An introduction to transfer factors

"Transfer factor (TF)…has been used successfully over the past quarter of a century for treating viral, parasitic, and fungal infections, as well as immunodeficiencies, neoplasias, allergies and autoimmune diseases. Moreover, several observations suggest that it can be utilized for prevention, transferring immunity prior to infection…Thus, a specific TF to a new influenza virus can be made swiftly and used for prevention as well as for the treatment of infected patients.”                                                                                                                                                         - Pizza et al., 2006*

Transfer factors are small chains of amino acids and bits of RNA that carry important information from immune system cells to other immune system cells. They are like post-it notes that deliver disease-related details to cells throughout the body. Existing and newborn immune system cells come across these post-it notes, read them, and then get to work. The information includes what threats to look out for (bacteria, viruses, parasites, or even cancer cells), what to do about them, and when to stop doing it.

Transfer factors were originally discovered in the late 1940s by a tuberculosis researcher named Dr. H Sherwood Lawrence. While searching for a way to protect people from tuberculosis, Dr. Lawrence took white blood cells from a sick patient and injected the insides of the cells into a healthy person. As a result, the healthy person became immune to tuberculosis! Dr. Lawrence had no way of knowing what, exactly, conveyed immunity, so he simply referred to it as "Transfer Factor".

In the decades since Dr. Lawrence's discovery, several important events have taken place which have led to the sudden availability of transfer factors to the public:

1.	In the 1980s, a scientist patented a process for extracting transfer factors from cow colostrum (first milk). Normally, the transfer factors in cow colostrum pass along important immune system information to the offspring. Humans also pass along immune information via colostrum.
2.	In the 1990s, a company called 4Life Research purchased the patent, added a patent for a technique for extracting transfer factors from chicken eggs, and began selling products containing transfer factors to the public. These products are protected by the US Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994.
3.	In the past decade, a company called ProHealth joined 4Life as a highly respected company selling products containing transfer factors from cow colostrum and chicken eggs. Many of these products are made by an innovative company named Natural Immunity. ProHealth carries a transfer factor product that has been very important in my own life -- ImmuneTransfer C.

To recap, transfer factors were discovered in 1949 when a researcher used white blood cells from an infected human to immunize a healthy person. Companies now sell products containing transfer factors from cows and chickens. How did we get from humans to cows and chickens, and why would that work? It turns out that transfer factors are neither person nor species specific, meaning that transfer factors generated by a human, a cow, a dog, or even a chicken can be interchanged. They are like computer files written in basic machine code, making them readable by any kind of computer. Transfer factors represent a universal language that can be used to directly control immune system activity.

The fact that transfer factors can be mass produced and are now available to the public is extremely important. Perhaps the only thing more important is the possibility that designer transfer factors could be made for diseases like the H5N1 strain of birth flu, as suggested by Dr. Pizza and his colleagues in the quote at the top of the page. If a cow or chicken were injected with the H5NI virus, information about the virus would be contained in the colostrum or eggs produced by the animal. They could be taken orally by humans - no injection needed - and should, theoretically at least, prevent an H5N1 pandemic.

Transfer factors are not drugs and do not directly attack diseases. They are supplements that augment immune system activity so that the immune system can attack diseases. They do so safely with minimal side effect -- even when injected into people -- beyond mild flu like symptoms that generally occur within the first few weeks of use. No serious complications have been reported in any of the hundreds of papers on the topic.

Transfer factors work very differently than drug company drugs. Rather than suppressing the immune system, or aiming at mechanisms used by particular pathogens to survive, transfer factors help the immune system take care of itself using a language that it understands inherently. Boosting the immune system increases the odds that people can heal themselves, particularly if transfer factors designed for specific pathogens are used. Again, they work by helping the immune system do its job. This is part of what makes them supplements rather than drugs.

Let's look at an example. In clinical trials, transfer factors have been found to be superior to the drug acyclovir for preventing shingles outbreaks. Only one of the two treatments, transfer factors, was found to boost immune system health. Acyclovir aims at the virus itself. This is fine, as long as your problem is just that virus and not the virus plus a weak immune system. Indeed, advertisements for the antiviral drug, Valtrex, which is converted to acyclovir in the body, indicate that the drug is only for those with healthy immune systems. Many people dealing with reoccurrences of viruses, like the herpes virus that causes shingles, are doing so precisely because their immune systems are unhealthy!

To summarize, transfer factors are small molecules generated by immune cells after dealing with threats. They are not species specific, meaning that transfer factors generated by a cow's or chicken's immune system can be read by our immune systems. Once they enter our bodies, they are picked up and read by immune cells, which then follow the instructions and go to work. They are not drugs, but supplements that help the immune system do its job rather than directly attacking pathogens. This makes them quite different from many drug company drugs, including antibiotics, that directly attack disease causing pathogens without nurturing the immune system in any way.

For years, transfer factors have been quietly revolutionizing disease treatment and prevention. They allow the body to heal itself, safely. Please visit the next section, the scientific review, for data to back up the statements made above.

Alternatively, the scientific review can be downloaded here as a PDF.

*Note: Dr. Pizza and his colleagues are talking about the utility of transfer factors in general, including those taken from white blood cells, and are not referring to specific products. Indeed, in the same paper, the researchers make it quite clear that one has to be quite careful where one gets transfer factors, as they might be of poor quality and, thus, worthless.