Diabetic Kidney Disease: Black Seed to the Rescue!
As if diabetes were not enough on its own, it is also a leading cause of kidney failure. But a safe, little, super seed may provide help.
Several studies have shown that black seed, or Nigella sativa, helps diabetics (J Res Med Sci 2016;21:3). A new study set out to see if it could also help with the renal failure that can result from it.
Dialysis is the primary treatment for end-stage renal disease. But people undergoing this treatment are susceptible to many serious problems, like heart attack, stroke, infections, depression and higher rates of mortality. The reason is free radical damage and inflammation. Black seed has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This study tested the idea that those properties in black seed could help diabetics on dialysis.
The three month, double-blind study gave 46 people either 2g a day of black seed oil or a placebo. The black seed came through. The group on the black seed had significant improvement in superoxide dismutase (SOD), and important antioxidant made by your body. They also had significant increases in total antioxidant capacity and significant decreases in free radical damage, as measured by MDA. C-reactive protein went significantly down, meaning that black seed improved, not only the free radical damage, but the inflammation.
As for the diabetes itself, fasting blood sugar improved significantly. Even more importantly, HbA1c significantly improved. HbA1c is the most important marker of long term blood sugar and diabetes control.
This study is the first to look at the effect of black seed on diabetics on dialysis. Encouragingly, it showed that the powerful, little seed could improve free radical damage, inflammation and blood sugar.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2022;2022:2753294
