About this site
What this site is for, and the rules it holds itself to.
An independent scientific reference on lactoferrin. Nothing is sold here and there are no affiliate links.
Lactoferrin has been studied for six decades and claimed for a good deal more than it has shown. A large share of what circulates about it comes from cell culture and is repeated in the same voice as clinical findings. The purpose of this site is to keep those apart.
How claims are graded
Every claim carries one of six grades, shown before the prose rather than buried underneath it. The grades are defined in one place and a page cannot invent a new one; the build fails if it tries.
A grade is set by the best available evidence, not by the most recent study or the most favorable one. Laboratory only describes the research rather than criticising it, and a great deal of good lactoferrin work sits there legitimately. The error this site exists to avoid is reporting that work as though it were clinical.
Not supported is deliberately distinct from Insufficient. A claim that has been properly tested and failed is among the most useful things a reference can record, and it is almost never reported with the same enthusiasm as a positive result. Lactoferrin has a clear example, covered on the preterm infant page.
How sources are handled
Health claims cite primary literature identified by PubMed or PMC identifier, and those identifiers are checked automatically to confirm they still resolve. Study design and sample size are stated on the page, because a meta-analysis of four small trials and a single blinded trial of two thousand people are not interchangeable.
Figures carry their units and their source. Lactoferrin concentrations differ by more than an order of magnitude between human colostrum, mature human milk and bovine milk, and a number given without saying which one it describes is the most common error in writing on this subject.
What this site does not do
- It does not give medical advice or tell anyone what to take.
- It does not interpret an individual test result. That belongs to the clinician who ordered it.
- It does not sell anything and carries no affiliate links.
- It does not claim credentials that nobody here holds.
Who writes this
Pages here are written and edited under the name Imogen Reddaway, which is a pen name. No professional qualification is claimed on this site and none should be inferred.
Corrections
If something here is wrong it should be fixed. Corrections are made on the page itself with the modified date updated, not edited away quietly. A grade that changes because the evidence changed is a normal event, not an embarrassment.
Contact
Corrections, source queries and requests for the reasoning behind a grade can be sent to [email protected]. Individual medical questions are not answered.