nuzeacal produced by "The Wise Old Owl" came out 25% better than Lactoferrin in inhibiting osteoclasts and increasing osteoblasts. This could in a few years be another great natural product discovery. New Zealand has a huge future in biotechnology, developing natural health products from our wide range of plant and animal life grown in what is perceived by much of the world as a clean green desirable environment.
The Wise Old Owl found at  http://www.seniorhealthcare.co.nz
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1183439/ for the Dr Cornish research
http://ihfglobal.com/Documents/NaiduFeb09Article.pdf for a human lactoferrin trial

New Zealands Most Important Vitamin

Because vitamin D deficiency is becoming implicated in such a wide range of disease conditions, researchers are increasing the amount of work targeting vitamin D.
New Zealand researchers have expertise in a number of physiological conditions and lifecycle stages where vitamin D deficiency is potentially damaging to health in both the short and long term. These include bone health, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and muscle strength, and during pregnancy, infancy and childhood, as well as older age.
Several of the recent trials have shown that a substantial number of the population have blood levels of this vitamin that is well below the optimum level. The actual requirement of Vitamin D and the dose rate that is recommended has changed markedly in the last year or so with researchers and medical professionals world wide suggesting that current rates are far too low and could be substantially lifted without any danger of toxicity or side effects. The former adult recommendation of some 1000 U.I. is seen as too low and many are recommending rates in the 2000 - 3000 I.U. range.
A 6 months study by Dr John Livesey of some 200 Christchurch adults showed they were almost all Vitamin D deficent during the period studied. His recommendation was that Christchurch adults should all be taking a daily dose of 2600 I.U. on a daily basis throughout the year. This study surprised The Wise Old Owl as it would be expected that over the summer sufficent sunlight would have been absorbed by the skin to produce adequate levels of Vitamin D, but that does not appear to be the case. Further studies by other researchers have come up with the same conclusion that a substantial porportion of the New Zealand population need Vitamin D supplementation. Blood testing of a broad sample of the population indicated that throughout New Zealand in the order of 50% of the population had below optimum levels of Vitamin D in their system
Vitamin D exists in 5 forms and it is Vitamin D3 (that is one manufactured in the body by sunlight) that is the important or critical one, so any supplementation either by diet or actual supplement should be in this form. This is the form used in NUZEACAL the bone health supplement produced by The Wise Old Owl and found on the website http://www.seniorhealthcare.co.nz
Another New Zealand website that has good Vitamin D information on is http://www.vitamind3.co.nz