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! 😄

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/

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

Repost from a comment on the Sickle Cell Natural Healings Blog. Informative!

Click the highlighted text to see the original post and comment! It takes a bit of scrolling down the page.

In the 1970’s when Linus Pauling discovered the molecular basis of the sickle cell anemia, he contended it was a nutrient-deficiency disease. Houston and others have followed in his steps with numerous valid arguments, including clinical reports from the 1930’s and 1940s of the benefits of thiocianate in sickle cell blood. In his seminal article in which he lays out the evidence, both epidemiological and biochemical, Houston reviews the literature describing how Jamaicans who have immigrated to the United States have developed sickle cell anemia, a genetic ‘disease’ of which they had not even been aware. When some of these Jamaican natives returned to their island (and to their native diets) the sickle cell anemia crises subsided completely. Foods containing thiocyanate compounds are vegetables from the brassica family such as cabbage and broccoli, the seeds of most fruits, flax seeds, bitter almonds, the grain millet, and some pulses (beans). Africans have food preparation customs which lower the cyanate content of their staples, the cassava and African yam (no relation with potato), to safe levels. 



Although currently it is studied as a anti-cancer micronutrient, thiocyanate suffered a bad rap due to the fact that, on its metabolic path in the body, it turns into cyanide. However, pure cyanide, a molecule of carbon and one of nitrogen united by a triple bond, has existed long before any life form existed on Earth. Human body, and other vertebrates as well, can handle minute amounts of this highly poisonous substance. In fact cyanide has a role in the synthesis of vitamin B12. After making use of it, the body turns the cyanide back into thiocyanate with the help of the enzyme rhodanide synthetase. Sufficient protein intake is needed for this conversion to take place. Additonally, individuals who eat thiocyanate-rich foods have to supplement with iodine. 


There are dozens of plants containing thiocyanate or various compounds of cyanide, and one pioneer in revealing their health-giving properties, Ernst T. Krebs, has called them nitrilosides. Krebs, who contended that thiocyanate should be accepted as a vitamin (B17), researched animal diets as a student of zoology and found that most animals, including those living at the North Pole, have a thiocyanate source in the diet. 



Sickle cell patients were found to be clinical deficient in many micronutrients, including the amino acid Arginine, the minerals zinc, magnesium and the B vitamins. Some studies show that these and other nutrients such as fish oil, and a combination of folic acid, aged garlic, l-Arginine, vitamins E and C have had beneficial effects on the health of these patients. The mineral zinc, for example, was found to reduce leg ulcers, which are often associated with sickle cell anemia, while the mineral magnesium pidolate was found to reduce the crises.