WAR STORIES: KAYLA - Impact of Vitamin D

Topic: Ulcerative Colitis; Crohn’s Disease

Last revision: 12-26-22

War Stories: Kayla

By Eugene L. Heyden, RN

There is an emerging therapy that holds great promise in the battle against ulcerative colitis. I’ll introduce you to it in this post. The therapy in question is called Serum-Derived Bovine Immunoglobulin/Protein Isolate, or SBI for short. What is this thing we call SBI?

Magic, that’s what it is. We’ll, not exactly, but it may work like magic. Let’s see what SBI is all about. Then we’ll meet Kayla.

SBI is a medicinal food product derived from bovine (cow) blood—sounds kinda gross, but if you eat meat, you are eating blood. So, relax. Besides, SBI is a purified product; and, as such, is probably a lot safer and healthier than that big fat juicy steak you ate the other day, and with no intention of sharing with me. (I notice these things.) This product is classified as a food and has no known negative interaction with drug therapy. In fact, you can take SBI along with your usual ulcerative colitis medications without concern that it will interfere with their actions. And you may want to, should your current medication(s) be underperforming, the side effects are too much to bear, or you just cannot live with the thought of relapse.

So, what does SBI do?

“The mode of action for this specially formulated bovine immunoglobin preparation is multifaceted. SBI binds microbial components, maintains GI immune balance, manages gut barrier function and improves nutrient utilization.” (Shafran et al., 2015)

SBI is a high protein dietary supplement that is jam-packed with immunoglobulins, IgG, IgA, and IgM (Detzel et al., 2015). These are some of the same, beneficial ingredients found in breast milk—particularly concentrated in mother’s first milk, known as colostrum (Hurley and Theil, 2011). So, perhaps taking clues from this form of therapy (yes, breast milk, colostrum included, is therapy), a new treatment for IBD has emerged.

Immunoglobulins, by their innate action of 1) binding bacteria (Van Arsdall et al., 2016), 2) binding bacterial breakdown components (Beauerle et al., 2015), and 3) binding bacterial toxins (Arikapudi et al., 2017), form complexes too large to pass beyond the not-so-tight-because-of-disease junctions that exist between neighboring intestinal epithelial cells (Beauerle et al., 2015), and are eventually flushed away. Immunoglobulins, by their presence and actions in the bowel, lessen the immune response required to deal with all the madness. Less immune system stimulation means less immune-cell activation and an increased opportunity for healing programs to be set in motion. And hopefully, someone gets to life a normal life. Sound good? Let’s review a case report.

Kayla’s story

We’ll call her Kayla. Kayla is 14 years old at the moment. She has plans for her life, plans that do not include 20 bloody, watery mucus-laden stools, daily, which is currently occupying so much of her time. Over the past 6 months she endured abdominal pain, decreased appetite, and incurred a 10-pound weight loss during the course of her illness. Surprise, surprise! After a comprehensive workup, Kayla received the diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. She also received excellent, conventional medical care—an initial series of mesalamine enemas, sulfasalazine 4 times a day, and short course of prednisone. Yet despite all this, a repeat colonoscopy, performed 7 months after the initiation of therapy, demonstrated persistent inflammation. This finding lead to more steroids and a switch from sulfasalazine to oral mesalamine.

Three months into Kayla’s revised treatment regime, no real symptomatic improvement occurred. It was time to do something different. SBI is something different.

Kayla was started on a nightly course of SBI, a product called EnteraGam®, 5 grams of which was added to her treatment plan, taken nightly. Mesalamine was continued. And guess what? “Crampy abdominal symptoms, blood in the stools, and diarrhea resolved within 2 months of SBI intake.” (Soriano and Ramos-Soriano, 2017) Furthermore, a follow-up colonoscopy revealed a normal looking colon. Additionally, biopsy findings “demonstrated a normal colonic mucosa showing no significant inflammatory activity.” (Soriano and Ramos-Soriano, 2017) I am impressed.

Read the entire story in an article entitled, Clinical and Pathologic Remission of Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis with Serum-Derived Bovine Immunoglobin Added to the Standard Treatment Regime, written by Soriano and Ramos-Soriano, 2017. Just type this title in the Google search box, and before you know it, the article will magically appear. As a bonus, this article shows before and after colonoscopy pictures on page 342—very impressive! Print this article out and share it with your physician. See what happens. Maybe it’s time to be a little assertive. It’s your bowel, right?

So, I may have piqued your interest in SBI. If you want to try this form of therapy, you’ll need to discuss this with your physician. EnteraGam® is only available by prescription. You will probably need to arm yourself with knowledge, with papers, and with a printout or two from the company, Entera Health, Incorporated. Go to enteragam.com and explore the website. There are a number of videos to watch while there.

Besides EnteraGam®, there is another SBI product available that I should tell you about. It is called IgG Plus®. This product is promoted by Extreme Immunity at www.extremeimmunity.com, and appears to be very similar to EnteraGam®. It is available in both power and capsule form. One advantage of this product is a prescription is not required for purchase. One disadvantage: With no prescription requirement, an individual is tempted to go out on his or her own and not first seek and obtain physician approval. My recommendation is that you work with a physician in all things in the treatment of ulcerative colitis. Mistakes can be made. Things can be overlooked. Feathers can be ruffled. Are we clear?

Although the EnteraGam® website (http://enteragam.com/) has all the videos on SBI you will ever need, YouTube is another source. I like to watch them on YouTube. I recommend:

EnteraGam® MOA animation – General (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQITOgLNpQ4

EnteraGam® MOA Tight Junction Proteins – General (2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf4C-Plk908

And the following may come in handy:

EnteraGam Pharmacy Order Fax Form:

https://rb.gy/mup7w1

If you are a patient with Crohn’s disease, and are wondering if SBI will work for you, the answer is a yes maybe.

In a 2014 paper by entitled Use of Serum-Derived Bovine Immunoglobulin/Protein Isolate (SBI) in Patients with Crohn’s Disease by Good and Panas, the story is told of four patients who significantly improved with SBI therapy. Summarizing the fourth case, they report:

“The fourth case involved a 49 year old Caucasian male with Crohn’s disease and a right hemicolectomy [removal of a portion of the colon] for nearly 20 years. The patient failed to respond to infliximab or adalimumab therapy resulting in intermittent steroid use to manage his symptoms. SBI at 5 g BID [twice daily] was incorporated into the patient’s therapy resulting in a resolution of his cramps and abdominal pain allowing for a successful taper off of steroid therapy without the return of symptoms. The patient continues on a maintenance dose of SBI 5g BID to manage his condition.” (Good and Panas, 2014)

The paper in question can be accessed by clicking on the following:

https://doi.org/10.1097/01.MIB.0000456768.62627.fb

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REFERENCES
Topic: Ulcerative Colitis; Crohn’s Disease

Beauerle B, Burnett B, Dryden G. Successful management of refractory ulcerative colitis with orally administered serum-derived bovine immunoglobulin therapy. Clin Case Rep Rev. 2015;1(4):90–92.

Detzel CJ, Horgan A, Henderson AL, Petschow BW, Warner CD, Maas KJ, Weaver EM. Bovine immunoglobulin/protein isolate binds pro-inflammatory bacterial compounds and prevents immune activation in an intestinal co-culture model. PLoS One. 2015 Apr 1;10(4):e0120278.

Good L, Panas R Use of Serum-Derived Bovine Immunoglobulin/Protein Isolate (SBI) in Patients with Crohn’s Disease Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Volume 20, Issue suppl_1, 1 December 2014, Pages S26, https://doi.org/10.1097/01.MIB.0000456768.62627.fb

Hurley WL, Theil PK. Perspectives on immunoglobulins in colostrum and milk. Nutrients. 2011 Apr 14;3(4):442-74.

Shafran I, Burgunder P, Wei D, Young HE, Klein G, Burnett BP. Management of inflammatory bowel disease with oral serum-derived bovine immunoglobulin. Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology. 2015 Nov;8(6):331-9.

Soriano RA, Ramos-Soriano AG. Clinical and pathologic remission of pediatric ulcerative colitis with serum-derived bovine immunoglobulin added to the standard treatment regimen. Case reports in gastroenterology. 2017;11(2):335-43.

Van Arsdall M, Haque I, Liu Y, Rhoads JM. Is There a Role for the Enteral Administration of Serum-Derived Immunoglobulins in Human Gastrointestinal Disease and Pediatric Critical Care Nutrition?. Advances in Nutrition. 2016 May 9;7(3):535-43.

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