ARMRA Colostrum: A Questionable Blend of Science-Washing and Wellness Hype

What is ARMRA, and who is Sarah Rahal?

ARMRA Colostrum was created by and is run by Sarah Rahal, MD, a pediatric neurologist. She claims to have expertise in environmental and functional medicine. She founded her business, ARMRA, around colostrum products. The inspiration for ARMRA came when,

“Dr. Rahal unearthed the trove of over 5,000 research publications attesting to the powerful health benefits of colostrum, nature’s first bioactive food; yet, remained largely unknown to the masses.”— Our Story

Regardless of medical credentials and a seemingly impressive scientific foundation, ARMRA is in business to sell supplements. It does this by using the typical playbook of buzzwords and science-y sounding language like “superfood” and “immune” and claiming gobs of evidence. For example,

“ARMRA is committed to developing products with transparency, scientific rigor, and safety. Our products are clean, safe, backed by extensive research, and manufactured under the most rigorous testing…”— Our Story

What is Colostrum

Colostrum is the substance produced by mammalian mammary glands immediately before or after giving birth. It precedes breast milk but is often referred to as first milk. It is rich in antibodies, enzymes, hormones, and other compounds. While all mammals produce colostrum, when you see colostrum products, it is cow colostrum.

What are the claims

Typically, supplements offer broad claims, making statements like “supports a healthy immune system!” or “helps to strengthen healthy immunity,” critical word choices meant to avoid FDA scrutiny. ARMRA makes those generic claims but goes a step further, bolder and more specific, claiming:

“Colostrum has been shown to confer a 20% improvement in fitness strength, stamina, and endurance, while also decreasing recovery time by over 50% after intense exercise.”—The Benefit

And

“Bovine colostrum intake has been linked to fewer respiratory tract and GI infections in children and adults, including recent studies showing bovine colostrum is 3X more effective than the flu vaccine at preventing flu.*”—The Ingredients

These are extremely bold and specific claims; as I like to remind everyone, extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. So, aside from not being evaluated by the FDA, what evidence do they provide for these claims? The answer is buried deep in the website's pages, so deep that it’s easy to miss.  

The Evidence

Reading the article attached to claim about “a 20% improvement” in performance, you quickly discover that it was a study of ten men. That’s it. Ten men are not enough participants to draw any conclusions other than “further study is needed.”

Turning to the articles used as evidence for the claim “showing bovine colostrum is 3X more effective than the flu vaccine at preventing flu,” we find similar, fatal flaws. The first study does not report participants tested for influenza, rather self-reported data recorded as “days of malaise” – you’ll notice, not the flu. After taking colostrum daily for two months, those taking colostrum had one-third the days of malaise as those without any prophylaxis or only having been vaccinated. That may be statistically significant, but is it of practical significance? The groups were not randomized, so we cannot conclude that colostrum was why anything did or did not happen. It could have been that groups varied by diet, exercise, sleep, stress, or other factors. The second study suffers from the same flaws.

Ultimately, these three studies are hardly sufficient evidence for their claims.

Does ARMRA offer anything else?

Four numbers are thrown at people around inflammation and anti-bacterial properties, along with a “Read More” button. If you click that button, it takes you to their “evidence,” a “Technical paper” from a company that provides “customized protocols designed to support the marketing claims of natural products.”

This technical paper has many issues. It has not been peer-reviewed. It was funded by AMRA and does not have a thorough literature review section. This last point is particularly relevant. Their version of a literature review is three cherry-picked studies, which is odd considering that Dr. Rahal cites finding that treasure trove of over 5,000 studies on colostrum as her inspiration for starting this company. Out of that plethora of studies, they only included three studies. That should raise eyebrows and make you ask, “Why?”

The red flags continue when you learn there is no Methods section. This means, unlike a scientific manuscript, if you were to try to replicate exactly what they did, it would be impossible as they don’t provide many details. You’re simply supposed to trust the author acted in good faith and executed the process perfectly. The funding to support marketing claims speaks to the conflict of interests.

Another opportunity comes when discussing inflammation, the default boogeyman in the wellness world.

“Not only can these exposures make us ill, they can also activate the immune system inappropriately and trigger inflammation. This leads to a host of modern health issues such as: autoimmune conditions, allergies, weight gain, bloating, digestive issues, mental fog, sleep disturbances, depression and anxiety—in fact, over 1,000 research publications make this link.”—The Inflammation

This seems a perfect moment to demonstrate the efficacy of colostrum. And yet, they cited none. Not even cherry-picked studies.

Conclusion

Like everyone else in the supplement industry, Rahal is out to make a buck. Using typical wellness world and supplement recipe, vehement fearmongering with a dash of science-y jargon, and deference to an “expert,” she exploits the fact that she’s an MD to make it sound like she has your best interest at heart. Colostrum is just another superfood in the pyramid of non-sense superfoods marketed to make you think you need it to be healthy when you don’t.