Cassava Flour Porridge Recipe

 Cassava has helped me immensely with managing my symptoms of Sickle Cell. Here is a version of the recipe that I use to make Cassava Porridge every week. This recipe makes about 6 servings.

2 Cups Cassava Flour

9 Cups of Water

Salt and Sugar to Taste (I estimate that I usually use 2 Tablespoons of Salt and 1/2 to 1/3 cup of Sugar to make this)

Mix the water and the cassava flour, salt and sugar until everything is without lumps. Place on stove and stir constantly over high heat until mixture thickens. Lower heat and continue to stir occasionally for 15 more minutes until fully cooked. Remove from heat and serve.

 

 

Sickle Cell and the Menstrual Cycle

2018 and 2019 were very difficult years for me! Between June 2018 and April 2019 I had four hospitalizations, two of which were back to back, and visited the Emergency Room about 7 times in total. The last experience in April 2019 was the worst! But I thank God that I made it out of the hospital each time. 

I keep close track of everything - dietary, menstrual cycles, vitamins and medications I'm taking, how I'm feeling, etc. Through diligence and prayer (thank God!) I finally realized that I was getting quite sick around my menstrual cycle. Even when I wasn't hospitalized there were several times that I had to take time off of work and stay home sick and dealing with sickle cell pain when I was having my menstrual cycle. For some time I didn't have any cassava/yucca in my diet. I thought that I had gone into crisis one time because I had stopped eating cassava/yucca, and I was so annoyed, thinking to myself that if cassava is so strong that if I don't have it then I will go into crisis, then I should stop having it all together and just substitute it in my diet with other Thiocyanate rich foods - chickpeas, plantains, cabbage, broccoli, etc. What I did not realize was that I had gotten sick because of stopping the cassava and also because of having my menstrual cycle. Months later, I finally began to realize that I was feeling sick about the same time each month. I was tired of missing days of work and tired of feeling so poorly. So I decided once more to add cassava to my diet and to have it everyday or almost everyday. I have been doing much better since then! My health has become more stable since I started eating it daily. I also keep my diet rich in other foods filled with Thiocyanate, but I realize that cassava is highest in Thiocyanate and makes the best positive impact in my life. I also have to keep salt in my diet because all of the Thiocyanate rich foods are also foods that lower my blood pressure, which is already low. So I make sure to have enough salty foods - I prefer tuna fish made with mustard and corn chips as my favorite salty snack. The salt helps to keep my blood pressure at a level that I can manage. When it's too low I feel funny and I really crave salt.

Ladies, as you are caring for yourself with Sickle Cell, I caution you to pay special attention to how you feel around your menstrual cycle. It is good to pay close attention to all the little things to help you figure out how to manage your health - this goes for everyone, ladies as well as gentlemen. Also, we must always maintain a strictly healthy diet. That means little to no processed foods, eating whole fruits and whole vegetables more than anything else, and maintaining a diet that is high in nutrition. The more we nourish our bodies, the better we will feel and the better quality of life we will have.

New Blog Pages

Hi everyone! Yesterday, I added two new pages to the blog, to further help people with managing their Sickle Cell. I added a page of Thiocyanate Rich Foods that you can go to in order to check out the list in case you are at the grocery store and want to know what foods are rich in Thiocyanate, or just want quick access to a list of foods that are rich in Thiocyanate. I also added a page of Research & News that has different articles that I have looked into pertaining to research in Sickle Cell and natural methods that people have looked into to help with managing the disease. Please read, share widely, and always feel free to comment! 😄

Latest Update

Lately I have been feeling well, thank God! Most recently, I would say starting in April of 2017, I started adding nuts back into my diet. For a long time I could not comfortably eat any nuts because of the state of my stomach. I had peptic ulcers, which I wrote about on the blog, for a while, and then after that those cleared up, thank God, and then I had gastritis, which I remedied with DGL and eating more often. I also added 1-3 tablespoons of extra virgin coconut oil to my diet each day, and that also seemed to have helped with my stomach. So in April of 2017, I decided to purchase pistachios, and to my very pleasant surprise, my stomach handled them well. There was another unexpected, added benefit. Eating pistachios helped me to feel stronger within my body! When I add something to my diet and then I stop having it, I can tell the difference in the way I feel immediately. I could feel that with eating pistachios, my body felt stronger than without them. I soon after that added cashews to my diet as well, which are high in Thiocyanate. I was not expecting how poorly I would feel once I ran out of both! I know for a fact when my blood is sickling in excess because I can feel my strength begin to wane. To make up for the pistachios and cashews I ran out of, I brought almonds to add to my diet, not even recalling that they are high in Thiocyanate as well. Once I added almonds back into my diet as well as re-adding the pistachios and cashews, my body began to feel much better and more normal. Cashews and almonds are both Thiocyanate rich foods, which help to prevent the sickling of the red blood cells. They are also high in healthy fats, proteins, and many vitamins and minerals. You can read about the benefits of them here:

Articles:

7 Health Benefits of Cashews | Eat This!

https://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/7-health-benefits-of-cashews.html

9 Wonderful Benefits of Pistachios | Organic Facts

 https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/seed-and-nut/health-benefits-of-pistachio.html

9 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Almonds

https://authoritynutrition.com/9-proven-benefits-of-almonds/

9 Health Benefits Of Almonds | Care2 Healthy Living

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-health-benefits-of-almonds-king-of-nuts.html

After binging on pistachios and finishing a 3 lb bag of pistachios in one week, I began to try following the serving size on the bag, which is 1/2 a cup, so I now have 1/2 a cup of pistachios, one ounce of cashews, and 30 almonds (I count them out!) per day. Adding these 3 different nuts to my diet have been very helpful to me and I hope that someone else can learn from this and maybe try adding them to their diet as well to see how it works for them. Hope this helps someone! 😄

Metabolically Active Folic Acid - L-Methylfolate

A few months ago I discovered L-Methylfolate. My sister told me that some exams her doctor had done revealed that she could not metabolize folic acid as well as the average person. Her body could not use it the way it was supposed to be used, and therefore she was not benefiting from it. So she was advised to take L-Methylfolate. I naturally became curious about it and began doing some research of my own. I also needed to order more Folic Acid as the prescription one that I was taking was much stronger than the over the counter Folic Acid I would buy, and I would finish the prescription too quickly by doubling my dosage (taking 2 MG instead of 1 MG). Taking more Folic Acid has been one of the simplest and most effective things I have ever done to manage this disease. I started doubling my dose in July 2015, when I was experiencing a lot of pain in my legs and had NO IDEA what to do. I spoke to the Sickle Cell Coordinator (an LPN! :D) at my hospital  about taking more Folic Acid and he said it was safe to do so. My sister had actually ordered some Dioscovite, which I had been considering taking to manage the pain in my legs, and on the bottle it says to take it with 2-5 MG of Folic Acid. Thus, the idea to increase my intake of Folic Acid was born.

Upon hearing about L-Methylfolate I began to do some research. I read reviews online about it as well as reading informative web pages. The people who wrote reviews reported feeling better overall when switching to the L-Methylfolate, as it is a more active form of Folic Acid that the body can use more easily. What I had been doing to stop my prescription from running out so quickly was taking one prescription Folic Acid (1 MG) with 3 non-prescription, over the counter, Vitamin Shoppe Folic Acid (400 mcg each x 3 = 1,200 MCG). This proved to be effective and I had more energy throughout the day. The pain in my legs had also decreased. However, I noticed a great improvement when I switched from taking Folic Acid to its much more potent relative, L-Methylfolate. I had still been getting the pain in my legs with take the prescription and the over the counter Folic Acid, but having switched over full time to the L-Methylfolate, I barely notice the pain now. 

So of course, here I am with an update and information to help others the way that the L-Methylfolate has helped me. Hopefully this will help someone, and please share! :D

This is a list of the resources I used to learn about L-Methylfolate --

This website talks about Folic Acid vs. L-Methylfolate:
http://thehealthyelephant.com/misunderstoodz/mthfr/mthfr-folic-acid-vs-l-methylfolate-vs-folate/

This website talks about L-Methylfolate overdoses:
http://mental-health.emedtv.com/l-methylfolate/l-methylfolate-overdose.html

Here are the reviews that I read on Amazon about the L-Methylfolate:
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Extension-Optimized-L-Methylfolate-vegetarian/dp/B003S5RVM4/ref=sr_1_2_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1459736758&sr=1-2&keywords=l-methylfolate#customerReviews

Here is where I usually purchase my L-Methylfolate, which on Swanson is called 5-Methyltetrahydrofolic Acid:
http://www.swansonvitamins.com/q?kw=5-Methyltetrahydrofolic+acid

This website talks about L-Methylfolate & 5-Methyltetrahydrofolic Acid, which are virtually the same thing, different names:
https://www.consumerlab.com/answers/What+is+Metafolin+%285-methylfolate%29+I+see+it+in+some+supplements+instead+of+folic+acid.+Is+it+better+than+folic+acid/metafolin_5-methylfolate/



 

Peptic Ulcers are HEALED!

On April 12, I had an endoscopy. I am pleased to report that the gastroenterologist said that my stomach is free of ulcers!!! Somewhere along the line, with all the natural remedies I tried, I must have done something that WORKED!!! I really believe it was the Cayenne Pepper as that is what I stuck with the longest out of everything that I took. Because of the Cayenne Pepper I was able to eat like normal, which made a HUGE difference. The gastroenterologist did say that I have some inflammation in my stomach lining due to gastritis and that my stomach is producing a lot of stomach acid, for which he gave me medication (which I will only take upon pain of death, haha :) ). I haven't been taking the medication (of course, I would only take it if it was ABSOLUTELY necessary). I think my problem stems from not eating enough, and that stems from my wheat intolerance that I only discovered within the past few months. Not being able to eat wheat is REALLY LAME. Wheat is EVERYWHERE! It is sooo hard to avoid, but I have to, for my overall health. Aside from making me break out, I get ridiculous stomach cramps (like 8 on a pain scale of 1-10) from it and it's never predictable when they will happen. But it's good to know that my peptic ulcers are healed and that if I feel pain it's NOT because there are holes in the lining of the stomach. Gastritis is annoying but it could always be worse and I'm thankful it's not! :D

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!