Effect of camel milk in asthmatic children: A double-blind randomized pilot study

Asthma is one of the prevalent diseases in children. There is some evidence regarding the benefits of camel milk in asthma. The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of camel milk on asthmatic children.

A randomized double-blind pilot study was operated in 2018 in a tertiary center. Sixty children aged more than 6 years with not well-controlled asthma were included. The intervention was consisting of 200-ml camel milk or placebo daily for 2 months. The medication regimen and spirometry parameters were assessed before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using SPSS software.

A total of 57 patients completed the trial. Patients were similar in demographic and baseline characteristics (p > 0.05). There was a significant difference between groups after intervention in use of inhaled corticosteroids (96.7% vs. 70.4%, p value = 0.01), short-acting beta-agonists (53.3% vs. 29.6%, p value = 0.0001) and long-acting beta-agonists (53.3% vs. 40.7%, p value = 0.04) in control and intervention, respectively. The percent of changes in forced expiratory volume (FEV1) in the control and intervention groups was 18.54 ± 14.89 and 21.89 ± 17.83, respectively (p = 0.19). The percent of changes in FEV1/forced vital capacity (FVC) in the control and intervention groups was 8.11 ± 7.12 and 11.11 ± 8.33, respectively (p = 0.14).

In our pilot study, some children with asthma may benefit from camel milk. Further studies would be useful to evaluate this hypothesis.