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There are over 2,000,000 antigens -- chemicals of enormous variety, which the body must identify in order to act against invaders. But how does the body know these antigens -- "friend from foe"? Answer: The immune system has to be "taught." This is the story of transfer factors -- and how an amazing medical development that started in 1949 has been derailed by cheap, diluted alternatives ... and what it will take to maximize the potential of this promising disease-fighting approach.

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ne of the great mysteries of advanced animal physiology has been the ability of the immune system to respond to so many different threats -- from foreign cells to pathogenic microbes to toxic agents. The antigens which the human immune system must recognize to ward off or neutralize these invaders number in the millions.
How does the body do it?
We know that even in infancy that the humoral response, involving the production of antibodies, is well developed. In addition, we know that small molecular-weight proteins (under 5,000 Daltons) are found in colostrum, mother's milk in the first few days of feeding after birth. (Mother's milk not only provides these important tiny proteins, but it provides an ample dose of antibodies.) The role of these tiny proteins, which act together to form a second immune system of antigen identification and response called cell-mediated response, has only been recognized in the scientific community within the last 50 years. (Various home-grown immunotherapies have been developed, based on this principle, using cow's colostrum as the carrier of specific antibody-producing proteins. Moreover, rat studies have already confirmed that these substances work across species barriers.)
In 1949 Dr. H.S. Lawrence used white blood cell extracts (leukocytes and lymptocytes) to prove that immune response can be transferred from a human (animal) host who tests positive for exposure to a specific antigen to a recipient who tests negative -- all via small weight proteins he called "Transfer Factor" (TF). It became evidence that immune response had, in fact, been transferred when subjects receiving antigen-specific TF became skin-test positive for that antigen, having previously tested negative. The skin irritation (positive response) proved that immune response occurred, and that the immune system had gained knowledge of the specific antigen. What made this research so ground-breaking was the discovery that not would was immune response transferrable, but that the benefit was conveyed without sending any actual antibodies. Only the low-weight TF proteins were sent.

If antibodies are not transferred, and TF itself does not directly create antibodies or attack antigens or their hosts, what is actually being transferrred? How does TF enliven the body's immune potential?
What has emerged since the work of H.S. Lawrence is an understanding of TF's as not mere nutrients. They are educators -- teaching the cell-mediated immune system to recognize specific antigens, and with it a knowledge of when they are present. This is probably why orthodox medicine is having problems embracing the TF model or approach to disease. It is a radical departure from the standard pharmacological models. TF's do not cure anything. Antigen-specific TF's do not eliminate the condition or agent behind the antigen they help their host identify. Instead, they work in an immunosupportive capacity to make the immune system "smarter," so that the body is better able to eliminate disease conditions on its own.
For years, alternative practitioners have encouraged patients with immune deficiencies to take commercial-sold colostrum, which are usually of bovine origin. In light of the function of transfer factors, we now understand how such colostrum, void as it is of specific-antigen information, would help some patients. Colostrum, even from cows, contains lactoferrin and growth factor, along with other lower-weight proteins that are beneficial to human immune system function. This is probably why colostrum has been referred to as "the original transfer factor."

To understand transfer factors, you first to understand the difference between non-specific (or general) transfer factors and those which are specifically designed to address a condition. This is an important part of educating the consumer, because there is a great difference in production cost (and therefore subsequent cost in the wholesale and retail markets). Some companies have profited handsomely because most consumers do not understand the difference. (This has incentivized the industry, as a whole, to be quiet, or to downplay the issue, for monetary gain. We provide our own Transfer Factor Comparison Chart so that consumers understand other important factors that affect the efficacy of the finished product.)
Another property of TF's that has helped obscure the picture for consumers and practitioners alike --- whereas other nutraceutical products employ the use of one or two compounds, subject to quantitative chemical analysis, TF's are broad in their range of discrete testable compounds, making not only chemical standardization difficult, but content verification. Consumers are left with little more to go on than the reputation of the supplier in their reliance on content AND value for their purchase.
Alpha Omega Labs sells both categories of product, as can be seen from our Transfer Factor product page. One can easily see that the specific-antigen product costs more. Our Transfer Fact Rx "General Enhance" is non-specific; whereas "Formula One" through "Formula Nine" are quite specific. These formulas as made using chickens as hosts, which are exposed to a certain type of bacteria, virus, or other antigen-producing agents which are associated with specific diseases. TF's are then extracted from the white blood cells of these chickens and made into orally administerable pills. (The lab which manufacturers these products for us in the U.S. has specialized in transfer factors for over two decades and has been a supplier of TF's, animal blood plasmas, and other blood products to a variety of research institutions there, including the U.S. Government's own CDC (Center for Disease Control).)

Researchers in transfer factor often talk using TF's in immunotherapy modalities versus the infrequent use of TF's to just "maintain immune health." There is solid research to support the value of both, given that full immune function relies on the ability of immune cells to store the "memory" of those two million plus antigens. While some "loose memory" after three to five months, others loose this knowledge through repeated cell replacement so that after so many generations, no cells are left that "remember" the proper immune response to a specific antigen. A person who has had previous bouts with a particular illness, or who may be genetically pre-disposed to a specific disease, for example, would do well to apply "pulse mode" to a specific-antigen TF that matches that disease. This usually means taking the standard dose of that product for one week every three months.

Far from cowering at the fringes of therapeutic conjecture and universal orthodox derision, TF's as a legitimate immunotherapy is gaining wide acceptance. There are now a variety of medical symposiums held yearly on transfer factor research, much of it devoted to sharing TF protocols and clinical successes. Six million Chinese people use transfer factors to help protect against heptatis. Even in the U.S., TF as an immunotherapy is covered by Medicare, and legitimate TF treatments have also been covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield and several other insurance carriers for years. Veterinary applications are also making headway with TF products now used to treat canine parvovirus, Newcastle's disease in chickens, coccidioides parasites in cattle, and rheumatism in horses.