CAMEL MILK. A
NATURAL ANTI-DOTE TO DIABETES, OF COURSE IN CONTEXT
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Camel
milk ameliorates steatohepatitis, insulin resistance and lipid peroxidation in
experimental non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
Research
from College of Medicine at King Saud University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
BMC Complementary and
Alternative Medicine 2013,13:264 doi:10.1186/1472-6882-13-264
Published: 13
October 2013
The rats fed high
cholesterol diet without Camel Milk developed features similar to those of
non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), characterized by hepatic steatosis;
inflammatory cellular infiltration in liver tissue; altered liver functions;
and increased total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein
cholesterol, very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, atherogenic index (AI),
blood glucose, insulin resistance (IR), and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels.
Additionally, feeding this diet to animals decreased catalase (CAT) activity
and the glutathione (GSH) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol
levels. Camel milk intake for eight weeks decreased hepatic fat accumulation
and inflammatory cellular infiltration, preserved liver function, increased the
GSH levels and CAT activity, decreased the MDA levels, and ameliorated the
changes in the lipid profile, AI, and IR in animals from the High Cholesterol
plus Camel Milk Group.
Camel Milk has a unique composition that is rich in
minerals; vitamins, insulin and insulin-like protein, and it increased
HDL-cholesterol and ameliorated the biochemical and cellular features of NAFLD
in rats that received a High Cholesterol diet. The antioxidant effect of CM is
a likely mechanism for the altered metabolism and absorption of High
Cholesterol diet in the presence of Camel Milk. Regular consumption of Camel
Milk could provide a natural way to protect against NAFLD induced by a high-fat
diet.
I wrote to the lead author who was kind enough to reply immediately.
“Although the number of large population studies about the effects of
Camel Milk in Diabetes are still limited, Agarwal et al (2007) reported zero
prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus among the Rica Community in India. These are
camel breeders who depend markedly on camel milk on their diet”. The kind
doctor provided further articles on the efficacy of camel milk, some under
clinical settings.
Why did this article seem so important? NAFLD or fatty liver has drawn
some attention in the west as well as in Asia.
In a study from Malaysia, 68% of Indians, 65 % of Malay (both Men) and
5.2% Chinese women were found to have Fatty Liver.
In the USA, it is estimated that one in five adults have fatty liver and
that Mexicans living in America as well as Obese people have higher than normal
rate of Fatty Liver.
What causes Fatty Liver? As proven in the experiment above, you can
induce Fatty Liver by a High Cholesterol Diet.
I would think that, it is very similar to
The Western pattern diet, also
called Western dietary pattern or the meat-sweet diet,
is a dietary habit chosen by many people in some developed
countries, and increasingly in developing countries. It is characterized by
high intakes of red meat, sugary desserts, high-fat foods, and refined grains. It also typically contains high-fat dairy products, high sugar drinks and higher intakes of processed meat.
During my repeated visits to Malaysia and during participatory
observation, there is no doubt that the local Chinese ate better quality food
than the Indians or the Malays, which may be reflected in their fatty liver
rates.
NAFLD was strongly associated with Diabetes Mellitus, Impaired Glucose
Tolerance, BMI greater than 23, Decreased HDL, Increased Triglycerides and
Hypertension. This association has been proven over and over again from various
epidemiological studies including the recent one from NHANES (epidemiological)
study in the USA.
This also ties in nicely with the thought that Fatty Liver comes before
Diabetes and that Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 which is now spreading like fire may
be due an organ failure at the level of LIVER rather than pancreas or Muscles
as it is conventionally thought.
So an article from those indefatigable researchers at Helsinki in the
October 2013 issue of Diabetologia was a revelation indeed. It made such an
impact in the media that all TV channels and major newspapers picked it up.
Even the drug company supported “Medical Journals” which are sent free to
doctors were full of enthusiasm about this news, licking their chops at the
dream of manufacturing some highly priced anti-inflammatory medications
HEALTHY OBESE LIVER ON THE LEFT, UNHEALTHY OBESE LIVER ON THE RIGHT
New York Times of 9 October 2013
They are a mystery
to researchers: people who are significantly overweight and yet show none of
the usual metabolic red flags. Despite their obesity, they have normal
cholesterol levels, healthy blood pressure levels and no apparent signs of
impending diabetes.
Researchers call
them the metabolically healthy obese, and by some estimates they represent as
many as a third of all obese adults. Scientists have known very little about
them, but new research may shed some light on the cause of their unusual
metabolic profile.
A study in the
journal Diabetologia has found that compared with their
healthier counterparts, people who are obese but metabolically unhealthy have
impaired mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses that harvest energy from food,
as well as a reduced ability to generate new fat cells.
Unlike fat tissue
in healthy obese people, which generates new cells to help store fat as it
accumulates, the fat cells of the unhealthy obese swell to their breaking
point, straining the cellular machinery and ultimately dying off.
This is
accompanied by inflammation, and it leads to ectopic fat accumulation — the
shuttling of fat into organs where it does not belong, like the liver, heart
and skeletal muscle. A fatty liver frequently coincides with metabolic
abnormalities, and studies suggest that it may be one of the causes of insulin
resistance, the fundamental defect in Type 2 diabetes.
In the healthy
obese, however, the fat tends to remain in the subcutaneous padding just beneath
the skin, where it appears to be fairly innocuous.
“The group that
doesn’t gain fat in the liver as they get obese seems to avoid inflammation and
maintain their metabolic health,” said Dr. Jussi Naukkarinen, a research
scientist specializing in internal medicine at the University of Helsinki.
“There is a complete difference in how they react to obesity.
So, kudos to our desert
brethren who continue to drink Camel Milk and pity those who flock to the McDo
and other Disease Mongers now lining the air conditioned malls of the Middle
East and the Gulf (Almost all countries in the Gulf region can be included in
the Fattest on the Earth List)
Everything will now come
down to Inflammation in the body and the modern diseases being a manifestation
of it.
And the mind body
connection will be further investigated by the news that a combination of
Serotonin and Epinephrine activation increases fat burning, helping the
organism to loose weight. It would tie in with Autonomic nervous system, and
then with the Eastern Philosophy… the possibilities are endless.
