A Few Simple Steps to Making a Cayenne Pepper & Castor Oil Mix

Materials
Castor Oil
Cayenne Pepper
An Empty Container that can withstand heat
Optional: Lavender Oil

Step 1: Gather all your materials together in one place. Open your empty container.

Step 2: Place your desired amount of Cayenne Pepper into the container. I always am very liberal with how much I add because Cayenne Pepper is a strong anti-inflammatory, and I know that the more I add, the more potent my mix will be.

I didn't bother to measure how much Cayenne Pepper I put, I just put a lot!

 Step 3: Pour in your Castor Oil.

Getting ready to pour in the Castor Oil.

After pouring in the Castor Oil. I didn't measure the amount of Castor Oil either,
just made sure to add enough to more than cover the Cayenne Pepper.

The stuff that changed my life! <3_<3

 Step 4: Seal your container and store in a cool dry place.

This is what your finished product will look like.

After the Castor Oil is poured in to your container, don't mix around the oil! As the Cayenne Pepper absorbs the Castor Oil it will turn a darker color, showing that it is saturated with oil. You don't want any of the Cayenne Pepper to settle on top of the castor oil, because then it won't saturate. However, if that does happen, simply place your tightly sealed container into another container of hot water, and shake it up until the castor oil and cayenne pepper are completely mixed together, with no cayenne pepper sitting on top of the oil.

When you are ready to use your oil, either use it as is, rubbing the oil between your hands to heat it up, or place the tightly sealed container into another container full of hot water to heat your oil. When I heat my oil, I usually place the container into boiled water to get maximum potency, and then I use the oil once it's heated.

Boiled the water on the stove top and placed the oil mix into the hot water.

Be careful not to let any water get into your container! That will make the oil mixture start to go bad.

Optional: Add a few drops of lavender oil to your mix to make it smell nice! As I've mentioned before, Lavender Oil also has anti-inflammatory properties. :)

The Importance of Using Castor Oil

Ladies and gentleman, let me tell you a story. This story is about my hips, which have been a source of trouble for about 10 years (nearly half my life) and castor oil, the best thing that ever happened to my health, after Moringa. Once upon a time, I used to get hip pain that would sometimes be so bad, I couldn't leave my house. Being someone who has a life and has stuff that needs to be done outside of my home, not being able to leave home at times was quite problematic. Most recently, my hips were hurting last month when I needed to do fieldwork for a class that I was taking. In order to keep up the pace with what I needed to do, I decided to rub castor oil on my hips each night, the same way I did with my tail bone (healed! :D) after I fell down the stairs in January. I've been rubbing the castor oil on my hips for about two weeks now, and it has seriously helped to strengthen my hips. This hip situation has been a HUGE problem for the past 10 years, as I could not always rely on being able to walk. How could I when my hips were giving out on me every now and then? But with rubbing castor oil (often I used the one that I've mixed with cayenne pepper) on my hips each night, I feel a noticeable difference in the amount of strength that is in my hips, and there is decreased pain in my hips since I've been using it nightly. This is HUGE!!!!!!!!! Castor oil really works!!! I had no idea what to do about the whole hip situation, and along came the castor oil and boom, positive change, results! I'm so very happy about this :) I just completed a 25 minute gentle workout on this little upper and lower body cycle, and there was barely any protest from my hips! :D Castor oil has really made a difference in my life, a really big one, and I will keep spreading the word about it so it can keep helping others as well. I'll soon be posting a little tutorial on how to make a simple Cayenne Pepper and Castor Oil mixture, so stay tuned!

Blood Building Foods - Increase Your Red Blood Cell Count

Read here about foods you can eat to build your red blood cell count!

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/8/prweb10997151.htm

Sickle Cell Trait: Beware!!!

Sickle Cell Trait also has effects and no one really talks about this. Apparently in people who have the trait, cells can begin to sickle when people over exert themselves. This is something to beware of, please take care of yourself and get educated about how you can stay healthy if you have the trait or even think that you have it. Stay hydrated (this is ESSENTIAL as it will keep your blood cells from sickling), don't overexert yourself, avoid exercising or training in hot weather, and eat healthy! If you have experience with Sickle Cell Trait, please, please comment and say how you think it affects you or doesn't affect your life, knowledge is power! The videos below are helpful and informative, please watch and share, this may save someone's life.

Sickle Cell Trait: The Silent Killer

https://youtu.be/EiEpmZLLcuM

Sickle Cell Trait and the Student Athlete - Part I

https://youtu.be/EiEpmZLLcuM

Sickle Cell Trait and the Student Athlete - Part II

https://youtu.be/lbFWP39tF1A

Sickle Cell Trait - Exertional Sickling in Athletes

https://youtu.be/EIkq1ZePjEk

Sickle Cell Trait: A Brief, Informational Presentation
https://youtu.be/MlyLuhZ6pPw

Sickle Cell Trait (Start at 2:53)
https://youtu.be/v38NxD1LTLI

Sports Screening for Sickle Cell Trait
https://youtu.be/v38NxD1LTLI

Natural Healing & Reducing Fatigue: I Cut Down Drastically on My Meat Intake

Fatigue and anemia go hand in hand. When I was in high school and undergrad, I fell asleep often on the bus, train, or even in class, as I was always so tired, and used every opportunity I could get to catch a nap. Last summer, I began looking into becoming a vegetarian or vegan, as I was hearing so much about the benefits of ditching meat and animal products. Back in the summer of 2012, when I had first began looking into natural alternatives to treat Sickle Cell Anemia, I heard about T.J. Brown, whose health and wellness experienced dramatic, positive changes when he became a raw vegan (his video testimony is below and you can read about him here). The changes that he experienced led him to write a blog and become an advocate for natural alternatives to sickle cell and he founded the Sickle Cell Natural Wellness Group. In 2012, I started to pay more attention to my diet, adding more vegetables, however, I didn't go meat-free. Adding Moringa to my diet in August 2013 really helped to increase my energy levels, however, I still felt fatigued often. In the summer of 2014, when I was doing some research about being a vegetarian or vegan, I decided to finally go meat-free, and see how that would work for me. Through experimenting, I found that being a vegan wasn't entirely working for me, because I still needed fat in my diet, which I got through eating a lot of eggs (3 a day usually). Being a vegetarian did help increase my energy levels, however, I still needed the iron, etc. that meat provides. I knew my body was really craving meat when I started having dreams about chicken!!! I still do eat meat, however, it's much less often than the amount I used to consume. I have meat maybe about once a month or so, but my diet is mainly vegetarian/pescatarian and foods that are high in thiocyanate (read about it here & here is a list of thiocyanate rich foods). My body always lets me know when I need to have it, I just start to crave it after a while and that's how I know. But without having meat on a regular basis, I feel that my energy levels are better and I don't find myself as exhausted as I used to feel. I also try not to overextend myself by scheduling too many things to do in one day. When I became a vegetarian, I was getting some protests from my mom, who said that I needed to keep eating meat regularly. However, I stuck to my guns, and a few months ago, she actually became a vegetarian herself in order to manage her high blood pressure, and it's been working really well for her. She also started exercising as well, which helped bring the blood pressure down, and recently (within the past week) she has been trying Cayenne Pepper (read about C.P. here), which I have told her is good for helping regulate blood pressure as well. My family eats a lot of fish to make up for not eating meat, and it works pretty well (and tastes delicious!).


Video Testimonials on Natural Healing for Sickle Cell Anemia

T.J. Brown's Testimony, in which he speaks about taking risk, something we must do in order to venture out into the world of better health! This young man is so inspiring, hearing his testimony (3 years ago now) really helped me to see that change was possible for my health as well.
 https://youtu.be/mM-BuTmLE-c

Here's a testimony of a man with Sickle Cell Anemia who became a raw vegan, lowered his meat consumption, and has seen benefits to his health: (Start at 7:15)
https://youtu.be/yUrS8d_VnMs?t=7m15s

This woman uses Coconut Oil, Oil of Oregano, and also talks about factors aside from Sickle Cell that can cause pain in Sickle Cell, and some of the side effects of Hydroxyurea:
https://youtu.be/_8vviO1N-bc

This woman talks about how she has kept her son crisis free through natural healing using herbs, etc.:
https://youtu.be/9CJKKhl3_zw

Here is a link to her website:
http://www.ssnaturalhealing.com/

Read About Even Flo - Yet Another Natural Supplement to Manage Sickle Cell!

I just noticed that SS Natural Healings, which I have a subscription to but almost never read (lack of time/I forget) just posted about EvenFlo, which is a natural supplement to treat sickle cell. I have copied and pasted the first paragraph of the original post, and there are links to the post here as well. 


Post copied from:
http://ssnaturalhealings.blogspot.com/2015/05/even-flo-natural-supplement-to-manage.html

"Even Flo - Natural supplement to manage Sickle Cell disease! 

Even Flo is a natural pain reliever, which contains the highest quality herbal extracts and nutraceuticals, was created to manage pain in sickle cell patients and decrease the frequency of crisis they experience. The product has undergone rigorous clinical tests and has shown none of the side effects usually associated with prescription pain medications. EvenFlo can also be used to alleviate arthritis pain, ischemia in varying locations of the body, PMS, muscle pain, hypertension, nerve pain, low energy, and anemia..."

Read the rest of the post here!

 http://ssnaturalhealings.blogspot.com/2015/05/even-flo-natural-supplement-to-manage.html

I don't know much about Even Flo, except what's mentioned from the post on SS Natural Healings, but it sounds good so far, I'm definitely going to look more into it.

Sickle Cell Crises

I'm having a SC crisis. It's a new and improved version on it because of the changes I've made to my diet, and it takes me longer to recognize what is actually happening to my body. Sometimes, I just think of it as pain. Normal pain. Which is something I'd almost never experienced before my dietary changes. It's been 3 years and my life has had a complete turn around. Okay, so details. The weather on the east coast (anyone else from NYC out there reading this blog? Shout out!) has been quite funny, as it varies from being warm/hot to chilly/windy/cold in the same day. I CANNOT handle these strange weather patterns and quick changes in temperature that all happen within the same day. My body does not like extreme weather. On Tuesday (it was hot) I went shopping with a friend, and we went to two locations, a shopping center and a mall. The sun was hot in the car and the mall was cool/cold. After we'd finished at the mall, the weather had cooled down and was getting cooler towards the evening. I went out twice more after she dropped me off home, and the second time I went out, I had to wear a jacket (note all the temperature changes in one day!). The next day, I spent most of the day on Tylenol Extra Strength in bed because my body was in crisis mode. By the end of the day, I was feeling mostly better (well enough to have dinner with a friend ;) ). Today, the weather was nice. It was warm for the majority of the day and again I went out with a friend. This entailed hopping on public transportation, which blasts the AC, heading back outdoors, heading indoors where it was cold, back outdoors where it was warm, repeat, repeat, repeat... In other words, it was a recipe for disaster! Aka another SC crisis. Such is life with SC. Temperature changes such as these are the bane of my existence. The sun literally burns my arms (my most susceptible to the cold body part... they're so skinny!) when I'm in it for too long and it hurts. Even in the summertime I have to carry 1 to 2 extra layers with me, either to cover myself from the sun or to keep myself warm when facing ridiculous AC subzero temperatures. It's a difficult season to deal with. I used to think that summer was the best season because it was warm all around and I didn't have to worry about winter making my bones ache. But summer hurts just the same as winter. The main difference is that in winter I can wrap myself up more and adequately prepare for the killer cold. In the summer, it's a double-edged sword. I get hot easily AND I get cold easily. Not only do I need to dress for the heat, but I have to consider the cold as well. My body can't handle it very well either. I'm doing everything I can and yet SC still is attempting to kick my butt and keep me down. But we are warriors, aren't we? The pain doesn't keep us down for very long and as soon as we can get up we can, don't we? It's not all roses, in fact, there are quite a few thorns along the way. This is the reality of life with SC, and I am keenly aware of the fact that there are many, many others out there whose symptoms are much worse than mine, who deal with more pain than I do, often on a daily basis. I write for them as well as myself. I write because I have a new hope and I want to share that with others as much as possible, that others too might now that there are life changes that can be made to help their health. It's not easy for sure, but it's life, and life, by definition, is not easy.

Doing More Harm Than Good? Royal Jelly Update

There have been points along my journey where I've had to stop and take inventory and wonder if the new thing that I've added to my diet hasn't been doing more harm than good. Currently, the thing that I'm wondering about is the Royal Jelly. It's a super-food and has many beneficial properties... however, it doesn't seem to be benefiting me as much as I thought and hoped it would. As I wrote in my original post about Royal Jelly, I was hoping that it would be a cure for my ulcers. However, during the first week I took the Royal Jelly, I started experience stomach pain again! My sister said that I should continue taking it for at least another week to notice its effects. However, we ran out and I was a bit reluctant to continue taking it, as I wasn't sure what the side effects were.

So I took the Royal Jelly for about one week, beginning on March 20th. And let me just say, I started by taking like 2 TABLESPOONS of the stuff at a time. I really really wanted my ulcers to heal. I was getting some weird types of reactions from my body, like with my stomach hurting and also I felt like my asthma symptoms were starting to increase. Adding Magnesium to my diet (which I did around January or maybe the end of December) has greatly helped reduce my asthma symptoms as well as my monthly cramps, to the point where I rarely ever use my inhaler anymore. Before January/December, I was using my inhaler quite often, and taking lots of pain killers each month for my cramps. After adding the magnesium, I noticed that my need for the inhaler decreased overall, as well as my monthly cramps. Jump to the end of March, and I started to feel again that I was having some difficulty with breathing at times (but not enough to necessitate the use of my inhaler again. That stuff has side effects too, it's a steroid! I only use it when necessary.). This need would arise especially when I was coming up out of the subway after taking a lot of stairs and when trying to run to catch my breath. I thought it was strange, but it took a while for me to connect this problem with my intake of the Royal Jelly. I stopped taking the Royal Jelly around March 27th, partially because I was wary of it, and partially because we were running out of it quickly because I was gobbling it down. On April 2nd, we received the second shipment of Royal Jelly that my sister ordered. This time, what was ordered was the regular Royal Jelly as well as one that had a mixture of ginseng in it. I resumed taking it that same day, and again I started to feel those asthma symptoms as well as tummy trouble. I had looked at many different websites talking about the side effects/benefits of Royal Jelly in the interim period of not taking it, and also continued my research after I resumed taking it. Some of my sources are below. One of the best pieces of advice I found on a website about Royal Jelly was that I should have introduced it to my diet slowly, and increased the dosage from there to avoid any side effects of it. After reading that, I decreased my dosage to about 1 TEASPOON at a time. On April 2nd, I had started with about 1 and 1/2 teaspoons, but afterwards I decreased it. I began to notice that soon after taking the Royal Jelly I would feel like I had to go potty (diarrhea :( ), so of course I did more research about it. One article I came across said that Royal Jelly could send your body into "crisis mode" as it begins clearing out your body, with this crisis mode including the need to go potty. So I started thinking that maybe that's what it was. However, I was also beginning to get chest pain again in my sternum, which was also a big problem for me before I began taking the magnesium. On Sunday night into Monday, my body was feeling kind of strange, but I also have to add here that I have not been eating very well lately, and that has been negatively affecting my health as well.

After my body began having all these strange pains and I began to feel those asthma symptoms again, I began to wonder if whether or not I would be better off without taking the Royal Jelly. I took it for a few days more and then I discontinued its use entirely. Having taken it out of my diet, my overall health began to return to its new normal. So, it was a failure of an experience for me. I think that the ginseng also contributed to the symptoms I was feeling, however, I was still getting those symptoms on the regular Royal Jelly. The point is, I tried. Maybe I should have done more research before trying. I'm just thankful that the outcome wasn't worse and that I was able to put 2 and 2 together quickly enough about what the Royal Jelly was doing to my health. I no longer take it, but I think that it may actually have benefited my stomach to some extent, because it is now the end of May, and I no longer feel like my stomach is as much of an issue as it was. Also, I no longer take Cayenne Pepper daily for my stomach, only as needed. So something along the way, or multiple things along the way, have helped! My stomach still gives me the occasional pains, but I can live with it!

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Truth-About-Asthma-and-Bee-Pollen-and-Royal-Jelly-Should-You-Take-Them-If-You-Have-Asthma&id=5236442

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8835130

http://www.livestrong.com/article/121419-dangers-royal-jelly/

http://www.bee-pollen-buzz.com/side-effects-to-royal-jelly.html

http://www.wisegeekhealth.com/what-are-the-side-effects-of-royal-jelly.htm#didyouknowout

Lavender Oil! An Oil with Similar Benefits to Castor Oil

So I've had some lavender oil laying around my room for the past several months. It was recommended to me as a sleep aid (people with SCD often also suffer from insomnia... talk about adding insult to injury!), as the smell of it helps the mind and body to relax. Unfortunately, it did not help me as much as I would have liked, and so the bottle was just hanging around, out of use. Lavender essential oil smells really fantastic, and one day I decided to see what I could use it for, besides being a sleep aid. It turns out that Lavender Oil has benefits to it that are very similar to Castor Oil! It's an ant-inflammatory, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial that stimulates hair growth, and among the many other benefits it has, it makes things smell nice! Being as how it's an essential oil, it needs to be diluted, so I added it to my Castor Oil to make it less smelly (even though the cold-pressed, cold-processed Castor Oil is already low on odor... it needs all the help it can get! Lol but please don't be deterred by the smell of it! It works!!!). Naturally, after I found out the amazing benefits to this oil that has similar properties to Castor Oil, I wanted to share it with you all, so here I am, writing about it and sharing my sources with you. Enjoy reading! :)

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7769/13-uses-for-lavender-oil-the-only-essential-oil-youll-need.html
https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/essential-oils/health-benefits-of-lavender-essential-oil.html

Even More Benefits of Castor Oil

Lately, I've been wondering if I can take Castor Oil internally without the laxative effect. A few months ago, the thought of taking Castor Oil internally would have really grossed me out, because as a kid, I was forced to drink it as a laxative (any other Caribbean kids out there who went through the same thing?). However, since I've discovered that Castor Oil is basically God's gift to humanity for things such as minor burns (I used it to treat my relaxer burn that I got on Saturday. It was mild, didn't pierce the skin but just hurt. The Castor Oil cleared the pain up in about 2 days. Gotta love it!), hair growth (my eyelashes have gotten thicker & longer since I've been using it on my face! But be careful though ladies, if you have a naturally hairy face, it'll only make it hairier! Lol ;-) ), acne (I use it almost every single night to treat my acne and I mix it with Cayenne Pepper to make it more potent. It's a powerful anti-inflammatory! Has saved my face from painful breakouts on countless occasions!), joint/muscle inflammation (like 2 days after my wisdom teeth extractions, and I went in twice for surgery, the swelling was all gone!), etc. I could go on. I really could. I love Castor Oil so much, I just have to keep extolling its benefits, because THIS STUFF REALLY WORKS. So, back to my main point. I was ordering stuff on Swanson Vitamins (my favorite website of all time!) and getting my new 16 oz bottle of Cold-Pressed, Cold-Processed Castor Oil, when i saw that it was available in pill form. Naturally, I looked into the benefits of taking it internally. Apparently it's good for the gastrointestinal system! I could definitely use benefits in that area. I'm no longer taking Cayenne Pepper Pills everyday, only as needed, and I usually don't get stomach pain anymore (YAYYYYY!!!! CHEER WITH ME FOLKS, MY STOMACH HAS BEEN A PROBLEM AREA FOR OVER 3 YEARS!!!!), but it would be great if the occasional stomach pains would go away. I'm thinking that maybe if I take the Castor Oil internally it will help my stomach issues out even further. In any case, here are some resources on the benefits of taking castor oil internally. Enjoy reading! :)

http://www.homeremediesweb.com/castor-oil-health-benefits.php

http://www.castoroilhome.com/health-benefits-of-castor-oil

http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/amazing-benefits-of-castor-oil/ 

http://castoroil.org/uses-and-benefits/

A Few Warnings About Using Castor Oil - Always Good to Know!

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/28/castor-oil-to-treat-health-conditions.aspx

The Reality Is...

Yes it's hard. Yes, life sucks sometimes. Yes, sometimes the pain is so bad you want to just leave this life for the next one. Yes, it's difficult for people to understand what you're going through. It's a nightmare at times and it just seems to keep repeating itself. Sometimes, that is the reality of Sickle Cell. Thank God for the people in our lives who are there to care for us, carry us when we can not walk (sometimes literally, other times mentally, emotionally, physically), love us through our deepest trials and pains. Some of us out there don't even really have a network of people to lean on and we are wading through this life just holding on to any help we can get. I know what it's like. Just because I have changed my diet and I have seen great improvements in my health, doesn't mean that I've been cured. I still get pain at times, pain that seems to want to take over my body and have my life stop being my new normal. Right now, my right ankle hurts. Yesterday, it was my left ankle. A bit earlier, my stomach was hurting, and I think about how it was the painkillers - that I only took to manage the pain brought on by the disease - that ruined my stomach in the first place. I was just remembering how it was my oldest sister who ran downstairs and got honey and mixed it with Cayenne Pepper on a spoon and made me take it when I was curled up on my bed with stomach pains from the damage the NSAIDs had done to my stomach. I DID NOT want to try her stupid home remedy. Does she know she helped save my life that day? I remember how my second oldest sister, time and time again tried to get me to try Cherry Extract when I was suffering from hip pain which made me nearly immobile - kept me from getting out of the house and from going to work or school - and I couldn't deal with too many stairs for years after I had my hip crisis in the Summer of 2008, which I believe left part of my hip muscles infarcted. Finally, in September 2014, I tried her stupid Cherry Extract. And found out that it worked. Both of my sisters' stupid home remedies actually worked. They helped to restore my desire to live, they helped restore me to health, and helped me get on a path to desiring to live instead of being ruled by the pain, by the emotional, mental, physical, sometimes spiritual turmoil that sometimes comes with it.
I share my story and these resources and the things that I do to remain healthy because I know it makes a difference. People may not comment on these posts, but I see the number on the bottom of this page rising, and I know that there are thousands of people out there who have benefited from these words. So I will continue to post them, whether I get comments or not, as I am able to. I just want people out there to know that there is hope. No, I'm not talking about a cure, I wish I was. But, I am talking about natural treatments, natural things that you can add to your diet that can help you live a better quality of life. You may not see immediate changes. Don't give up hope. Incorporating these changes takes time. Give yourself time. But don't be afraid to try something new. Don't just read and forget about or dismiss these stupid home and natural remedies. Read them and let them stick in your life. Try them and see if they work for you. I have failed along this journey so many times. Royal Jelly? Epic fail. Nattokinase and Serrapeptase? Epic fail. Trying to treat my ulcers with red cabbage and aloe vera? Super epic fail! Beets? I can't eat them anymore. But... I haven't given up. My diet is pretty limited now... but... I haven't given up. I thank God for the people who have been there to care for me and encourage me along the way. I couldn't have done it without them. Because of these people, I am still here today. Because of these people, I can offer you encouragement. There is hope. There are options. Try, try, try. Read, share, and try some more. There are resources out there besides painkillers and I want the whole world to know so that the suffering caused by Sickle Cell can be decreased. So, please. Read, try, share, and read some more. I hope that this helps someone, God bless. :)

Zinc for Sickle Cell Anemia!!!

"Zinc helps those suffering from sickle-cell anemia, acne and rheumatoid arthritis, notes the NYU Langone Medical Center."

 Learning about zinc for me was kind of accidental, as I was looking for a cure to the acne that has plagued me for the past 11 years. It's shown improvement with changes in my diet, and I noticed that Vitamin A was not only helping my eyes, but seemed to be helping my skin as well. So, naturally, I did some research. And found out about the benefits of adding zinc to my diet. (Learn about acne help here, I know there's more out there who can benefit from this!) Naturally, my curiosity was piqued when I learned what zinc could potentially do for my acne, so I looked further into it. As I was doing my research on zinc and reading different websites (because one is never enough, I always check multiple sources to see if they each confirm what the other says. That's how you know when it's more likely to be accurate!), I found one website (the first on the list) that says:

"Taking zinc supplements under medical supervision has a role in fighting disease. Zinc helps those suffering from sickle-cell anemia, acne and rheumatoid arthritis, notes the NYU Langone Medical Center."
 Source: http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/zinc-can-humans-8590.html

Another website said:

"We administered zinc sulfate, 660 mg per day, orally, to seven men and two women with sickle cell anemia. Two 17-year-old males gained 5 cm and 7 cm in height during 49 and 42 weeks of zinc therapy, respectively. All but one patient gained weight (0.5 kg to 4.1 kg). Five of the males showed increased growth of pubic, axillary, facial, and body hair, and in one a leg ulcer healed in six weeks on zinc and in two others some benefit of zinc therapy on healing of ulcers was noted."
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1116294

After reading that, I immediately emailed my cousin, who has suffered from leg ulcers for several years. He told me that he'd discovered zinc around November of last year and that it has worked wonders for him.

According to the same website from the link above, patients who are zinc deficient show similar characteristics to patients who have sickle cell disease:

"Clinical similarities between patients with sickle cell anemia and zinc-deficient subjects suggested a secondary zinc deficiency in sickle cell anemia."
Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1116294 

Yet another website states:

"Various studies have shown that zinc deficiency may be common in SCA patients. This has been attributed to chronic haemolysis that occurs in these patients, increased demand and utilization, along with the secondary loss of zinc in the urine [1, 7, 8]. Furthermore, supplementation of zinc in sickle cell anaemia has been reported to improve wound healing, decrease incidence of infection, improve the age of attaining secondary sexual characteristics, reverse dark adaptation of the eyes, and accelerate growth [8–12]."
Source:  http://www.hindawi.com/journals/anemia/2011/698586/

This website talks about how zinc helps children with Sickle Cell grow & it also helps with fighting infection:

"Many people with the disease also suffer from zinc deficiency, which can cause slow growth in children and make adults more susceptible to infection.

In the study, researchers looked at the long-term effects of zinc supplementation among 38 children aged 4-10 years with sickle cell disease. Six of the children had low zinc levels in their blood at the beginning of the study. The results were published this week in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

They found that children who received 10 mg per day of the zinc supplements grew significantly taller than those that did not receive the supplements. For example, among 24 children whose initial height and weight were considered low, those who took zinc grew 1.3 cm -- about half an inch -- more than the others.

The zinc supplements also helped the children with sickle cell disease maintain a normal height and weight for their age. The children that did not take the zinc had the slow growth that is typical for youths with this disease."
Source: http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20020124/zinc-helps-sickle-cell-kids-grow

I just started taking zinc on Friday, May 15th (my sister happened to have a bottle on hand, purchased from our favorite website http://swansonvitamins.com/), and I'm hoping to see the benefits of it too. I couldn't wait to share the news, so here I am, posting about it. Some of the links, especially the last two, get into some pretty technical medical language, but please, read and share with anyone you know who has sickle cell. You never know who you might help or how much you might be helping them!

Read Here About the Benefits of Zinc for Sickle Cell Anemia

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/zinc-can-humans-8590.html

http://www.sharecare.com/health/minerals-nutrition-diet/do-zinc-supplements-sickle-cell

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263176.php

http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20020124/zinc-helps-sickle-cell-kids-grow

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/anemia/2011/698586/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1116294

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/75/2/181.full

And for those who need some help with fighting acne:

http://www.xojane.com/beauty/vitamins-make-your-skin-less-fugly

Benefits of Borage Oil

http://www.taoofherbs.com/products/5412/DEVANutrition/VeganBorageOil.htm

Cayenne Pepper: The Miracle Spice

Can we just talk about how much I love Cayenne Pepper? I've been taking it consistently for the past year and a half I think, maybe only a year, I forget. But I've been taking it for my peptic ulcers, as it is the only thing that has given me consistent relief from the pain and allowed me to live a normal quality of life again with eating food. My ulcers have been a real pain over the past 3-4 years, and the medicine that the doctors gave me only made me feel worse rather than better, so I gave up on those and looked for natural treatments. So, Cayenne Pepper is good for peptic ulcers. Among many other things!!! It is great for circulation. Every time I take a few pills, I get a warm feeling in my stomach (sometimes a bit of pain if I don't eat too much, I have to be careful with it too! But most of the time I don't get pain from it because I eat enough) and the rest of my body starts to get warm too. It helps to open up those blood vessels so that the blood can flow more easily through them. Of course, that should have led me to realize that meant it is an anti-inflammatory, but somehow that escaped me. It was only recently that I realized that Cayenne Pepper is an anti-inflammatory, because after I would take a few pills, I would get a really strong urge to pee (sorry, too much info! Lol). That made me realize the work that the Cayenne Pepper is doing in my body besides giving me relief from ulcer pain. Of course to be sure of its anti-inflammatory properties, I looked it up online (research is my favorite :) and my suspicions were confirmed. Apparently, Cayenne Pepper is also great for stopping pain signals throughout the body as well! Yet another score for the fantastic Cayenne Pepper :) I also added Cayenne Pepper to some Castor Oil as a muscle relaxing/pain relieving treatment for my jaw after my wisdom teeth were removed. The combination was really helpful in terms of getting my face back to normal! You can check out for yourself the benefits of Cayenne Pepper at these links:

http://www.cayennepepper.info/health-benefits-of-cayenne-pepper.html

http://www.natures-health-foods.com/Cayenne.html

http://commonsensehome.com/home-remedies-for-sore-muscles/

Enjoy reading! :)

Royal Jelly: A Cure for My Stomach Ulcers?

Recently, my sister ordered Royal Jelly from Swanson Vitamins (my favorite website!). The order arrived yesterday (on my birthday! :D) and she told everyone in my house to take 1-2 teaspoons a day. Obedient as I am, I took one teaspoon today, grimacing all the way as it's disgustingly sweet. However, I fought my way through, being a trooper. And then, I did my research. I know I had heard somewhere before that honey is good for curing peptic ulcers, so I went and looked into it further. The information I found was encouraging: many people have found relief and healing from ulcers in their digestive systems through consuming Royal Jelly, and that happens within 7-30 days of regular consumption of the sweet stuff. Of course, I would never leave you without links to the information I find.

You can check it out for yourself here:
http://caspianapiaries.com/presentation/Ulcer%20treatment.pdf

So, God willing, maybe in about 30 days I'll be able to report that I can once again eat beets, pineapples, sour apples, oranges, red cabbage, and other things that have been eliminated from my diet because they cause me stomach pain. I'm hoping really hard, because it's been such a pain to have my diet become more and more limited since my diagnosis 3 years ago!

Moringa for Sickle Cell Anemia

Ladies and gentleman, it is now time for my long awaited testimony about the benefits that Moringa has provided to my life. How did I discover Moringa? I read about it in passing on Facebook, one of the Sickle Cell awareness pages that I was following at the time, and briefly looked into it, seeing that some people used it to treat SCD effectively, before writing it off as impossible to obtain. Where would I get this foreign, exotic leaf that was so highly touted and had all these great benefits? I couldn't afford it. I put it out of my mind.

One fateful day, in August 2013, The Vitamin Shoppe sent me a coupon (those manipulators! lol jk) giving me 20 or 40% off if I were to go spend money at their store (see the manipulation?). That coupon proved to be a Godsend, and even the guy at the store remarked to me that the coupon I had received was very rare (yet again, a sign that it was the working of God Himself. Thanks, God :). I browsed The Vitamin Shoppe with my friend SSW (her nickname), and as I searched the shelves for something worth my hard earned money (I try to spend wisely always, lest I end up broke), I came upon a small, 8 oz can of Moringa. I was a bit intrigued, as I had previously read about this leaf on the internet, and here it was, before my very eyes in the store that had drawn me in with their lovely, rare coupon. Before I spent my hard earned dollars on this little can of green powder, I asked if the guy at the store would help me look up information about the leaf online, and he ended up letting me use the store computer because I needed more help than he could give (there were other customers to get money from). At that time, I didn't have a smart phone (that came along about 8 months later, when my poor dumb phone got damaged). After doing some research and talking about the Moringa with SSW, I decided I would purchase it. That warm day in August, I walked out of The Vitamin Shoppe with a can of Moringa and less money in my bank account.

That was the beginning of yet another new lease on life. Moringa has changed my life dramatically, as it helps my blood cells to stay round and healthy, which is all that you need with Sickle Cell Anemia in order to have a higher quality of life. When I first began taking it, I started to feel better. About a month later, I went to work at a daycare with kids ages 6 months to 4 years (that position only lasted 6 weeks, I love kids, but the position was too physically demanding for me). Since I was working with little children (germ machines) I started taking more Moringa in order to boost my immune system. I think that I originally started with 1/2 a teaspoon daily and I upped it to 1 teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half. I also would take Vitamin C, and I'm telling you, the combination helped me to kick some colds that would have turned really nasty had I not been taking it. I have asthma as well (due to the SCD), so when I get a cold, the cough tends to stick around for ages, which makes it even more unpleasant.

Since the day I purchased my first can of Moringa, I have gone never a day without taking it (I think. I might have missed 1 or 2 days when I ran out and was waiting for a new order). The reason why I take it so faithfully is because I notice that when I take it, I feel stronger. My body feels better, less achy. It's been so long that I've been taking it, it's become such an important part of my diet that I can't remember what it's like to not take it. During the winter time, I take less painkillers because the Moringa helps my blood cells so much. My blood cells don't speak to me, they don't tell me they're staying nice and round, but I know they are because I feel less pain overall, and I'm better able to bear the cold. I do NOT do well with cold weather; in fact, this winter, with having hurt my tail bone and with the mounds of snow, ice, sleet, rain, and slush that have been falling from the sky, I've just been staying home whenever I don't have to go out. But, when I do go out, I can deal with the cold weather better and with taking fewer painkillers. Also, I rarely ever get colds since I've been taking Moringa (also since I stopped drinking milk, but that's a different story).

Honestly, Moringa is such a huge benefit to me that it's extremely hard for me to sum it up in one little blog post. I'm trying to put it into words, but words fail to express how much this little leaf powder has helped to turn things around for me in a healthier, better direction. Moringa HELPS with Sickle Cell Anemia, my life is a living testimony to it. It helps to reduce the sickling, whenever I feel my body going into crisis mode, I take my painkillers and I also take more Moringa. My body bounces back a lot faster than it used to. Last semester I missed two days of school from having Sickle Cell pain, and it was pain in my hip that made it hard to walk. It wasn't pain that required a hospitalization. I managed at home with Tylenol Extra Strength and that was good enough. When I was working last year at a school, I never missed a day of work from November to June (I was late plenty of times, but that's a different story. MTA troubles >.<). I haven't had a lingering cold in ages and I used to get them quite frequently.

And the pain!!!! I haven't had a serious Sickle Cell Crisis requiring hospitalization or emergency room treatment since October 2012 and the Moringa has only helped me in that direction.

The cost for my healthy Moringa habit? $17.99 for one pound of the stuff, and I get it with free shipping on Ebay.

I cannot stress enough how much this little leaf powder has changed my life. This little leaf is now a staple in my diet, I take two teaspoons of the stuff daily, and it helps keep me on an even keel. Don't get me wrong, there are still those days when I need to rest and what not because I still have the disease. But because of my dietary changes, and because I've added Moringa, it rules my life less and less, and I get to have a more normal quality of life more and more.

Moringa has been a tremendous blessing to my life and there are a ton of links throughout this post that attest to the benefits of this plant. Look into Moringa, see what it can do for you. I hope that this post will encourage someone to give this green leaf a try. It can work for you too!

Benefits of Moringa:

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/vegetable/moringa.html
http://moringaphilippines.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-moringa-can-reduce-sickle-cell.html
http://ssnaturalhealings.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-miracle-plant-moringa.html
http://imaginezambia.org/3281/sickle-cell-anemia-moringa-news/
http://www.moringasource.com/pages/moringa-health-benefits
http://moringa4health.com/Moringa_-_Benefits.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/037735_Moringa_superfood_health_benefits.html#
http://www.reshapeyourbody.org/incredible-moringa-nutrition-story-sickle-cell-anemia/

Battling the Flu

Five weeks ago, right at the start of my very busy winter semester (my second in grad school, yay?), I caught the flu from my poor old mom. This was only about two weeks after having fallen down my front steps on an icy, rainy, horrible winter day, and hurting my tail bone, so needless to say, I was miserable. Oh, and did I mention I was just coming off of antibiotics for Strep Throat when I picked this thing up? So my immune system was totally down. I picked up the Strep Throat from one of the kids at the preschool where I did my fieldwork in January, she coughed right in my face (gotta teach the kids not to share germs!). I started feeling sick on Thursday night, but unfortunately for me, I was half in denial, and half didn't realize why I was coughing. On Friday I was coughing a bit, and since my mom was sick too, I figured I better up the ante by adding Vitamin C, honey, and Echinacea to my Moringa in the mornings. I took about 3,000 mg of Vitamin C on Friday, so I thought I was good. Unfortunately for me, Saturday rolled around, and though I took my Vitamin C, Moringa, honey, and Echinacea that morning, I felt awful by the middle of the day. I took my temperature and it was running at 100.7ºF. I felt like I was going to pass out. My body felt as though I was getting some aches and I felt chills as well.

Now, when I was younger and I would get the flu, it would automatically set off a Sickle Cell Crisis and I would also throw up and be bedridden, useless, and in pain for three days. This time was different. Yes, I felt awful on Saturday, but my aches were pretty minor, and I managed my fever with Tylenol Extra Strength 500mg. As well as a bit of bed rest on Saturday and Sunday, but I wasn't bedridden and useless and in pain.b Also, my lovely, delicious combination of Vitamin C, Moringa, honey, and Echinacea restored my immune system in about a day and a half, I kid you not. Saturday was my worst day, and I can't recall how many milligrams of Vitamin C I took that day, probably about 6,000. I drank my lovely Vitamin C, Moringa, honey, and Echinacea concoction about three times on Saturday, probably once on Friday about probably about 2-3 times on Sunday. So by Monday, my flu was just a lingering cough (bronchitis) and by Tuesday I felt like a real person again. All natural remedies (plus Tylenol). They really do work! Also, I had my mom taking the same concoction and she got better within the week as well. My whole house was either sick or getting sick, my poor dad was coughing and I think my sister too. We were all drinking honey like crazy, we ran through about 48 ounces of honey within a week. Sweet stuff! :)

So, my lovely concoction, for anyone who would like to give it a shot (make it sweet!!!)
I poured honey into the bottom of a mug, added about 2 teaspoons of Moringa, opened a capsule of 400 mg of Echinacea into it, and opened 2 capsules of Vitamin C (1000 mg each) into that, and added hot water. Smelled good, tasted interesting. Lol, again, make it sweet, add more honey if you need to. I only opened up the Vitamin C capsules to give my poor ulcerated stomach a rest from having to do the work of absorption. I opened the Echinacea capsule because it's a herb and I personally think it works better when mixed with hot water, but however you want to take your Echinacea or Vitamin C is fine, I just like to have mine this way.

Hope this helps someone kick the flu!!!

Let Us Now Address Castor Oil: Pain and Inflammation Treatment

Castor oil has saved my life, many many times. And I'm not talking about the stinky stuff, I'm talking about the cold-pressed, cold-processed, low on odor stuff. (But the stinky stuff would work just as well, I just can't stand the smell! lol.)  How did this story begin? Again, I have to thank my second oldest sister, who purchased Castor Oil off of Swanson Vitamins. I must also thank my cousin, who once recommended using topical treatments for joint/muscle pain. Well would you know that Castor Oil is great for treating joint and muscle pain? Among a bunch of other benefits that it has? There was that one day that I had some joint and muscle pain, I'm guessing it was in my hip, which has been a continuous source of trouble for me over the years, but a source of trouble that has shown improvement since I changed my diet, thank God. That one fateful day, I decided (probably out of irritation, annoyance, and desperation) to rub my hip or whatever joint it was with that sticky Castor Oil before I went to bed. Yes, it was a bit sticky and it had a bit of an odor, but who cares? Because by the time I woke up, the odor was gone. AND SO WAS MY PAIN. I call Castor Oil "God's Magic Oil" now. I cannot tell you how much I love the stuff. I was getting frequent pain in my ribs, a dull, annoying ache most of the time, and what did I end up treating it with? Castor oil. (The pain is mostly gone now, hasn't presented itself in months, I'll write another post to address that. :) I fell down the icy stairs in front of my house on January 18th, as I was on my way to class, landed right on my tailbone. If I hadn't been wearing my two coats (yes, two, I CANNOT deal with the cold weather) I probably would have broken my tailbone rather than bruised it. Let me tell you, I cried like a baby, it hurt so much. What reduced my misery and gave me back a normal quality of life after that great fall? Massages with Castor Oil (which I had to give myself, what an embarrassing place to have to get a massage, right near the tush! I still get some pain in my tailbone, but that's usually when I sit in a bad chair, and I can easily help that with a coccyx cushion. I am mostly 99% tailbone pain free!) I had two wisdom teeth pulled last Monday, and what did I use to treat the swelling once I got home? Warmed up Castor Oil. It took me a while to learn, but from the tailbone incident, I learned that Castor Oil works even better when it's warmed up! I put some in a little bottle, and place that bottle into a container of hot water, and voilà. A few minutes later, my Castor Oil is ready to use and ready to heal my pain once I massage it into the area that's bothering me. My neck also received a Castor Oil massage after my dental extraction, and so did my wrist, where my IV went, because my wrist was sore as well. I cannot say enough how much this stuff really, truly works."God's Magic Oil" is fantastic guys, and I would love for you to benefit from it too!

Of course, here are some lovely links where you can purchase your own bottle of Castor Oil, aka "God's Magic Oil." Hope this helps someone!
This is the one I purchase: http://www.swansonvitamins.com/home-health-castor-oil-cold-pressed-cold-processed-16-fl-oz-liquid
And here is one with free shipping. You gotta love Ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CASTOR-OIL-USP-GRADE-COLD-PRESSED-ORGANIC-PURE-HEXANE-FREE-16-OZ-/111453859391?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19f32aee3f

Cherry Juice & Cherry Extract for Your Pain

There are natural alternatives to treating the pain of Sickle Cell, as well as natural alternatives to treating the condition overall. One thing I've never liked about taking painkillers is this: though they may treat the pain, desensitizing our bodies to it, they don't give us the strength that our bodies need to keep the pain away. They only treat a symptom, not the cause. And of course, there are the ever present side-effects! The Ibuprofen that I was told to take by my doctor ruined my stomach and it still hasn't healed completely, to my knowledge. I was prescribed a medication  to "treat" my stomach lining, which has been compromised by the formation of peptic ulcers (I have a post about it somewhere on this blog) and it made me feel worse!!! I decided not to take it, and instead take Cayenne Pepper in capsules daily (450 mg/80,000 Heat Units. Talk about hot!!!). The Cayenne Pepper pills have given me a sense of normalcy again, as they allow me to mostly eat without any trouble. Except, unfortunately for me, I must still avoid citric and acidic foods. Though I do break the rule occasionally to eat pasta or pizza. A girl's gotta live!

So, the Cherry Extract! For years, my second oldest sister kept telling me, "Try Cherry Extract, it's good for inflammation! It will help you with your pain!" For years, I was too skeptical, hurting, and miserable from  SCA to even bother trying her ridiculous natural pain remedy. I mean really, who on earth would ever consider Cherry Extract for pain? It's made from cherries for goodness sakes. Well, one fateful day in Sept. 2014, when I was feeling somewhat miserable with pain and had dragged myself to school only to find out I had no class that day (thanks, professor!), I came home and my dad and I decided to visit the Vitamin Shoppe, because they had mailed me a coupon and I just had to use it (see the manipulation there?). At the Vitamin Shoppe, I finally decided to ask where I could locate the Cherry Extract, which was so much cheaper with my lovely coupon (cheap, but not free! lol). Thus began my journey with Cherry Extract as part of my life. I found out that it really does help with pain and inflammation. I took several of the pills that day, as I was having some pain in my hip, besides my other dull, generalized body pains. I also took some Tylenol Extra Strength that day, which is my go to painkiller these days (just more proof of how my life has changed because I changed my diet).

The combination worked!!! Tylenol Extra Strength and Cherry Extract pills. Tylenol to treat the pain, and Cherry Extract to treat the pain AND the cause (inflammation!). Let me tell you, there are some moments when I take one Cherry Extract pill and one Tylenol Extra Strength, or even other times when I take two Cherry Extract pills to treat my pain, and they work. One of the things I LOVE LOVE LOVE about Cherry Extract is that IT HAS NO SIDE EFFECTS. NONE. IT'S ALL NATURAL. Now please, join me in my joy and say "Yay!!!!" After I purchased my first bottle of Cherry Extract from the Vitamin Shoppe, I switched to purchasing it online at Swanson Vitamins, a website that sells good quality vitamins and supplements, etc. My favorite thing about this website is that they often have sales, so I often purchase their lovely vitamins and supplements to keep me healthy. Of course, here is a link to my lovely Cherry Extracts, the exact brand that I purchase. I'm telling you, I really really love this stuff, and if you give it a shot, I think it may be able to help you too. Not only do they sell the dried extract from the cherry, but they also sell tart cherry juice, which my second oldest sister recently purchased for me to help me through my worst days. I haven't yet used it, but when the time comes, I will! And to add to this story of cherry greatness, I had 2 wisdom teeth pulled one week ago, and guess what I was taking besides the Codeine to help with the pain? Two cherry extract pills daily. I came off of the Codeine within three and a half days but have still been taking my lovely side-effect free cherry pills :) Anyone ready to give Cherry Extract a try? I hope it works for you too!

Click Here!

Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup

Here is a delicious and healthy recipe for Sweet Potato Soup that is incredibly easy to make. I had the idea to throw this together when I began to get tired of eating boiled and baked sweet potatoes. At the time I first made this, I was also starting to get pain in my eyes again, which first started to happen around the time I was 14, due to the blood vessels in my eyes being obstructed from misshapen cells. Since then I've had treatments on my eyes and they usually don't bother me anymore, but I haven't had any treatments in a while, over a year I think, hence the pain. Sweet potatoes and carrots are a great source of Vitamin A, so they make up the basis of this soup. It comes out pretty tasty, I hope you'll enjoy it! Also, please forgive me, because when I make up recipes, I never use a measuring cup or anything like that, so I'm going off of imprecise measurements for some of these things, but I'm guessing as best as I can. Hope you enjoy and benefit from this recipe!

Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup

Ingredients:
4  Sweet Potatoes*
5 medium sized Carrots
1 very large Onion
Salt (about 1 1/2 tablespoons)**
Water (about 8 cups, possibly more/less, depending on the consistency you want your soup. I actually measured for you guys! :)***

1. Bring the water to a boil. While the water boils, peel the carrots, sweet potatoes, and onion. Cut the onion in half or in quarters. Add the carrots, onion, sweet potatoes, and salt to the water.
2. Allow the vegetables to boil, bringing the fire down to a simmer and covering the pot with a lid while the vegetables cook. Test the vegetables with a fork to see how soft they become in the water. Once a fork can go straight through the sweet potatoes and carrots, turn off the fire and allow the vegetables to cool. Do NOT throw out that veggie water, it's got tons of vitamins in it from the vegetables and you don't want those vitamins going away!
3. Blend the vegetables using the water that they were boiled in. I usually put in one sweet potato to my Nutribullet at a time, along with the boiled water. Once everything has been blended, you're good to go! Serve yourself a nice warm bowl, or have it chilled, whatever makes you happy. Enjoy the soup and the fact that you're having yourself a healthy thiocyanate and Vitamin A filled meal! Bon appetit!

The last time I made this recipe, which was last Sunday, I added an extra onion and brown sugar, and it was even more delicious than the other times I've made it. But the recipe tastes just fine this way too. Experiment and see what works for you! I'd love any comments from anyone who tries or wants to try this out! :)

Also, I wanted to add that I've been taking a Vitamin A pill daily to help with the eye pain, and making sure to drink more water, which have both helped, thank God :)

* I tried making it with only 3 large sweet potatoes and it came out too thin, sorry for the changes!
** I'm still not sure how much salt I used when it tasted best, but just put less salt if you think it'll be too salty. You can always add more later if you so choose :)
*** About 8 cups of water should do the trick, I made it last night and measured the water and it came out to 8 cups.