January 28th, 2012
Immunocal - as the story began - 1978
The Discovery of Immunocal :
Dr. Gustavo Bounous and his staff at the McGill University
Immunology Department were investigating the differing effects
of various protein food sources in the face of chemically induced
colon cancer.
1. Various groups of white mice were each being fed a different
type of protein, while being injected with a chemical that caused
colon cancer 100% of the time.
2. After 4 weeks, each group of mice was dissected and the research
was showing the colon cancer had metastasized, spreading throughout
the body.
3. Dr. Bounous received a box of a "whey" that was being dumped
in the rivers of France, in an effort to find a useful solution to
the environmental problem being caused by disposing of this
apparently useless bi-product of the cheese making process,
which is "whey protein".
4. The experiment continued and this time, the mice, under the
same conditions and testing parameters, were fed the "whey protein".
5. When this group of mice were dissected, much to the surprize of
Dr. Bounous and his staff, the cancer did not metastasize and in
fact remained in the colon as healthy pink tumors, indicating
that this protein source inhibited the growth of the cancer.
EUREKA!?!? - NOT SO FAST...
This was the original discovery, but the road ahead was not paved
so perfectly and as good science goes, the experiments had to
continue, to reproduce this discovery over and over again...
As a few years time passed, the results continued until a point
that the result ABRUPTLY STOPPED!!!
For a 2 or 3 year time frame, Dr. Bounous and his staff could not
reproduce the result and they had no idea why this had occurred.
Experiment after experiment was resulting in the same
unsuccessful outcome.
The EUREKA moment occurred one evening, while Dr. Bounous was at
home, watching a cooking show on the television. During the
program, the chef indicated that the recipe he was preparing had
recently changed in it's taste because of new laws that had been
implemented, requiring that the milk and cheese making process be
changed to reduce levels of bacteria from the raw milk sources.
THEY CHANGED THE PASTEURIZATION TEMPERATURE!!!
Dr. Bounous returned to the lab the next day and began
preparations to produce their own "whey protein" from their own
raw milk source, pasteurized at a lower temperature and VOILA,
the experiments began to produce that same cancer inhibiting effect.
When it came time to share this product with the world and a
business was formed, this "whey protein formulation" was given
a name. THIS WAS THE BIRTH OF IMMUNOCAL!!