Camel's milk is believer's cause

PITTSBORO -- ******

CORRECTION

A story Wednesday on Page 1D included an incorrect price for a quart of fresh camel's milk. It averages about $28, down from about $40 a year ago.

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How far would you go for something you believed in?

Empty your savings account? Sell your furniture? Cut back on your day job to devote time to it?

Millie Hinkle, a natural medicine practitioner from Pittsboro, did all of the above.

Hinkle has spent three years working to get camel's milk approved for sale across the U.S. She started a company called Camel Milk USA and founded the American Camel Coalition to promote legislation to benefit camel owners.

Hinkle wasn't even that taken with the taste of camel's milk when she first drank it in the 1980s during a trip to Dubai.

"It was rather salty-tasting to me," she said.

In late 2008, an article in a health magazine got her thinking about that experience, and craving another taste. When she discovered it was illegal to sell camel's milk in the U.S., she became determined to get it federally approved for sale across state lines.

Hinkle testified before a Food and Drug Administration panel in 2009 and helped get camel's milk put under laws governing the sale of milk, allowing states to govern its sale. For instance, in North Carolina, milk sold must be pasteurized, although no one is currently selling camel's milk in the state, she said. In South Carolina, milk can be sold raw.

Her ultimate quest is for the laws to allow the commercial sale of camel's milk across state lines. Hinkle is working with the FDA to ensure consistent quality by making standardized test kits that detect pathogens and antibiotic residue. She expects the test kits to be ready in August. Then, she said, farmers could certify that their milk is germ free and safe and get approval to sell it in supermarkets and across state lines.

Hinkle said farmers are selling fresh camel's milk for about $40 a quart, given that camels cost at least $15,000 here and produce only about five quarts a day, half of what a cow produces. Camels, unlike cows, are also not as cooperative about being milked, Hinkle said.

A cheaper alternative might be powdered camel's milk, Hinkle said. Imported from Europe, it could soon be sold in health food stores at about half the price of fresh camel's milk, according to Hinkle.

The health claims

What drives Hinkle is a belief in the curative properties of camel's milk.

Based on small studies in India, Israel and Saudi Arabia, she believes camel's milk holds the key to curing ailments such as cancer, diabetes, autism and Crohn's disease.

Elizabeth Mayer-Davis, president of Health Care & Education at the American Diabetes Association, says the health claims appear to be unfounded.

"We know quite a bit about how to improve life and health for people with diabetes, and I do not think that camel milk is a particularly useful addition ... to what we already know," said Mayer-Davis, who is also a professor of medicine and nutrition at UNC-Chapel Hill. Bridget Soots, whose 6-year-old son Caiden was diagnosed with severe autism in 2008, believes in camel milk.

Soots, who lives in Mount Airy and discovered camel's milk through Hinkle, was willing to try anything to help her son, so she drove to Pennsylvania last year for a two month supply, at $15 for each 12-ounce bottle.

To her amazement, Soots said she saw an improvement in Caiden's behavior after drinking camel milk regularly.

"We could not take him into a restaurant. He would have meltdowns all the time, in the middle of the floor," Soots said. "And now, we can see it, he's very calm, he can sit and have a meal, we can have a conversation."

Soots said she did not change any other aspects of her son's treatment, which included speech and occupational therapy. Recently, doctors have confirmed that Caiden's condition has improved to mild autism.

"Even after doing the research, it seems like there's still a lot that is not known about camel's milk and how it would impact somebody," said David Laxton, a spokesman for the Autism Society of North Carolina.

"Families are willing to try a lot of different things," he said. "There's also been times when people have come up with some stuff that they thought would help, and they charged a lot of money for it. And they haven't necessarily helped."

Hinkle remains undeterred. She said seven American universities are doing research on camel's milk.

"It has been a long struggle up until this point but I think it is really beginning to pay off," she said.