Camel milk, nutritional supplement to treat diabetes

CAMELS are not pretty to look at and so most people despise them as well as their products. However, these camels can play an important role in the prevention of diabetes. Its milk is a safe adjunct to insulin in the treatment of diabetes.

Researchers in a study published in the African Journal of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, indicated that camel milk contains an insulin-like protein that can help in controlling diabetes and its complications such as kidney failure, blindness, and delayed wound healing.

Camel milk is different from other ruminant milk; having low cholesterol, low sugar, high minerals and high vitamin C, B2, A and E. It has no allergic properties and it can be consumed by persons with lactose intolerance and those with weak immune systems.

Camel milk has more fat and protein than cow’s milk. Cholesterol in camel milk is lower than cow or goat milk. Camel milk is three times higher in vitamin C than cow’s milk and 10 times higher in iron.

The milk has valuable therapeutic effects on the treatment of wounds as it enhances wound healing. It is also used against dropsy, jaundice, asthma, anaemia, and piles.

Under laboratory conditions, the researchers revealed that the rats that were fed camel milk showed a decline in glucose levels. Also, camel milk also increased leptin and improved the metabolic use of glucose.

In the 2017 study, the researchers assessed the effect of camel milk supplementation on glucose, insulin and leptin levels in diabetic rats. The 75 diabetic rats were divided into five equal groups.

Two groups were designated as negative or positive diabetes controls while two other groups were given camel milk for two consecutive months and the last group was treated with the diabetes medicine metformin.

They found that diabetic rats supplemented with camel milk showed a decrease in glucose levels compared to diabetic rats. This coincided with the decrease recorded in metformin administered diabetic rats.

They suggested that the changes in glucose levels are mainly due to the increase in insulin secretion reported in camel milk administered diabetic rats.

Over the past few years, experts who examined the efficiency of camel milk to treat diabetes had said that the insulin contained in camel milk has same features as human insulin and suggested its use as a dietary supplement for patients with type 1 diabetes and in treating patients who have insulin resistance.

In a clinical research on the use of camel milk by patients with type 1 diabetes in 2007, researchers in the journal, Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice indicated that drinking camel milk daily decreases the blood glucose level and reduces insulin requirement by 30per cent.

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A previous study in the International Journal of Dairy Science had shown that raw camel milk has the ability to reduce blood glucose level by 55 per cent in diabetic rats, compared to raw cattle milk (43 per cent).

Likewise, in 2010 a study to evaluate the effect of camel milk administered to diabetic dogs revealed a significant reduction in the level of blood glucose when treated with 500 mL of camel milk for 5 weeks. It was documented in the International Journal of Diabetes Metabolism.

This observation was in agreement with another study conducted in 2007 by researchers who reported in the Indian Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice zero prevalence of diabetes in the camel milk-consuming Raica community of northwest Rajasthan, India.

They stated that people consuming camel milk showed a significantly less crude prevalence of diabetes (0.4 per cent), compared to people who did not consume camel milk (5.5 per cent).

Furthermore, another study in 2011 revealed in America Journal of Biochemical and Biotechnology that camel milk in combination with insulin can be an effective supplementation as an adjunctive therapy in controlling patients with type 1 diabetes, compared to camel milk alone or insulin injection alone.

The reduction of fasting blood glucose in type 1 diabetic patients treated with camel milk and insulin was approximately 28 per cent after three months, compared to 22 per cent or 11 per cent of patients treated with camel milk alone or insulin alone.

Moreover, combining supplementing camel milk with Ginkgo biloba, researchers also proved helpful in the prevention and/or treatment of diabetic rats.

According to the 2012 Journal of Diabetes & Metabolism, the combination of camel milk and Ginkgo biloba extract before and after induction of diabetes prevented and improved blood glucose levels respectively.