Effect of Fermented Camel Milk on Obesity Measures and Blood Pressure of Adolescents With Metabolic Syndrome

Background: metabolic syndrome (mets) predisposes the human body to a variety of chronic diseases. objectives: this study, for the first time, aimed to assess the effects of fermented camel milk (fcm), a functional dairy food, on the obesity measures and blood pressure of adolescents with mets. methods: this was a crossover, randomized, double-blind trial. we enrolled overweight or obese adolescents, aged 11-18 years, meeting the diagnostic criteria for mets. we randomly assigned the study participants to receive fcm 250 ml per day for 8 weeks, followed by a 4-week washout, then, consuming diluted cow yogurt (dcy) 250 ml per day for 8 weeks, or the reverse sequence. general and abdominal obesity measures consisting of weight, body mass index (bmi), bmi z-score, waist circumference (wc), hip circumference (hc), waist to height ratio and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (sbp, dbp) were measured before and after each of the 4 periods. a three-day food record and physical activity questionnaire were completed before each period. statistical analyses were performed using minitab and spss considering the significance level of 0.05. results: twenty-four participants with the mean±sd age of 13.77±1.87 years (age range: 10.45- 16.25 years) (58% girls) completed the study. it resulted in nonsignificant mean changes (increase or decrease) in weight of -0.67 kg (95%ci: -1.97; 0.61; p=0.28), bmi (-0.10 kg/m2, 95%ci: -0.65; 0.45; p=0.70), bmi z-score of -0.06 (95%ci: -0.33; 0.19; p=0.59), wc of -1.10 cm (95%ci: -3.22; 1.01; p=0.29), and hc of -0.12 cm (95%ci: -2.04; 1.79; p=0.89) by fcm consumption in comparison to dcy. the study also resulted in non-significant mean reduction in dbp of -4.45 mm hg (95%ci: -10.04; 1.12; p=0.11). conclusions: according to some positive impacts of fcm on obesity measures and blood pressure, we suggest conducting further studies to validate the clinical impacts of fermented camel milk.