The Effect of Combination Therapy (Thermal Therapy and Oxymel) on Insulin Resistance and Langerhans Islands in Diabetic Rats

Although thermal therapy is recently suggested as a safe promising adjuvant therapy for insulin resistance and diabetes, its combination with oxymel has been claimed more effective by Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM). This study was to examine the effect of thermal therapy plus oxymel on insulin resistance and Langerhans islands in diabetic rats. This experimental study was performed in the Experimental Animal Unit of Qom University of Medical Science in Iran in 2018. Sixty-four male rats were divided into 8 groups (using block randomization): four Normal (Nl), Diseased without treatment (D), Oxymel (OXM) and Sauna (Sauna) groups and one major SINA group (oxymel plus sauna) subdivided into four groups of different intervention frequency of 1 (SINA1d), 3 (SINA3d) and 5 days (SINA5d2m) a week for 8 weeks and 5 days a week for 4 weeks (SINA5d1m). Diabetes was induced using a high-fat diet (milk butter) and low-dose streptozotocin. Measurement of serum levels of glucose, insulin, lipid profile, and glycosylated hemoglobin and histological examination of liver, pancreas, heart, and kidney was done at the end of the study. The count of Langerhans Islands significantly increased in the groups of SINA3d (6.25 ± 0.94), (P = 0.05) and SINA5d2m (7 ± 0.36), (P = 0.008) in comparison to the D group (4 ± 0.44), and cell organization became nearly normal, but serum insulin and glucose levels did not change. On the other hand, despite the high-fat diet, lipid profile and histological findings did not support fatty deposition and insulin resistance context. Sauna-oxymel combination (SINA) therapy, which was derived from TPM philosophy to increase systemic and pancreatic blood perfusion, was shown significantly effective in inducing regeneration of Langerhans Islands, but owing to the lack of adequate ectopic fat accumulation, its effect on insulin resistance and beta-cell functions remain uncovered. More suitable studies are needed to approve or disapprove the idea