Diabetes affects more than 25 million people in the United States and plagues its victims with serious medical conditions such as neuropathy, retinopathy and amputation.  As of late, obesity appears to be the leading cause of diabetes.

According to researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, oil derived from the seeds of wild almond trees can help to fight off obesity and diabetes.

Wild almond tree oil, also known as sterculic oil has the ability to influence particular microorganisms that are living within our stomachs.  A study showed that adding sterculic oil to the diets of laboratory mice, who were obese, increased their sensitivity to insulin. This happened due to the effect of wild almond tree oil, it was able to effect three types of microorganisms that live inside the mice’s stomachs.

Shreya Ghosh, PhD and a student in environmental engineering at Missouri S&T said, “That researchers saw a statistically significant improvement in glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in the obese mice.”

However when lean mice were given the same sterculic oil, there were no affects.

Previous studies at the University of Missouri of Columbia have found sterculic oil to suppress the bodily enzyme stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1). SCD1 is associated to insulin resistance, which is a huge factor in type 2 diabetes and obesity.

For the experiment, 28 male mice were studied, 14 of them obese and the other 14 normal size and each one about five weeks old. The mice were separated into four groups and fed a standard diet, 0.5 percent of sterculic oil was also added. Recording of weight, food consumptions and glucose levels were taken over a nine-week period.

Once that nine-week period was up, researchers at King Abdullah Institute of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia looked into the results, comparing diet, improved glucose and the groups of microbes. The obese mice that were fed the sterculic oil did not experience weight loss but researchers did find evidence to support a possible new lead in controlling both weight gain and diabetes.

Many studies have been experimented with to find a cure, or at least an effective treatment for diabetes. While there have been several great herbal remedies pop up in the recent years of medical science, there is no still no common cure or treatment for diabetes. One can help that wild almost tree oil can help to rectify that.