- Why consume TF when you are well?
Preventing a problem is safer than trying to cure it after you are ill. With the number of deadly germs that are taking their toll on our society, I plan to protect my loved ones with transfer factors. Sometimes an illness can damage body organs beyond repair. The wide benefits of transfer factors are still being explored. A healthy immune system is crucial to your overall health, cell cleansing, and cell rejuvenation. Within our bodies, there is a continuous battle between the "good" and "bad" bacteria. Giving your immune system a break can actually allow your body to direct its energies elsewhere.
- Will Transfer Factor products help my specific medically-diagnosed condition?
Transfer Factor products are designed to support normal immune function, a basic component of overall health. It has been scientifically proven that a strong relationship exists between our adaptive reserves, which help maintain a healthful state, and the state of our immune system. A strong immune system is a key to maintaining and recovering good health when faced with a wide range of health challenges.
- How often should I take 4Life Transfer Factor®?
Every day our bodies create new immune cells that need instruction. To meet this need, Transfer Factor should be used on a daily basis to provide the immune system with continual support against an environment filled with new and emerging health challenges. Transfer Factor, taken on a daily basis, provides effective support for the immune system.
- Do you advise daily use? How long will the immunity last?
Yes. The Transfer Factor works best when taken daily. The volume of TF in your blood affects its effectiveness. If you discontinue use, your immune system will miss out on its daily support. The immunity received from Transfer Factor™ is short-term. When a germ enters your body or you are vaccinated, a deep survival mechanism is triggered within your immune system. The memory of the illness is stored through a different pathway to the transfer factors within your body. Experienced knowledge, exchanged from transfer factor to transfer factor, is not as long- lasting. Once the consumed transfer factor is washed from your body, within four to six weeks the immunity is lost. The information is transferred to your own transfer factor, but that transfer factor will eventually die, and the information is diluted down through a few generations.
- If the immunity lasts for four weeks, why should you continue to consume more?
The volume of TF in your body is important. Every area of your body is vulnerable to attack from germs. The transfer factor must come in contact with the germ to recognize it. The more TF you have policing the body, the greater the chance that germs will be spotted early in the race for victory.
- Can I still get sick when I am consuming TF?
Even a reinforced immune system can't always keep you well, but it can make a tremendous difference in how ill you become and may save the life of a loved one.
- If I understand correctly, the primary function of TF is to act as a memory agent for the immune system - transferring immune programming from donor to recipient. Given the ability of the immune system to remember this transferred information, why is it necessary to keep taking it?
There are two avenues that the immune system uses to learn and store information. One is from storage to storage (transfer factor) and the other is through the encounter with the germ itself. Information that is transferred from transfer factor to transfer factor fades as each generation of transfer factor passes the information down to the next generation of transfer factor. Each generation loses information. The life of the information is approximately 4-6 weeks. When an actual germ enters the body or a vaccination is given, the learning process is a complete immune learning experience and the memory last longer in some instances. Another reason that you must continue to consume transfer factor regularly is that volume is important. You must have a certain volume of transfer factor in your system for that particular transfer factor to have an impact on the overall immune system function. This is one reason why whole colostrum doesn't create immunity. There is not enough TF in it.
- Are there any differences between dried colostrum and 4Life Transfer Factor®?
Unlike colostrum, Transfer Factor contains a concentrated amount of transfer factors, the active ingredient found in colostrum. Through a special patented process licensed to 4Life®, transfer factors are separated from other components found in this “first milk.” Transfer factors readily survive digestion and are easily absorbed, unlike the antibodies and proteins found in colostrum. In addition, Transfer Factor has undergone a special stabilization process to protect the effectiveness of the transfer factors.
- How does Transfer Factor compare to the colostrum products that are on the market now?
We looked seriously at hyper immunized colostrum and eggs. These products are good but certain issues must be addressed. First the milk allergy and lactose intolerance issues as we discussed above. Second the issue of immunoglobins or antibody effectiveness. The use of cross species antibody therapy can be effective in the short run. Long-term use is ineffective since the recipient develops antibodies to the foreign antibody thus destroying its effectiveness. Antibody therapy is given intravenously since oral consumption leads to acid degradation in the stomach.
- Why do we need to use Transfer Factor™ if we received immune information when we were infants?
The transfer factors we received as infants are just purposeful as those available in Transfer Factor™. As infants, mother's colostrum gave immune information while our immune systems were not fully developed, but the transfer factors were absorbed into the bloodstream and eventually were used up to become part of the functioning immune system, consisting of lymphocytes, natural killer cells, macrophages, etc. The information provided at birth was to work against the specific threats experienced by your mother at that time; after years of life new threats to the immune system exist. By using oral transfer factor we are providing the same type of immune information we received at birth. Transfer factors received as infants helped educate and strengthen our naïve immune systems for the challenges of that time. Today, more than ever, we are exposed to new immune challenges, while our immune systems have become weakened with age. Strengthening our immune systems can be critical to lifelong health.
- What conditions are responsive to Transfer Factor?
Transfer factor preparations have been used to effectively treat a wide range of diseases. These include bacterial, mycobacterial, fungal, parasitic, viral, and cancer. It is in part because of AIDS, or more specifically our frustration in treating AIDS, that transfer factor is experiencing a resurgence of research interest. In fact a recent international symposium held in Italy was titled: "Transfer Factor in the Era of AIDS".
- If Transfer Factor is so effective why hasn't the pharmaceutical industry jumped on Transfer Factor?
I think that is exactly what we are seeing in many foreign countries notably China, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Japan. In the US transfer factor has had an interesting history. The idea of transfer factor flies in the face of conventional immunology. In the 50’s antibiotics were the golden child of medicine followed in the 60's by steroids like cortisone for inflammation and the synthetic steroid hormones like ethinyl estrogen and progestin that were used to create the birth control pill. After an initial delay transfer factor hit its heyday in the 70's and early 80's. Results however were inconsistent as researchers dove in sometimes with more enthusiasm than skill. The key feature that was missing in these investigations was a dependable assay technique for quality control of the product. The quality control issue was not resolved until the mid 1980's. Given that transfer factor is not a single entity, the pharmaceutical companies had fits to trying to purify the material without losing efficacy. This force-fit into the single-entity, single-function drug dogma was disastrous. The next issue that slowed transfer factor research is the age-old issue of funding. When AIDS hit the popular press politicians shifted funding into AIDS research but with the focus on finding the cause and then finding a drug that would cure AIDS. The work of a few dedicated, but under-funded, researchers and the inability of the mainstream medical-pharmaceutical industry have combined to again focus attention on transfer factor as one of the few modalities that is effective against diseases of viral origin.
- Are there reasons why we haven't seen transfer factor as a food supplement before now?
Yes, there are two doors that recently have opened that allow transfer factor to be effectively marketed now. The first door to open was the passage of DSHEA in 1994. The provision for structure-functions claims allows the story of transfer factor to be told without jeopardizing its status as a nutritional supplement. The second is technical. Transfer factor was definitely an idea way ahead of its time and it had to wait for technology to catch up. The processing methods that allow for large-scale extraction of transfer factor have only recently been perfected and a commercial product has only been available for the past year.
- Are there any reports about Transfer Factor helping people with cancer?
Radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery are the commonly used conventional cancer treatments. Both radiation and chemotherapy are highly damaging to fast growing cells in the body such as the intestinal lining, the bone marrow and the cells of the immune system. After these treatments persons often have to be on very strong antibiotics in order to prevent infections. The use of transfer factor during radiation or chemotherapy protects the immune system by some mechanism which we do not fully understand at the present. In cases of surgical removal of certain tumors the use of Transfer Factor™ as an adjuvant therapy resulted in a consistently higher survival rate.
- What about colds?
Colds are viral diseases and transfer factor is used most commonly against viral conditions. Studies of transfer factor and colds have not been officially done but interestingly cold relief is a commonly reported benefit of taking Transfer Factor™.
- What diseases are transfer factors used for?
Transfer factors have been researched for over 50 years and have been successfully used to treat bacterial diseases, viral infections, parasitic diseases, cancer, fungal infections, autoimmune diseases, neurological diseases and much more. In addition, no adverse side effects have been reported.
