Objective: This study was undertaken to explore the effects of a bovine colostrum-containing multivitamin multimineral (MVM) supplement on healthy, adult women and men by determining blood chemistries and health parameters via serum and saliva sampling and measuring each subject's physical characteristics over a 12-week interval.
Participants: Fifty participants were screened for the study, after which twenty participants were determined eligible to enter the study. Thirteen participants (6 women and 7 men, average age 30.9 years, average BMI 27.3 kg/m2) completed the whole study.
Results: MVM did not significantly impact serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) levels. The MVM significantly improved serum folate levels (48.3% increase at Week 12: 23.56 ± 5.75 ng/mL versus Week 0: 15.88 ± 3.40 ng/mL, P = .0001). MVM improved serum levels of vitamin B12 (21.3% increase at Week 12: 789.38 ± 313.23 pg/mL versus Week 0: 650.54 ± 228.02 pg/mL, P = .0690) and 25-hydroxy-vitamin D levels (9.1% increase at Week 12: 32.22 ± 5.81 ng/mL versus Week 0: 29.54 ± 11.30 ng/mL, P = .3570). The salivary IgA levels showed a significant increase at Week 4 (249.85 ± 95.63 ng/ml), Week 8 (271.65 ± 133.52 ng/ml), and Week 12 (279.88 ± 128.19 ng/ml) compared to Week 0 (177.57 ± 74.81 ng/ml).
Conclusions: This study shows that MVM has a good safety and tolerability profile and can be used as a daily nutritional supplement safely. MVM may improve serum levels of vitamin D, folate, vitamin B12, and, possibly, other blood markers. The study showed that MVM may improve secretory IgA levels, a major component of oral immunity. These findings suggest an overall improvement in several aspects of health and need to be confirmed in a larger, placebo-controlled study.