African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic ... - Blackherbals.com

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic
Volume 3, Issue 3 NEWSLETTER April 2008
US-Based Citizen Discovers
Sickle Cell Vaccine
By Christopher Isiguzo, Abakaliki
This Day (Lagos)
2 January 2008
After several years of search for the vaccine for the
treatment of Sickle Cell Anaemia, a Nigerian based in
the United States of America, Dr Orji Agbai has said he
has made a new discovery for the treatment of the
sickness and other ailments using a special food
supplement, he called Dioscovite.
Dr Agbai who hails from Ebonyi State told newsmen in
Abakaliki, yesterday that the discovery was the outcome
of what he referred to as a twenty four-year painstaking
research effort, stating that Dioscovite is a patented
dietary supplement for sickle cell anaemia, discovered
by means of electron microscopy which he said shows
that the active ingredient completely prevents sickling of
red blood cells in the test tube.
According to him, "Dioscovite has safely prevented
sickle cell painful crisis for 16 years, saved lives that had
been given up for dead, by raising the hemoglobin
Continued on page 2
I NSIDE T HIS I SSUE
1 US-Based Citizen Discovers Sickle Cell Vaccine
2 4 Million Nigerians are Sicklers
3 Afrikan Spirituality – The Divine Serpent in Myth & Legend
4 Feature- Sickle Cell History
5 40 Million Citizens Suffer from Sickle Cell Disorders
6 Feature- Treating Sickle Anemia through TCM
8 Feature–Hydroxyurea for Sickle Cell Patients
10 Sickle Cell Disease Spread in Latino Community
11 Sickle Cell Study Halted in (Black) Children
12 Sickle Cell Patients Need Regular Tranfusions
13 Akira’s Agony: 9-year-old Battles with Sickle Cell Disease
15 Study Finds Sickle Cell Anemia Sufferers in Much More Pain
15 Predictors for Sickle Cell Anemia Complications
16 Feature – Sorgum and Millet in African Nutrition
19 Passive Tobacco Smoke Increases Complications for SCA
20 Sickle Cell Anemia Sufferers Living Longer, Dying Less
21 Basic Scientists Find Reasons Cells Stick
22 Red Cell Substitute Shows Promise as Treatment
24 Sickle Cell Anaemia: A Forgotten Disease
25 Living with Sickle Cell
32 Herb of the Month – African Cassava & More
SICKLE CELL ANEMIA
-1-Traditional African Clinic – April 2008
What is the African Traditional
Herbal Research Clinic
We can make you healthy and wise
Nakato Lewis
Blackherbals at the Source of the Nile, UG Ltd.
The African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic located
in Bukoto, Uganda is a modern clinic facility created to
establish a model space whereby indigenous herbal
practitioners and healers can upgrade and update their
skills through training and certification and respond to
common diseases using African healing methods and
traditions in a modern clinical environment.
Traditional healers are the major health labor resource
in Africa as a whole. In Uganda, indigenous traditional
healers are the only source of health services for the
majority of the population. An estimated 80% of the
population receives its health education and health care
from practitioners of traditional medicine. They are
knowledgeable of the culture, the local languages and
local traditions. Our purpose is to raise public
awareness and understanding on the value of African
traditional herbal medicine and other healing practices
in today’s world.
The Clinic is open and operational. Some of the
services we offer are African herbal medicine,
reflexology, acupressure, hot and cold hydrotherapy,
body massage, herbal tonics, patient counseling, blood
pressure checks, urine testing (sugar), and nutritional
profiles. We believe in spirit, mind and body. Spiritual
counseling upon request.
Visit us also at www.Blackherbals.com
Hours: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday thru Friday
10 am to 4:00 pm Saturday - Sundays – Closed

Cont’d from page 1 – US Based Citizen Discovers Sickle
Cell Vaccine
(blood count) from 2.0 to 7.3g per cent, energizing the
body, normalizing enlarged liver swollen abdomen,
swollen hands and feet, and stopping painful sickle cell
crisis that plagued a patient for ten months".
The inventor noted that the food supplement has proved
to be safe and effective in the support of not only sickle
cell anaemia but also prostate health, breast health, colon
health, diabetes, stroke control, heart health, uterine
fibroids, menstrual cramps, and easier child birth.
He stressed that Dioscovite prevents what he called
pneumoccocal and other infections because the active
ingredient destroys pathogens (germs) by breaking the
peptidglycan bonds in bacterial cell walls. Dr. Agbai
maintained that Dioscovite which has yam as major
component is a safe product, adding that its safety comes
from the fact that the ingredients are nutrients found in
staple foods eaten by over 500 million people worldwide.
"Such people consume the same amount of the nutrients
as those who take the Dioscovite daily requirement.
Dioscovite is so safe that double the therapeutic dose is
still safe, showing that it has a high therapeutic index," he
stated.He added that the food supplement also "converts
SS to AS by restoring negative charge to SS hemoglobin
enabling 6.0g SS hemoglobin to carry as much oxygen as
12.0g hemoglobin - energizing the body!" Dr. Agbai said
Dioscovite was given to him by God to be a blessing to
the world.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801030226.html
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Plans for New Sickle Cell Unit
On
By Conan Businge
New Vision (Kampala)
16 January 2008
A SICKLE cell centre is to be built in the outskirts of
Kampala. The announcement was made yesterday by the
chairperson of the Uganda-American Sickle Cell Rescue
Fund, Lukiah Mulumba, at Mulago Hospital.
"The centre will be outside Kampala city since we need
enough land. Mulago Hospital's clinic and centre is
congested and in a bad state. These patients need special
attention and proper care," Mulumba said.
She said there was need for intensive treatment, care and
sensitisation on the disease.
The Mulago clinic, the only one in the country, attends to
over 60 patients daily. Its wards and stores are in a rotting
ply-wood walled house, while its offices are in a cargo
container.
With the ward's broken window panes, the clinic has only
eight beds.
The injection room also acts as the store, wards and office.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801170206.html
☻☻☻☻☻☻
-2-Traditional African Clinic – April 2008
4 Million Nigerians Are
Sicklers -Akinyanju
Daily Champion (Lagos)
13 August 2007
OUT of 10 million sickle cell patients in the world, over 4
million are Nigerians.
Chairman, sickle cell foundation of Nigeria, Prof. Olu
Akinyanju who disclosed this in Lagos at the weekend said
that majority of them die needlessly annually.
Speaking at the award of certificates to over 30 persons
trained to take care of sickle cell patients, he said hope has
risen for the sicklers with recent advances in medical
sciences.
"Patients with sickle cell anaemia need not die an untimely
death anymore because research has shown that with
adequate pro-active parental care and medical support, most
sicklers live past age 40 living very productive lives",
Akinyanju said.
He lamented that to a large extent, ignorance on the part of
parents as well as care-givers is what has made many
sicklers to die as teenagers and many also die before age of
10.
He said the ailment has caused a lot of havoc in many
homes where the parents fail to understand that with
prompt medical care, sicklers can live healthy lives.
He urged the over 30 persons, including doctors and nurses
who received the training facilitated with help from MTN
foundation to go and be a dedicated workforce giving
qualitative care to sicklers in the country.
Speaking also at the ceremony, Executive Director of MTN
Foundation, the co-sponsors of the training course, Mrs
Amina Oyagbola who was represented by Mrs. Uchenna
Ibemere, External Communications Assistant of Corporate
Services Department, urged all stakeholders and wellmeaning
Nigerians to partner with the Sickle Cell
Foundation of Nigeria to offer succour to all sicklers.
Continued on page 5

AFRIKAN SPIRITUALITY
T HE D IVINE S ERPENT IN M YTH AND
L EGEND - E XCERPTS
R OBERT T. M ASON, P H .D., D.D.
The Mythic Beginnings
Since the very beginnings of time, on every continent of this
earth where humanity has worshipped divinity, the serpent
has been recognized and accepted as a god. From Africa's
steaming jungle to the icy wastes of northern Europe; from
the fertile crescent to the deserted outback of Australia the
serpent has been worshipped, feared and adored. Serpent
mythology is arguably the most widespread mythology
known to mankind.
We will be dealing with language that is found in myth and
legend of any discussion of a divine serpent, so we should
take time to explain the use of the myth in religious and
legendary arenas before we begin. When we examine the
history of truth or knowledge in the history of mankind we
are faced with the fact that the origin of myth lies in the Greek
concept of muthos [muthos], which as the definition of truth
or knowledge and predates the use of the Greek word Logos
[lpgos], from which we derive our word logic. Myth for the
early human usually referred to those realities which were
known by experience, be it archetypal, unconscious, or based
upon the cultural and ritual beliefs of human civilization. An
esteemed 'egg-head' mathematical scientist, Albert Einstein
once said; “Knowledge is experience; anything else is just
information.”
In this article the word "myth" will be defined as a story of
forgotten or vague origin, basically religious since we are
dealing with the concept of divinity, which seeks to explain
or rationalize an important aspect of the world or a society.
Furthermore, in the context of this article, all myths used are,
or have been at some stage, actually believed to be true by the
peoples of the societies that used or originated the myth. This
definition is thus clearly distinguished from the use of the
word myth in everyday speech which basically refers to an
unreal or imaginary story. Myth, as used herein, is also
distinctly different from an allegory or parable which is a
story deliberately made up to illustrate some moral point but
which has never been assumed to be true.
Originally myths were not expressed in verbal or written form
because language was deemed inadequate to convey the truth
expressed in the story. The myths were enacted, chanted,
painted, costumed, danced, sung and imagined, sometimes in
hypnotic or hallucinatory states. In this manner the creative
--------------------------
Managing Editor: Nakato Lewis
PUBLISHER: KIWANUKA LEWIS
Published monthly and freely by BHSN for the ATHR Clinic
-3-Traditional African Clinic – April 2008
The traditional shrine as a symbol of our cultural history
energies and relationships behind and beneath the natural
world were brought into the conscious realm The myth
was believed to not only to tell about but to create a chain
from the metaphysical world to the physical one.
Later in historical time myth becomes connected to and
often identified with another Greek concept, that of
legend, which stems from the Greek Legion or Logos
[λογοσ] which meant word or language. Myth then
became a written form. And Mythos/Logos is the activity
of human consciousness which translates or transfers the
underlying forms and powers from the unconscious to the
conscious, from the dream world to the world of activity.
In our 'modern' world we have so discounted the power
and reality of the myth, denigrating them to the level of
'fairy tales' that we have lost contact with our ground. We
don't know who we are, and so we don't know how to act.
We have thrown out the 'baby', our orienting myths of
origin with the 'bath water', non-useful and unnecessary
data which often accompanied these myths.
Joseph Campbell is quoted as saying: "Throughout the
inhabited world, in all times and under every
circumstance, the myths of man have flourished; and they
have been the living inspiration for whatever else may
have appeared out of the activities of the human body and
mind. It would not be too much to say that myth is the
secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies
of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation."
I believe that there could be nothing more absurd than to
think that our modern scientific methodology could ever
eliminate the poetic and mythic, for science is closed
against certain dimensions of the real which only myth
and the poetic can attain. It is the height of absurdity to
imagine that scientific 'knowledge' exhausts reality!
I would like to use a collective definition composed of
many theories which meet my criteria for mythology
framed into a single paraphrase: Myths are stories,
usually, about gods and other supernatural beings. They
are often stories of origins, how the world and everything
in it came to be in illo tempore [Eliade]. They are usually
Continued on page 27

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic
Volume 3, Issue 3 NEWSLETTER April 2008
FEATURED ARTICLES
Sickle Cell History
Innvista.com
Although the HbS gene is most common in Africa,
sickle cell disease went unreported in African medical
literature until the 1870s. This may be because the
symptoms were similar to those of other tropical
diseases in Africa and because blood was not usually
examined. In addition, children born with sickle cell
disease usually died in infancy and were typically not
seen by physicians. Most of the earliest published
reports of the disease involved black patients living in
the US.
African tribal populations were all too familiar with the
disease and created their own names for it. It is
interesting to note that the tribal names all carry
repeating syllables -- possibly to symbolize the
repeating painful episodes. Such names include
ahututuo (from the Twi tribe); chwecheechwe (from the
Ga tribe); nuidudui (from the Ewe tribe); and nwiiwii
(from the Fante tribe). Many tribal names were also
imitations of the cries and moans of the sufferers or
formed such phrases as "body chewing" or "body
biting" which described their terrible torment. In one
West African tribe, children who died soon after birth
were called "ogbanjes" meaning children who come
and go. The tribespeople believed that an evil spirit was
trying to be born into a family with ogbanje children,
but the babies bravely died to save the rest of the family
from the demon. Some tribes had as many as 40% of
the people carry the sickle cell gene.
In the US in 1846, a paper entitled "Case of Absence of
the Spleen" (from the Southern Journal of Medical
Pharmacology), was probably the first to describe
sickle cell disease. It discussed the case of a runaway
slave who had been executed. His body was autopsied
and found to have "the strange phenomenon of a man
having lived without a spleen." Although the slave's
condition was typical, the doctor had no way of
knowing this as the disease had not yet been
"discovered." The first formal report of sickle cell
disease came out of Chicago about 50 years later, in
1910. In 1922, after three more cases were reported, the
disease was named "sickle cell anemia."
In 1904, Dr. James Herrick reported "peculiar
elongated and sickle shaped" red blood cells in "an
intelligent negro of 20." These sickled cells were
discovered by a hospital intern, Dr. Ernest Irons, who
examined the patient's blood and sketched the strange
cells. The patient had come to Dr. Herrick with
complaints of shortness of breath, heart palpitations,
abdominal pain, and aches and pains in his muscles.
He also felt tired all the time, had headaches,
experienced attacks of dizziness, and had ulcers on his
legs. After noting these symptoms, the doctor took
samples of his blood.
This first sickle cell patient had come to Chicago in
1904 to study dentistry in one of the best schools of the
country and was likely the only black student there. He
was a wealthy man from the West Indies; and, despite
repeated hospitalizations for his illness, Walter
Clement Noel completed his training, along with his
classmates, three years later. He returned to Grenada
and practised dentistry until he died of pneumonia at
the age of 32. Although the disease does not
distinguish between the rich and the poor, it does
single out those from the tropical and subtropical
climates of the Old World.
One long-held theory as to why it was so common in
the tropics was its association with malaria. In the
1940s, E.A. Beet, a British medical officer stationed in
Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), observed that
blood from malaria patients who had sickle cell trait
had fewer malarial parasites than blood from patients
without the trait. Following this observation, a
physician in Zaire reported that there were fewer cases
of severe malaria among people with sickle cell trait
than among those without it.
In 1954, Anthony Allison, continued to build on these
observations and hypothesized that sickle cell trait
offered protection against malaria. He suggested that
those with the trait did not succumb to malaria as often
as those without it; but, when they did, their disease
was less severe. It is now known that, when invaded
Continued on page 5
-4-Traditional African Clinic – April 2008

Continued from page 4 – Sickle Cell History
by the malarial parasite, normally stable red cells of
someone with the sickle cell trait can sickle in a low
oxygen environment (like the veins). The sickling
process destroys the invading organism and prevents it
from spreading through the body. This apparent ability
of a genetic condition to protect carriers is particularly
important in infants. Thus, in regions repeatedly
devastated by malaria, people who carry the sickle cell
trait will have a greater chance for survival than other
individuals.
In the following years, evidence began to collect in
support of this theory as well as some against it. When
studies were restricted to young people, the hypothesis
held -- the sickle cell trait did offer protection to
children but not to adults since they were unable to
develop antibodies to the malarial parasite. However,
even though their immunity was partial, it did help
them to survive but offered little additional advantage.
Since the youngsters were not able to produce
antibodies to the malarial parasite until their immune
systems matured, it was the pre-immune malarial
patients whose survival was protected by sickle cell
trait. For them as well, although protection was only
partial, they did survive longer. Since then, several
studies of malarial epidemics have revealed a higher
survival rate for sickle cell trait individuals than for
those who lack the gene HbS. These study areas
included geographical distribution, gene frequency,
and transgenic mice (the transportation of genes from
one species into another).
An English neurologist, Lord Brain, once suggested
that although a double dose of the sickle cell gene
could be fatal, a single gene might increase a person's
resistance to a disease. As more research was done, it
was discovered that he was right, especially when it
came to malaria. However, only those with sickle cell
trait, not the disease, are protected against malaria.
Those with sickle cell disease would either die from
the blood disorder or die after coming into contact with
malaria because of their weakened immune systems.
But if someone with sickle cell trait contracts malaria,
the person's body is somehow shielded from this
potentially fatal disease.
Scientists have found that the red blood cells of people
with sickle cell trait break down quickly when the
malaria parasite attacks them. Since the parasite must
grow inside red blood cells, the disease does not have a
chance to become firmly established. However, not
everyone with sickle cell trait is protected either.
Apparent resistance to the disease occurs only in
children between the ages of two and four.
Studies have shown that African Americans, who have lived
in malaria-free areas for as long as ten generations, have
lower sickle cell gene frequencies than Africans -- and the
frequencies have dropped more than those of other, less
harmful African genes. Similarly, the sickle cell gene is less
common among blacks in Curacao, a malaria-free island in
the Caribbean, than in Surinam, a neighboring country where
malaria is rampant -- even though the ancestors of both
populations came from the same region of Africa.
There are several theories as to why people with sickle cell
trait have milder cases of malaria. This has to do with their
being a host to fewer and weaker parasites.
The parasite inside the red cell produces acid. In the presence
of acid, HbS has a tendency to polymerize which causes the
cells to sickle. Since sickled cells are destroyed as the blood
circulates through the spleen, the parasites are destroyed as
well.
Malarial parasites do not live long under low oxygen
conditions. Since the oxygen concentration is low in the
spleen, and since infected red cells tend to get trapped in the
spleen, they may be killed there.
Another thing that happens under low oxygen conditions is
that potassium leaks out of HbS-containing cells. The parasite
needs high potassium levels to develop. This may be the
reason the parasite fails to thrive in red blood containing HbS.
http://www.innvista.com/health/ailments/anemias/sickhist.htm
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Continued from page 2 – 4 Million Nigerians are
Sicklers
According to her, with adequate parental care and medical
attention, there is no reason sicklers should die needlessly.
She pledged MTN Foundation's continuous care towards
ensuring that all sicklers in the country are well able to live a
productive life and having the optimal health to do so.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200708130905.html
☻☻☻☻☻☻
40m Citizens Suffer From
Sickle Cell Disorder - Minister
Daily Trust (Abuja)
6 March 2008
By Hamisu Muhammad
A research has shown that about 40 million Nigerians are
suffering from the sickle cell disorder either as sufferers or
carriers, the Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs Grace
Ekpiwhre, has said.
Continued on page 9
-5-Traditional African Clinic – April 2008

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic
Volume 3, Issue 3 NEWSLETTER April 2008
FEATURED ARTICLES
Treating Sickle Cell Anemia though Traditional Chinese
Medicine
Sickle Cell Anemia (SCA) is a much misunderstood
and under-represented disease in the medical
community. This is partly because it affects mostly
Africans. The Western medical system is still deeply
entrenched in prejudiced research. Most physicians'
formal training is limited to the conventional white
models of disease and health crisis. Thus, the
prejudices and limitations of their training make it
difficult for Black patients to receive the kind of care
and education that could lead to better health.
It is in this setting that I came to the realization that
Traditional Chinese Medicine could best serve Africans
who suffer from sickle cell disease. In this article, I
offer to individuals a holistic approach to sickle cell
anemia for which I perceive a great need.
Through the principles of Chinese medicine, one can
treat and control the causes of pain associated with
sickle cell disease. In addition to treating the
symptoms of sickle cell anemia, Chinese medicine
helps you see what lifestyle factors may be contributing
to your health problems and what actions and self-care
therapies you can implement to achieve and maintain a
more balanced, pain free, state of being. Conventional
physicians are trained to see a patient simply as a
disease, or set of symptoms. Chinese healing methods,
like African healing methods strive to look at the whole
person-mind, body and spirit. It is only when one
addresses all these elements, can one achieve complete
well-being.
Important Facts about Sickle Cell
According to the Black Health Research Foundation,
about fifty thousand black Americans have sickle cell
anemia, and about one out of every four hundred black
infants are born with it each year. Sickle cell anemia is
not strictly a "black disease". It is also known to affect
Italians, Caribbean Africans, people of the
Mediterranean, East Indians, and people of Hispanic
ancestry, mainly in South America, Cuba, and Central
America.
Tariq Sawandi, M.H.
Blackherbals.com
-6-Traditional African Clinic – April 2008
It is believed that sickle cell disease arose as an
"evolutionary mutation" in order to survive places which
had the malaria virus. A mutation is a biochemical
change in the DNA structure of the human-being to
insure the survival of offspring. Thus the hereditary
disease of sickle cell anemia, protected Africans against
deadly forms of malaria. Scientists have identified at
least four types of sickle cell, each indigenous to
different geographical areas around the world. Some
children, however, only carry the sickle cell trait, while
other children are born with the sickle cell disease.
Children who carry the sickle cell trait remain perfectly
healthy. In order to contract sickle cell anemia, it must
be transmitted genetically by both parents, each of them
a carrier of the sickle cell trait. Those who live with
sickle cell anemia show painful symptoms, while others
rarely have crises. However, in more severe cases, other
suffer prolonged crises and hospitalization.
The Western Perspective of Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle cell is considered to be a metabolic disease,
caused when the instructions for making a protein called
hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to the body's tissues
and organs. Hemoglobin is made of several hundred
amino acids. When a defect occurs in the hemoglobin
molecule, the blood cell also becomes defective.
Normal red blood cells are soft and doughnut-shaped
which allows them to squeeze smoothly through small
blood vessels. But in a sickle cell victim, some red
blood cells become twisted into a hooked, or sickle,
shape. Sickle cells can get trapped in the tiniest blood
vessels and thus block the normal flow of blood. The
vessels get clogged and oxygen can't get to tissues and
organs. This causes the periodic attacks.
These sickle cell clots can be life threatening, depending
on where they occur in the body. For example, blockage
of blood vessels in the brain can cause seizures or
stroke. Blockage in the lungs can cause respiratory
problems. Clots in vital organs such as the heart, liver,
Continued on page 7

Continued from page 6 – Treating Sickle Cell Anemia
through Traditional Chinese Medicine
kidneys, spleen, or eyes can cause damage to these
organs. The most common symptoms are pain the chest
and abdomen, but in many cases the whole body may be
affected, particularly in the joints and spine.
Conventional Western medicine has very few effective
treatments to manage this disease. Some of the most
commonly used treatments to cope with this devastating
disease are pain killers, blood transfusions, and in mild
cases, diet and supplements can be used to manage the
symptoms.
Using Chinese Healing Principles
In my practice of Chinese medical principles, I have
observed a number of common factors of sickle cell
anemia-underlying causes of, or significant contributors
to chronic and recurring ailments. By uncovering them
and applying the "Five element system" and "Yin/Yang
diagnosis, I have been able to help individuals tonify and
balance their health to levels they never thought possible
while assisting them in getting off a medical roller
coaster from which they thought there was no escape.
According to Chinese medicine, each person suffering
from sickle cell may not be given the same therapy. The
chosen therapy is determined by what kind of problem
the person is experiencing. This applies to both chronic
and acute problems. The Chinese medical practitioner is
committed to removing the pain or symptoms, by finding
and removing the cause. The concept of “Chi”, “yangdeficiency”,
“stagnant blood”, and “dampness” is absolutely
at the heart of the sickle cell disease. Life force
and chi are one. Chi has its own movement and also
activates the movement of energy and blood in the body.
Wherever chi goes, blood flows. Healthy chi moves
freely. But chi that is stagnant cause blood flow to be
constrictive and congestive. The stagnation of Chi and
blood is experienced as a localized stabbing pain. If this
stagnation of blood persists for too long, it gives rise to
imbalance of other organ networks. This situation is
often the case with sufferers of sickle cell anemia.
Stagnant Chi and blood can also obstruct the spleen,
liver, kidneys, heart, and lungs, affecting their ability to
generate and distribute water and Nutritive Essence in the
body. (See article entitled "The African Roots of
Traditional Chinese Medicine; www.blackherbals.com/
african_roots_traditional_chinese_med.htm.)
According to the Five Element system, most conditions
of sickle cell anemia are classified as a "deficiency of
yang energy". Deficiency in Chinese medicine is
characterized by a overall "weakness" of the total energy
of the body. Yang energy and Yang organs are, respon-
sible for transportation and movement of blood fluids,
and foods in the body. Yang energy is responsible for
heat and Chi. When Yang is weak, or deficient, cold and
dampness can invade the body, producing coldness, poor
circulation, and slowness, which is associated with the
kidneys. In the Chinese system, the kidneys are
considered "The Life Gate Fire" and source of Yang
energy.
It is important to remember that each person will tend to
have different Yin/Yang dynamics, depending on where
the area of distress occurs in the body. This is the power
of Chinese medicine. It allows us to understand the
individual's own constitution and inherited differences.
Chinese Herbs and Nutritional Therapies
We have given sickle cell anemia the name "deficient
Yang" in the Chinese system of medicine. In order to
address this condition in general, we would use a
combination of Chinese herbal formulas. Many people
who suffer from sickle cell experience conditions of
weakness, congested Chi and blood, poor circulation, and
coldness. In this case, we would prescribe herbs that
tonify yang, complemented by herbs that disperse and
mobilize blood circulation. The following Chinese
formula is excellent to achieve this goal:
Rehmannia Eight Formula, (Ba Wei Wan)
Rehmannia
Dioscorea
Cornus
Poria cocos
Moutan
Alisma
Cinnamon bark
Aconite
This is a major Chinese formula for tonifying kidney
yang. It nourishes the kidneys, dispels stagnant blood,
alleviates pain, improves blood circulation, increases
body temperature, and increases the flow of urine. This
formula is also combined with dispersing herbs like
tangerine peel and ligusticum, which move Chi, water
and blood.
Another important part in managing sickle disease is to
use special foods in a medicinal way to help prevent and
overcome illness. Foods can be used to help support the
immune system and other organ networks by virtue of
their unique qualities, flavors, colors, textures, and their
unique biochemistry. Under the Chinese system of
nutrition, foods are valued more for their heating and
cooling energies and their flavors. The Energetic
properties of foods go beyond the Western scientific
classifications such as protein, carbohydrates, minerals
Continued on page 10
-7- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic
Volume 3, Issue 3 NEWSLETTER April 2008
FEATURED ARTICLES
Hydroxyurea for Sickle Cell Patients
An independent panel convened this week by the NIH
concluded that the use of hydroxyurea for sickle cell
patients should be increased in adolescents and
adults.
Hydroxyurea was approved by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration for use in adults with sickle cell
anemia in 1998, but provider and patient concerns
have hindered its use, depriving many patients of its
proven benefits. Research has shown that sickle cell
patients on this drug experience fewer pain crises and
hospital admissions, and the panel advocated
increased utilization of this drug with appropriate
monitoring. Additionally, the panel concluded that
the risks of serious side effects of hydroxyurea
appear to be lower than previously expected.
Furthermore, these risks are acceptable when
compared to the risks of untreated sickle cell disease
in adolescents and adults.
"The compelling benefits of hydroxyurea warrant
increased adoption of this drug as a frontline therapy
in adults with sickle cell disease," reported Dr. Otis
Brawley, conference panel chair, Professor of
Hematology, Oncology, Medicine, and Epidemiology
at Emory University, and Chief Medical Officer of
the American Cancer Society. For younger patients,
however, safety and efficacy data are limited but
supportive of hydroxyurea treatment. Although the
panel was unable to definitively recommend broad
pediatric use of the drug at this time, it is hoped that
results from ongoing clinical trials will help to
resolve remaining questions.
The pain and complications associated with sickle
cell disease can have a profound impact on patients'
quality of life, ability to work, and long-term health
and well-being. Sickle cell disease often causes
episodes of severe pain, and decreased life span due
to infections, lung problems, and stroke. Worldwide,
millions suffer from sickle cell disease, most commonly
people whose families come from Africa,
South or Central America, Caribbean islands,
Medical Studies/Trials
29 February 2008
Mediterranean countries, India, and Saudi Arabia. In the
U.S., this inherited blood disorder affects 50,000 to
100,000 people. In addition, approximately 2 million
Americans carry the sickle cell trait, which increases the
public health burden as this disorder is passed on to
future generations.
Surveys indicate that a large proportion of patients with
sickle cell disease are ethnic minorities, poor, and from
underserved communities. For many, limited resources
and lack of culturally competent clinicians set the stage
for suboptimal care. Recurring pain crises associated with
the disease can severely limit individuals' ability to
sustain employment or educational efforts, aggravating
problems with insurance coverage and subsequent
healthcare costs.
"This disease illuminates the limitations of our current
healthcare system," Dr. Brawley noted. "The best way to
achieve optimal care for patients with sickle cell disease
is for them to be treated in clinics specializing in the care
of this disease." The panel recognized that many patients
lack a single healthcare provider to direct their sickle cell
management. Instead, there is heavy reliance on
emergency and acute care facilities to treat pain. Dr.
Brawley added, "all sickle cell patients should have a
principal healthcare provider, and that provider, if not a
hematologist, should be in frequent consultation with
one." Additionally, patients often "fall through the
cracks" when transitioning from pediatric to adult care.
Contributing to this problem is a lack of providers armed
with the knowledge, skills, and experience to effectively
manage adults with sickle cell disease.
-8- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
In addition to identifying numerous potential barriers to
hydroxyurea treatment at the patient, provider, and
systems levels, the panel called for Medicare or Medicaid
coverage of sickle cell patients of all ages. The panel's
complete consensus statement will be available later
today at http://consensus.nih.gov/. The conference was
sponsored by the NIH Office of Medical Applications of
Research (OMAR) and the National Heart, Lung, and
Continued on page 9

Continued from page 8 – Hydroxyurea for Sickle Cell
Patients
Blood Institute, along with other NIH and Department
of Health and Human Services components. This
conference was conducted under the NIH Consensus
Development Program, which convenes conferences to
assess the available scientific evidence and develop
objective statements on controversial medical issues.
The 14-member conference panel included experts in
the fields of internal medicine, family practice,
hematology, oncology, pediatrics, obstetrics, nursing,
pediatric nursing, social work, pharmacology,
pharmacokinetics, and pain research, mental health,
epidemiology, biostatistics, public health, and health
systems research, in addition to a public representative.
A complete listing of the panel members and their
institutional affiliations is included in the draft
conference statement. Interviews with panel members
can be arranged by contacting Lisa Ahramjian at 301-
496-4999 or AhramjianL@od.nih.gov.
In addition to the material presented at the conference
by speakers and the comments and concerns of
conference participants presented during discussion
periods, the panel considered pertinent research from
the published literature and the results of a systematic
review of the literature commissioned by OMAR. The
systematic review was prepared through the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPC) program, by
the Johns Hopkins Evidence-based Practice Center.
The EPCs develop evidence reports and technology
assessments based on rigorous, comprehensive
syntheses and analyses of the scientific literature,
emphasizing explicit and detailed documentation of
methods, rationale, and assumptions. The evidence
report on Hydroxyurea Treatment for Sickle Cell
Disease is available at http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/tp/
hydscdtp.htm.
The panel's statement is an independent report and is
not a policy statement of the NIH or the federal
government. The NIH Consensus Development
Program was established in 1977 as a mechanism to
judge controversial topics in medicine and public
health in an unbiased, impartial manner. NIH has
conducted 118 consensus development conferences,
and 29 state-of-the-science (formerly "technology
assessment") conferences, addressing a wide range of
issues. A backgrounder on the NIH Consensus
Development Program process is available at
http://consensus.nih.gov/forthemedia.htm.
The Office of the Director, the central office at NIH, is
responsible for setting policy for NIH, which includes
27 Institutes and Centers. This involves planning,
managing, and coordinating the programs and activities
of all NIH components. The Office of the Director also
includes program offices which are responsible for
stimulating specific areas of research throughout NIH.
Additional information is available at
http://www.nih.gov/icd/od.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) - The Nation's
Medical Research Agency - includes 27 Institutes and
Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal
agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and
translational medical research, and it investigates the
causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare
diseases. For more information about NIH and its
programs, visit www.nih.gov.
-9- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
http://www.news-medical.net/id=35770
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Continued from page 5 – 40M Suffer from Sickle
Cell
Speaking yesterday at the Press briefing in Abuja, the
Minister said Nigerians are listed among the top countries
where the disease is rampant.
She said about 100,000 new births every year in the
country are sicklers, saying the figures are on the increase
annually.
Mrs Ekpiwhre said the report also said that over 25
percent of sickle cell patients die globally, on an annual
basis. With this, "the Ministry is therefore partnering with
the Ministry of Health and relevant Non Governmental
Organizations (NGOs), to facilitate the commercialization
of the herbal remedy which has undergone the
pre-clinical stages and is registered by NAFDAC."
She said a Nigerian herbalist in the person of Mr
Solomon Balosibina, has developed a cure which
recorded about 60 percent sickling reversal activities with
wide safety margin.
Already government has supported the project with N5
million as part of its funding assistance to the inventors
and innovators. The Minister said the cure named
Solamin Sickle Cell anemia remedy is part of the efforts
between the federal government and private researchers.
She said the federal government's Presidential Standing
Committee on invention and innovations was established
to validate the various claims by investors and innovators
and any other such claims as may be received from other
sources with a view to provide funding assistance to the
inventors and innovators.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803060468.html
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Continued from page 7 – Treating Sickle Cell Anemia
through Traditional Chinese Medicine
and vitamins. What we are considering is the "Holistic
Energetic" effect of a food or herb on the body.
Yin
cool energy
fruit juices
fluids
sweet foods
Yang
warm energy
meat
solids
spicy
There are many books on the market that describe these
Yin/Yang food polarities according to Chinese
principles. However, due to limited space, a basic
understanding will suffice for our purpose in this
article. A wise man said, “There can be no true healing
with herbs if the diet remains the contributing cause in
sustaining the disease.” We have to let our food be our
medicine. I found that many sufferers of sickle cell
anemia continue to eat denatured, synthetic, and toxic
foods which tend to contribute to their ailments and
pain.
The follow is a specific outline of foods which I found
helpful in treating sickle cell disease. The primary goal
is to eat foods that are rich in oxygen, tonifying and
have a balanced Yin/Yang nature.
Folic acid - aids in appetite, cell reproduction, growth,
and red blood cell formation.
Beets - high in iron, and helps build the blood and
oxygenate the system. It also tonifies the kidneys,
liver, and bladder.
Brown Rice - the most balanced food energetically. It
particularly strengthens the lungs and spleen.
Garlic - helps build yang energy, and expels cold,
dampness, and relieves cramps.
Vegetables - cabbage, kidney beans, lentils, legumes,
mustard greens, mutton, onions, millet, sorghum, and
radishes.
Cayenne pepper - strengthens yang energy, disperses
congestion, expels cold, and good for abdominal pains.
African Cassava - is known to inhibit cell sickling and
building red blood formation. It is commonly eaten on
the African continent.
This is by no means a complete list of foods that aid in
the treatment of sickle cell disease. Chinese and African
medicine in general include a number of organic and
inorganic therapeutic substances that have tremendous
healing properties. These can be purchased in most health
food stores and are safe to use for treating all types of
diseases.
Note: The information in this article is not intended as a
substitute for qualified professional medical care. This is
especially true when attempting to treat serious life
threatening diseases.
Suggested Reading:
Foods that Heal, Maureen Salaman, 1989, Statford Press.
Traditional Foods are Your Best Medicine, Dr. Ronald
P. Schmid, 1987, Ballantine Press.
The Way of Herbs, Dr. Michael Tierra, 1990, Simon and
Schuster.
©Copyright by Tariq Sawandi, M.H; .May 2002. All rights
reserved.
-10- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
http://www.blackherbals.com/treating_sickle_cell_anemia_thro.h
tm
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Sickle-Cell Disease spreads in
Latino Community
By Katy Human
The Denver Post
March 10, 2008
The painful blood disorder called sickle-cell disease is
striking an increasing number of Latino people in Colorado,
according to University of Colorado researchers.
The trend in the disease — long associated with African-
Americans — is worrying because many Latinos aren't as
aware of the risks, said Kathy Hassell, medical director of
the university's Sickle Cell Treatment and Research Center.
"Obstetricians have gotten pretty good at screening
African-American women, but they don't think about Ms.
Lopez or Ms. Gonzales," Hassell said. "There's no word in
Spanish for sickle cell."
Hassell has been tracking the percentage of babies born
every year with a single sickle-cell gene — the disease
occurs only in those who get a sickle-cell gene from both
mother and father.
The percentage of sickle-cell carriers who are Latino
has jumped from 10 percent to 32 percent in the last
20 years— a time when the Latino population in Colorado
Continued on page 11

Continued from page 10 – Sickle Cell Disease spreads in
Latino Community
has more than doubled, according to U.S. census figures.
The Sickle Cell Center is beginning to print educational
brochures in Spanish, and it's making sure translators are
available to counsel patients.
"This may be the tip of the iceberg," Hassell said.
Sickle-cell disease is named for the crescent-shaped red
blood cells that mark the illness. Normal red blood cells
are smooth and round.
Because those sickle red blood cells don't carry oxygen
effectively, people with the disease are often anemic.
The Colorado center identifies about 10 new cases a year
among the state's 75,000 newborns.
Sickle-cell patients are vulnerable to life-threatening
infections, may have strokes as children, often die in their
40s or 50s and have intense "pain crises" requiring
hospitalization.
Preventive measures — such as daily penicillin drops for
babies — can reduce the number of organ-damaging
infections, triggered because the spleen can't effectively
filter sickled blood.
"It used to be that 30 percent of children died before [age]
5 of overwhelming infection," Hassell said. "Now, every
newborn in the state is screened, and we try to send a
nurse to the family's home for education."
Last week at The Children's Hospital Sickle center in
Aurora, Colo., 19-month-old Adrian Perez-Vaoeriano sat
tearful on his mother's lap, taking shaky breaths as the
two waited for blood-test results.
A batch of donated red blood cells was a good match, so
Adrian started his seventh red- blood-cell transfusion — a
monthly six-hour ritual he'll continue until he's at least 2
years old.
Soon after he turned 1, the left side of his belly became
rock-hard, said his mother, Leivi Vaoeriano.
She rushed him to Children's Hospital, where doctors
used a transfusion to clear the sickle blood clogged in his
spleen, nurse coordinator Laura Cole said.
"When he's 2, they'll take out his spleen," Cole said.
Adrian's mother said she was baffled by her son's
diagnosis, which she learned about when he was about 2
months old. "I just didn't know what it was," Vaoeriano
said.
Some of her family members had heard of the disease,
she said, but they had no idea that Hispanic people got it.
"Everyone was confused. They said: 'Why does he have
this We're from Acapulco,'" Vaoeriano said.
To get sickle-cell disease, a person must inherit two
mutated genes — one from each parent, Hassell said. So if
the gene is cropping up more often among Latinos, it'll
eventually mean more disease.
"We know this is not just an African-American disease,"
said Willarda Edwards, president of the Sickle Cell Disease
Association of America, in Baltimore.
"I have people from Nebraska calling me saying, 'I'm not
black, but I got this.' Anyone can," Edwards said.
Sickle-cell disease has long been associated with African-
Americans, but the gene is also common among people of
Mediterranean and Indian descent, Edwards said, and
increasingly in Latino populations. The disease probably
evolved in parts of the world where malaria is or was a
problem, Edwards said. People with one sickle gene have
some protection against malaria.
Newborn screens in every state now tell parents if their
child is a carrier, but since carrying the gene doesn't cause
disease, parents may forget to inform their children later on.
When two people who each carry the gene have a child, the
chance is 25 percent that the baby will have sickle-cell
disease.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-sickle-cellhispanics-webmar11,1,1844586,print.story
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Sickle Cell Study Halted in
(Black) Children
Two suffered strokes, others developed risks
The Associated Press
December 6, 2004
ATLANTA - A study aimed at determining if some
children with sickle cell anemia could be weaned off blood
transfusion therapy has been halted because two young
patients who stopped getting the procedure suffered strokes
and others developed a high chance of strokes.
The National Institutes of Health issued a clinical alert
Sunday recommending that doctors continue using blood
transfusions to reduce the risk of stroke among young
sickle cell patients, even though the treatment has its own
risk.
The study, called STOP II, was funded by the NIH’s
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and involved 23
U.S. medical centers and two in Canada.
Continued on page 12
-11- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Continued from pager 11 – Sickle Cell Study Halted in
Children
The $15 million study, which started in July 2000, was
ended prematurely ended last month after 16 children
with sickle cell anemia developed narrowed arteries
and other risk factors for strokes after they stopped
receiving blood transfusions. Two other children
suffered strokes but are recovering, said Dr. Robert
Adams, the study’s principal investigator and professor
of neurology at the Medical College of Georgia.
The study “showed that when transfusions were
discontinued after a minimum of 30 months, a
significant number of children reverted to high risk” of
stroke, the federal agency’s clinical alert said.
“I’m disappointed ... that we weren’t able to identify a
group that we could consistently and safely bring off,”
Adams said.
Damage from long-term use
Although the blood transfusions are effective, longterm
use can cause dangerous accumulations of iron
that can lead to heart problems and liver damage.
“We’re literally between a rock and a hard place — we
need to prevent strokes. At the same time we have a
therapy that’s not without risk,” said Dr. Duane Bonds,
the National Institutes of Health’s sickle-cell disease
coordinator.
The original STOP study, which started in 1995, was
halted two years later because transfusions were found
to be so effective that researchers recommended all
sickle cell children be given the treatment to prevent
strokes.
The latest study involved 79 children, age 2 to 18, all of
whom had once had a high risk of stroke but whose risk
was diminished after years of blood transfusion
therapy.
A control group of 37 children continued getting
transfusions. Forty-two other children were taken off of
transfusions and were closely monitored to check for
blockages in brain arteries.
The study was beneficial for eight children, whose
stroke risk did not increase even though they had
stopped taking blood transfusions for two years during
the study.
Sickle cell disease, of which sickle cell anemia is one
form, is an inherited blood disorder that affects red
blood cells, which sometimes become sickle- or
crescent-shaped and cannot easily pass through small
blood vessels. The disease mostly affects blacks.
Doctors aren’t sure why sickle-cell anemia results in a
higher stroke risk.
Adams said it’s also not exactly known why transfusions
can reduce a patient’s stroke risk. The original STOP study
found the risk of a first stroke was reduced by 90 percent.
However, transfusions can take four to five hours. And
along with iron accumulation, they can expose patients to
blood-borne infections.
“It takes a whole day, it’s a tedious task,” Channelle Allen
of Augusta, Ga., said of the transfusions that her 11-yearold
daughter Tisha has received. Tisha was one of the
patients who developed a high stroke risk after ending
transfusion therapy during the STOP II study and has
resumed receiving the treatment.
“I didn’t want her to go back on blood (transfusions) but it
was better for her,” Allen said. “I was extremely scared. It’s
terrifying when a child can’t tell you the exact problem
they’re having — all they can tell you is they’re in pain.”
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6658375/
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Sickle-cell Patients Need
Regular Transfusions
A continued supply of red blood cells cuts stroke risk, new
study finds
Reuters
December 28, 2005
BOSTON - Some patients with severe sickle cell disease
may need a lifetime of blood transfusions to reduce the
chances of suffering a stroke, data from a new study show.
Scientists had hoped that patients with blood disease could
be treated with a limited number of transfusions. But the
study, published in this week's New England Journal of
Medicine, found that the stroke risk reappeared after blood
exchanges were stopped.
"We hoped that maybe we were dealing with something
that was relatively short-lived over a few years in a child's
life," said Robert Adams, chief author of the study,
referring to the need for a continued fresh supply of
donated red blood cells. The study's result, he said, was "a
disappointment."
Sickle-cell disease is a genetic disorder that causes
normally flexible red blood cells to contort into a crescentmoon
shape that makes them clump, blocking blood vessels
and causing most patients bouts of intense pain.
About 1 in 650 African-Americans and up to 1 in 1,000
Latinos in the United States have some form of sickle cell
disease.
Continued on page 13
-12 - Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Continued from page 12 – Sickle Cell Patients Need
Regular Transfusions
Roughly 10 percent of those patients, who have
narrowed blood vessels in the brain, face a higher-thanaverage
chance of stroke. Those patients with the
higher risk have a 1 in 10 chance of actually having a
stroke in a given year.
Regular transfusions of red blood cells typically cut the
stroke risk by 90 percent. Because the blood-flow
pattern in the brain seems return to normal in many
patients who receive transfusions, doctors had hoped
that the need for extra blood was only temporary.
To test that assumption, the team led by Adams, a
stroke specialist at the Medical College of Georgia,
decided to halt the transfusions in 50 children, but
continue them in another 50.
Preliminary results, after only 79 patients were
included in the study, showed that discontinuing the
transfusions would be dangerous.
Two children who did not receive fresh blood cells
regularly suffered a stroke and 14 others showed a
dangerous increase of blood flow in the brain.
There were some exceptions, Adams said. "There are a
few kids who tolerate being taken off transfusion. It's
just that we can't really figure out in advance who they
are," the researcher told Reuters.
Even when doctors perform regular ultrasound testing
to track changes in blood flow through the brain, "you
do have the chance of a breakthrough stroke, as has
happened in two of the cases," Adams said.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10629261/
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Akira's Agony: Nine-year-old
braves Battle with Sickle
Cell Disease
By Carla Lee
February 26, 2008
Each morning, Akira Hollis watches wistfully as her
neighbors board the school bus.
The isolation she feels is almost as hard on the 9-yearold
as the sickle cell disease that keeps her locked
inside her home safe from germs that could easily
prove to be deadly.
More than anything, the Headland girl wants to go to
school. Instead, she faces endless blood transfusions
and hospital stays to combat the intense pain that
accompanies the disease.
“She just looks forward to the day when she can go to
school like other kids,” said her mother, Kim Corbitt. “I
took her to a Christmas party at Headland and I had to pry
her away.
Akira has a sister and brother, so she does get some
interaction with other kids. Recently, she’s started
occasionally playing with a girl who lives across the street.
“We finally do have one friend,” Corbitt said.
Akira and her mother stay inside during extreme heat,
extreme cold and especially rainy weather.
“When we do go out, she knows to get away from anybody
who coughs.”
And with good reason. What would be a typical cold for
anyone else lands Akira in the hospital for seven to 14 days.
“We’ve had 71 hospital stays, 42 transfusions and six
surgeries,” Corbitt said.
Sickle cell disease is an inherited red blood cell disorder.
More than 70,000 Americans have sickle cell, making it the
most common genetic disease in the U.S., according to the
Georgia Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at Grady Health
System in Atlanta, Ga.
Red blood cells, which deliver oxygen and are normally
round like doughnuts, become hard, sticky and shaped like
sickles, an instrument used to cut wheat. These affected
cells clog blood flow, which leads to pain, organ damage
and a low blood count, or anemia, according to the center’s
Web site, www.SCInfo.org.
There are three different types of sickle cell disease. Akira
suffers from the most serious, Hemoglobin SS or sickle cell
anemia.
“I’m not sure what the ‘SS’ stands for, but in my book it’s
‘so sick’ because Akira hurts so bad,” Corbitt said.
When Corbitt comes down with an illness, she has to trade
places with her sister or mother and allow someone else to
come for Akira.
“I even got kicked out of the hospital once for being sick,”
she said.
Akira’s sickle cell was discovered at her two-week
checkup. Her high white cell count and fever were nearly
fatal twice, once when she was 18 months and again when
she was 7 years ago, according to Corbitt.
-13 - Traditional African Clinic April 2008
Through the years, the disease has left its mark on Akira’s
body. She has asthma and permanent lung damage, in
addition to the many episodes of pain, swelling and
infection that make even covering with a sheet a painful
ordeal.
Continued on page 14

Continued from page 13- Akira’s Agony….
Corbitt tried to put Akira in public school when she
was in preschool and kindergarten. By the third month,
her doctor recommended home schooling so Akira
could be closely monitored because the disease’s onset
is so rapid.
“She can be fine one minute and the next she’s in
constant pain,” Corbitt said. “When she goes in her
room and is quiet, I know something’s wrong.
“She doesn’t like to tell me when she’s getting sick
because she’s so tired of hospitals.”
Her mother knows the telltale signs of a flair-up, which
include a yellowing or jaundice of the eyes. Corbitt,
who is a hair dresser, has been forced to leave clients in
the middle of hair cuts.
“It’s that quick — we have to be checked right away,”
she said. “Luckily, my clients are very understanding.”
Although sickle cell disease is seen in many
nationalities, it is primarily found in African-
Americans. In the U.S., one of every 10 African-
Americans have a sickle cell trait, and one out of 625
newborns have the disease, according to the Georgia
center.
A person inherits abnormal hemoglobin from both
parents, who may have the disease themselves or be
merely carriers of the trait.
Right now, Akira needs a blood transfusion every four
to five weeks to combat sickle cell disease. As a result,
her veins have worn out and she has a port placed in
her chest to deliver the needed blood. She also has a
second line for pheresis treatments, according to her
mother.
“When she’s in pain in the hospital and cries out ‘Help
me, Mama’ it tears me and the nurses up because
there’s nothing I can do,” Corbitt said. “It’s your child
and you’d give anything to help them.
“You just feel helpless.”
Corbitt also struggles with how she deals with Akira —
how much should she tell her and when.
“I’ve always been very upfront with her and told her
the truth,” she said. “It’s her body. If I lie to her, she
may not trust me to make decisions for her in the
future.”
The intervals between Akira’s transfusions have been
growing shorter. As a result, Corbitt is hoping her
daughter will soon be a candidate for a bone marrow
transplant. Although the procedure won’t completely
cure the disease, the symptoms and painful bouts
should disappear, leaving Akira only a carrier of the
gene, rather than having the disease, according to her
mother.
“We’re working toward a transplant,” Corbitt said.
“She’s been bumped up to the top of the list.”
This will be the first time this particular type of
transplant has been performed, as it recently passed FDA
protocol, she said. A doctor will come to Birmingham
from India to do the surgery.
“It’s supposed to stop sickle cell in its tracks,” Corbitt
said. “We may be in the history books.”
Corbitt wasn’t initially in favor of a bone marrow
transplant. In fact, she was dead set against the
procedure.
“The doctor sat me down and talked to me parent-toparent,”
she said. “He said that with the damage to
Akira’s lungs, she was looking at wearing an oxygen
tank full time by the time she was 18, and might not
make it to 21.
“He said instead of saving for college, we’d be saving
for a funeral.”
That prognosis and the look of agony in Akira’s eyes
with each episode led Corbitt to opt for the transplant.
If the bone marrow transplant is successful, Akira could
be leading a normal life in less than two years. Once
donors are lined up and everything has gone through the
proper channels, hospital personnel could call without
notice, so Akira has to be healthy to be a good candidate.
Akira and her mother will be staying in Birmingham for
four to six months, first at Children’s Hospital and then
at Hope Lodge, a sterile facility that’s a little bit more
like home but still allows constant supervision, Corbitt
said.
Akira and her mother look forward to a day when she
can be “like other kids.” Prayer and hope keep the family
trudging on through cycles of transfusion therapy and
bewildering pain.
A trust fund has been set up at Headland National Bank
to help the family meet the expenses involved.
http://www.dothaneagle.com/gulfcoasteast/dea/lifestyle.apx.-
content-articles-DEA-2008-02-26-0007.html
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-14- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Study Finds Patients
Suffering From Sickle Cell
Anemia in Much Worse Pain
Than Previously Thought
Study Authors Believe Pain Could Be Redefined as
a Chronic Pain Syndrome and Spur New Ways to
Treat the Condition
SOURCE: American College of Physicians
Annals of Interna Medicine
PHILADELPHIA, PA--(Marketwire - February 19,
2008) - A new study of patients suffering from sickle
cell anemia found that patients were worse off than was
previously believed. The study published in the journal,
Annals of Internal Medicine, found that daily pain is far
more prevalent and severe than previous large studies
have indicated.
The authors had 232 patients fill out diaries reporting
on how much pain they were having, where they hurt
and what types of medications they took. They found
that, unlike previously believed, pain in sickle cell
disease is a daily phenomenon and that patients
struggled at home rather than go to the hospital or
emergency room.
The disease is caused by a mutation of the red blood
cell gene that changes normally smooth round blood
cells into a sickle or C-shaped cell that are stiffer and
more prone to clots. These clots can block the flow of
blood into limbs and organs and cause pain, serious
infections and organ damage, especially in the lungs,
kidneys, spleen and brain. Because of the potential for
damage to organs, people with sickle cell disease have
shorter-than-average life expectancy.
About Annals of Internal Medicine: Annals of Internal
Medicine (www.annals.org) is one of the most widely
cited peer-reviewed medical journals in the world. The
journal has been published for 80 years and accepts
only 7 percent of the original research studies
submitted for publication. Annals of Internal Medicine
is published by the American College of Physicians, the
nation's largest medical specialty society.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.doid=822652
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Predictors for Sickle-Cell-
Anemia Complications
Dr. Charles Quinn helped to determine that the level
of oxygen in blood can be used to identify children
with sickle cell anemia who are at an increased risk of
stroke. The researchers have also found that a
published method used to predict severe sickle-cell
complications may not be adequate. (Credit: UT
Southwestern Medical Center)
ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2008) — Researchers at UT
Southwestern Medical Center have determined that the
level, or saturation, of oxygen in blood could be used to
identify children with sickle cell anemia who are at an
increased risk of stroke.
In a related study, they have also found that a published
method used to predict severe complications of the disease
may not be adequate. "Stroke is a serious but increasingly
preventable complication of sickle cell disease," said Dr.
Charles Quinn, assistant professor of pediatrics at UT
Southwestern and lead author of a study appearing in
February's British Journal of Haematology. "Several factors
have been identified that increase risk for stroke, but better
screening tools are still needed."
Hemoglobin is an oxygen-transport protein in red blood
cells. People with sickle cell disease, including an estimated
100,000 Americans, have a genetic error affecting their
hemoglobin. The defect turns normally soft, round blood
cells into inflexible, sickle-shaped cells. The altered shape
causes blockages in blood vessels and prevents body tissues
from receiving oxygen.
The researchers reviewed the cases of 412 children who are
part of the Dallas Newborn Cohort, the world's largest
group of patients with sickle cell disease who were initially
diagnosed by newborn screening. All patients reviewed
were born after Jan. 1, 1990, a date chosen because patient
data was available electronically.
Oxygen saturation in the children's blood was tracked over
time, and the records of those who suffered a stroke were
compared to those who did not. The children who had
lower levels of oxygen in their blood were more likely to
develop stroke, the researchers found.
"A decline in oxygen saturation over time seems to further
increase the risk of stroke," said Dr. Quinn. "Oxygen
saturation is easily measured, potentially modifiable and
might be used to identify children with sickle cell disease
who are at greater risk of having a stroke."
Another study by Dr. Quinn and his colleagues appeared in
Continued on page 19
-15- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic
Volume 3, Issue 3 NEWSLETTER April 2008
FEATURED ARTICLES
Sorghum and Millet in African Nutrition
The Traditional African Diet
African health scientists have discovered that many of
the intricate biochemical processes that govern the
body can be influenced by the presence or absence of
certain vitamins, minerals, or nutrients. The ailments
that African people suffer from today are based on our
improper diet and lifestyle. Remember that African
biochemistry is based on the melanin molecule which is
dominant in Africans. Western health science is based
on white body chemistry, and is incompatible with the
African body type.
Nitrilosides (Vitamin B-17) is a designation proposed
to include a large group of water-soluble, essentially
non-toxic, sugary, compounds found in many edible
plants. Nitrilosides are found in great abundance in a
very wide variety of vegetable foods once eaten in great
abundance by man. There are approximately 14
naturally occurring nitrilosides distributed in over 1,200
species of plants. The natural fodder of animals is
similarly rich in this factor. No area on the earth that
supports vegetation lacks nitriloside-containing plants.
Beta-cyanogenetic glucosides are found in 13 per cent
of the plant families, and of this 13 per cent, 46 per cent
are tropical.
Nitrilosides are comprised of molecules made of sugar,
hydrogen cyanide, a benzene ring or an acetone. These
factors are collectively known as Beta-cyanogenetic
glycosides. Though the intact molecule is for all
practical purposes completely non-toxic, nitrilosides
can be hydrolyzed, by an enzyme present in our bodies
called beta-glycosidase, to a sugar, free hydrogen
cyanide, benzaldehyde or acetone. Because of our
cultural antipathy to cyanide, western food technology
has made every conceivable effort through processing,
hybridizing, distilling, etc., to remove every trace of
derivable cyanide from foods for man and animals.
Although it is literally true to say that nitrilosides
contain cyanide, a deadly poison, it is also true to say
that table salt, sodium chloride, contains the deadly
poison, chlorine. Under normal conditions, the chlorine
in salt and the cyanide in nitrilosides is tightly bound
and in no danger of suddenly "leaking out".
Chewing of cyanogenic foods usually frees or
hydrolizes much cyanide by mixing the resident
nitriloside with the splitting enzyme b-glucosidase.
That is why cooking the undisturbed plant tissue is
important (neutralizing the splitting enzyme). By
stabilizing the nitriloside in this way the cyanide is
released more selectively at the sites of high b-
glucosidase production, i.e., cancer cells and concentrations
of bacterial infestation.
Cyanogenetic glycosides have been found in the
following common vegetables: maize, sorghum, millet,
field bean, lima bean, kidney bean, sweet potato,
cassava, lettuce, linseed [flaxseed], almond and seeds
of lemons, limes, cherries, apples, apricots, prunes,
plums and pears. Their widespread presence in foods
consumed by humans and animals all over the world
argues against nitrilosides being seriously or inherently
toxic.
African Traditional Diet, Nitriloside Foods
Nitriloside-rich plants and foods are a vital part of an
amazing biochemical process in the African body type.
For centuries, nitriloside-rich plants were used by
Africans as a food and medicinal agent without
manifesting any side effects. It is found in the seeds of
those fruits in the “Prunus Africanus” and “Prunus
Rosacea” species of plants. It can also be found in
grasses, sorghum, millet, cassava, and many other
foods that generally have been removed from the foods
of Western civilisation. This diet has been one of the
deciding factors that protected the integrity of the
biochemical processes in African people. Wherever
"primitive peoples" eat their traditional natural diet,
their intake of nitrilosides is high, and their cancer
incidence is low. Preventing the formation of cancer
cells, appear to be closely related to the traditional
African diet.
It is significant that prior to African people’s arrival to
the Americas, there were no known records of them
contracting cancer while maintaining their traditional
Continued on page 17
-16- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Continued from page 16 – Sorghum and Millet…Nutrition
diet. Millet was once Africa’s staple grain. It is high in
nitriloside content. In fact, missionary and medical
journals have recorded many cancer-free tribes all over
Africa. From all over the African continent, the one thing
Africans have in common is that the degree to which they
are free from cancer is in direct proportion to the amount
of nitriloside found in their diet. As much as 80% of the
tropical African diet consists of nitriloside and
thiocyanate yielding foods. The main staples of sub-
Sahara Africa are cassava, yams, sorghum, and millet
grains.
Controlling of Sickle Cell Anemia through
the Traditional African Diet
Another benefit of the traditional African diet is the
connection between nitriloside plants and the control of
sickle cell anemia. In Africa, and other parts of the
world, people of African descent have developed sickle
cells in the blood apparently as a natural immunity to
malaria. The development of the sickle cell trait was
dependent, in part, on the nitrilosidic chemistry of the
native African diet. Once Africans were transported to
the Caribbean and the Americas, their diet became
deficient in the nutrients needed to inhibit cell sickling in
the blood. The result is the painful hemolytic crisis
caused by the clumping of the red blood cells. According
to research developed by Dr. Robert Huston which
appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in
1974, he learned that sickle cell anemia could be
controlled by cyanate tablets. However, cyanate is also
produced by nitriloside plants acting within the body, and
it seems logical to assume that this is the way nature
intended it to be taken.
According to Barbara Dixson’s book, Good Health for
African Americans, “In Africa, an estimated 25 percent
of the population carry the sickle cell trait, yet the
incidence of sickle cell disease itself is rare. In fact,
from 1925 to 1950, it was estimated that fewer than one
hundred cases of sickle cell anemia were reported
throughout the continent.”
As is well-known, sickle cell anemia is relatively rare in
the Caribbean . Those with the sickle cell condition are
found living healthy into old age, and few ever
experience serious crises. In fact, the Jamaican diet is
rich in thiocyanate where cassava and yams are staples.
It is proposed that sickle cell anemia represents an
“unrelieved nutritional condition” which is dependent on
the presence of thiocyanate and nitrilosides in Africans
who are genetically predisposed to the disease. The
significance of this research is that the solution to sickle
cell anemia can be found in the field of nutrition rather
than drugs, blood thinners, and blood transfusions.
Sorghum and Millet
Sorghum and millets have been important staples in the
semi-arid tropics of Africa and Asia for centuries. These
crops are still the principal sources of energy, protein,
vitamins and minerals for millions of the poorest people
in these regions.
Sorghum and millets grow in harsh environments where
other crops grow or yield poorly. They are grown with
limited water resources by a multitude of small farmers in
many countries, usually without the application of
fertilizers or other inputs. Consumed by disadvantaged
groups, they are often referred to as "coarse grain" or
"poor people's crops". Sorghum and millets are not
generally traded in the international markets or even in
local markets in many countries, so small farmers seldom
have an assured market in the event of surplus
production.
Sorghum
The cultivated sorghum of the present arose from a wild
progenitor belonging to the subspecies verticilliflorum.
The sorghum kernel varies in colour from white through
shades of red and brown to pale yellow to deep purplebrown.
The most common colours are white, bronze and
brown. Kernels are generally spherical but vary in size
and shape. It appears that sorghum moved into eastern
Africa from Ethiopia around 200 AD or earlier. The
Bantu people, who used the grain mainly to make beer,
adopted and carried it to the savannah countries of
eastern and southern Africa. The Bantu people probably
began their expansion from the region of southern
Cameroon about the first century AD, moved along the
southern border of the Congo forest belt and reached
eastern Africa possibly before 500 AD. The present-day
sorghums of central and southern Africa are closely
related to those of the United Republic of Tanzania, and
more distantly related to those of West Africa as the
equatorial forests were an effective barrier to this spread.
Sorghum, probably taken to India from eastern Africa
during the first millennium BC, is reported to have
existed there around 1000 BC. Sorghum was probably
taken in ships as food in the first instance. Chow traffic
has operated for some 3 000 years between East Africa
(the Azanean Coast) and India via the Sebaean Lane in
southern Arabia. The sorghums of India relate to those of
northeastern Africa and the coast between Cape
Guardafui and Mozambique. The spread along the coast
of Southeast Asia and around China may have taken
place about the beginning of the Christian era, but it is
also possible that sorghum arrived much earlier in China
via the silk trade routes.
Grain sorghum appears to have arrived in America as
Continued on page 18
-17- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Continued from page 14-Sorghum and Millet in African
Nutrition
"guinea corn" from West Africa with the slave traders
about the middle of the nineteenth century. Although
sorghum arrived in Latin America through the slave trade
and by navigators plying the Europe-Africa-Latin
America trade route in the sixteenth century, the crop did
not become important until the present century.
Millet
Millet is one of the oldest foods known to humans and
possibly the first cereal grain used for domestic purposes.
Its use in making bread is mentioned in the Bible. In
Africa and India, millet has been used as a staple food for
thousand of years. It was grown as early as 2700 BC in
China where it was the prevalent grain before rice
became the dominant staple. Today millet ranks as the
sixth most important grain in the world, sustains 1/3 of
the world’s population and is a significant part of the diet
in northern China, Japan, Manchuria and various areas of
the former Soviet Union, Africa, India, and Egypt.
Millet is highly nutritious, non-glutinous and like
buckwheat and quinoa, is not an acid forming food so is
soothing and easy to digest. In fact, it is considered one
of the least allergenic and most digestible grains available
and it is a warming grain so will help to heat the body in
cold or rainy seasons and climates.
Millet is tasty, with a mildly sweet, nut-like flavor and
contains a myriad of beneficial nutrients. It is nearly 15%
protein, contains high amounts of fiber, B-complex
vitamins including niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin, the
essential amino acid methionine, lecithin, and some
vitamin E. It is particularly high in the minerals iron,
magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium. The seeds are
also rich in phytochemicals, including Phytic acid,
believed to lower cholesterol, and Phytate, which is
associated with reduced cancer.
Finger millet, Eleusine coracana L., is also known as
African millet, koracan, ragi (India), wimbi (Swahili),
bulo (Uganda) and telebun (the Sudan). The colour of
grains may vary from white through orange-red deep
brown and purple, to almost black. It is an important
staple food in parts of eastern and central Africa and
India. It is the principal cereal grain in northern and parts
of western Uganda and northeastern Zambia. The grains
are malted for making beer. Finger millet can be stored
for long periods without insect damage and thus it can be
important during famine. It is believed that Uganda or a
neighbouring region is the centre of origin of E. coracana,
and it was introduced to India at a very early date, prob
ably over 3,000 years ago. Though finger millet is
reported to have reached Europe at about the commence
ment of the Christian era, its utilization is restricted
mostly to eastern Africa and India.
-18- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
Alternative uses of sorghum and millet
Sorghum and millet production has considerably
increased in several countries during the past few years.
With the simultaneous increase in the production of
wheat and rice, millets face competition from the
utilization point of view. Already there is an increasing
trend of using wheat or rice in place of sorghum even in
those regions where sorghum had been the traditional
staple grain in the past.
Sorghum and millets will continue to be major food crops
in several countries, especially in Africa (and in
particular in Nigeria and the Sudan, which together
account for about 63 percent of Africa's sorghum
production). These grains are used for traditional as well
as novel foods. However, there is a need to look into the
possibilities of alternative uses. Though sorghum and
millets have good potential for industrial uses, they have
to compete with wheat, rice and maize.
Nutritional quality of foods prepared from
sorghum and millets
It stands to reason that when a grain is processed, some
nutrients must be removed and that the removal of any
but an exactly proportionate part of any constituent of a
seed will affect the nutritional quality of what is left.
Consequently, the nutritional effect of milling probably
depends as much on the amount of material removed as
on the method used to remove it. Whether the removal of
nutrients and the so-called anti-nutritional factors is on
balance beneficial is a question that must always be
analysed carefully. What is actually done is not always
nutritionally for the best, and what is best in one type of
diet is not always best for another.
In many West African countries, sorghum and millet grits
are steamed to produce a coarse and uniformly
gelatinized product called couscous. Couscous can be
consumed fresh or can be dried. In its dried form, it can
be stored for more than six months. The dried product is
reconstituted in water, milk or sauce.
Porridges are the major foods in several African
countries. They are either thick or thin in consistency.
These porridges carry different local names. Thick
porridges are called uguli (Kenya, United Republic of
Tanzania, Uganda), to (Burkina Faso, the Niger), tuwo
(Nigeria), aceda (the Sudan), bogobe, jwa ting
(Botswana) and sadza (Zimbabwe). The biological value
of sorghum ugali was superior to that of the raw grain. In
In Mali, parts of Senegal and Guinea, to is alkali-treated
and has a pH of 8.2. In Burkina Faso, it is acid- treated to
a pH of about 4.6. In other regions of Africa, the to is
Continued on page 22

Continued from page 15 – Predictors for Sickle Cell Anemia
Complications
the January issue of the journal Blood. That study
examined how effectively a model developed by the
Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease (CSSCD)
predicted severe disease in the newborn cohort.
Because sickle cell disease can affect children in many
different ways, it is difficult to identify young children
who are at high risk of adverse outcomes before
irreversible organ damage occurs. Such outcomes include
death, stroke, frequent pain or recurrent acute chest
syndrome. The CSSCD criteria, which evaluates patients
based on factors such as occurrences of dactylitis -- a
type of painful swelling of the hands and feet -- in the
first year of life, steady-state hemoglobin concentration in
the second year of life, and steady-state leukocyte count
in the second year of life, was created in hopes that a
predictive model would allow early, tailored therapy to
prevent adverse outcomes.
"We found the CSSCD model was not better than random
prediction when applied to the Dallas Newborn Cohort,"
said Dr. Quinn, the Blood study's lead author. "Most
subjects who experienced adverse events were predicted
to be at low risk for adverse events, and no subject who
was predicted to be at high risk actually experienced an
adverse outcome. We concluded that the model was not
clinically useful, at least not in the Dallas cohort."
Dr. Quinn said the findings suggest that the CSSCD
model should not be used as the sole criterion to initiate
early, high-risk intervention and that a robust early
prediction model is still needed.
In 2002 UT Southwestern and UT Dallas received a
multimillion-dollar five-year grant from the National
Institutes of Health that established the Southwestern
Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at UT Southwestern.
UT Southwestern medical student James Sargent
contributed to the British Journal of Haematology study.
Dr. Zora Rogers, associate professor of pediatrics; Nancy
Lee, UT Southwestern medical student; Elizabeth Shull, a
research nurse at Children's; and Naveed Ahmad, a
statistician at Children's; contributed to the study in
Blood.
Both studies were supported by grants from the NIH.
UT Southwestern Medical Center (2008, March 3).
Predictors For Sickle-cell-anemia Complications.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 17, 2008, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com
/releases/2008/02/080229075207.htm
☻☻☻☻☻☻
-19- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
Passive Tobacco Smoke
Increases Complications in
Children with Sickle Cell
Disease
ScienceDaily (Dec. 18, 2003) — (SACRAMENTO,
Calif.) -- Physicians and researchers at the UC Davis
School of Medicine and Medical Center found that
children with sickle cell disease who are exposed to
tobacco smoke in the home have more complications
from the disease than those who live in a smoke-free
environment. The study was published in the December
issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent
Medicine.
"Exposure to environmental or passive tobacco smoke
increased the risk of sickle cell crisis by 90 percent, and
was not influenced by other factors known to increase
complications, such as age of the patient or type of sickle
cell disease," said Daniel C. West, associate professor of
pediatrics at UC Davis and lead author of the study.
"Exposure to tobacco smoke has a tremendous impact on
children with sickle cell disease. In fact, the study
suggests that removing passive tobacco smoke from the
home might not only reduce the suffering of children
with sickle cell disease, but also reduce the cost of
medical care."
Sickle cell disease is a hereditary disease that affects
hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries and
delivers oxygen to tissues. The presence of sickle
hemoglobin can lead to damaged and misshapen red
blood cells that do not flow normally through blood
vessels and deliver less than the normal amount of
oxygen to peripheral tissues. These abnormalities can
cause episodes of severe pain, known as sickle cell crises,
and life-threatening damage to vital organs, such as the
lungs and the brain.
Over a period of two years, researchers monitored 52
patients between the ages of 2 and 18 with several types
of sickle cell disease.
Each patient or family completed an environmental
survey and researchers recorded the number of sickle cell
crises -- vaso-occlusive pain episodes, acute chest
syndrome, stroke -- that required hospitalization.
The 22 children and adolescents who were exposed to
environmental tobacco smoke experienced more than
twice the number of sickle cell crises requiring
hospitalization compared to those not exposed to tobacco
smoke in the home.
As a secondary outcome, researchers found that the cost
Continued on page 20

Continued from page 19 – Passive Tobacco Smoke Increases
Complications….
of hospitalization in the exposed group was more than
triple the cost of hospitalization in the unexposed group.
West said, "If we can reduce smoking in family members,
we may be able to significantly reduce the lifethreatening
complications of sickle cell disease in their
children."
The UC Davis Sickle Cell Center is the only center
located in inland Northern California. It serves a
population of approximately 5 million people.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/12/031217071811.
htm
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Sickle Cell Sufferers Living
Longer, Dying Less from
Their Disease
ScienceDaily (Mar. 29, 2004) — DALLAS – March 25,
2004 – Children with sickle cell disease – an inherited red
blood-cell disorder – are living longer, dying less often
from their disease and contracting fewer fatal infections
than ever before, researchers at UT Southwestern
Medical Center at Dallas report.
Their study, which will appear in the June edition of the
scientific journal Blood, is the first to evaluate survival
rates of children receiving the most modern treatments
for sickle cell disease. It's also one of the largest
published sickle cell studies to date. Researchers
followed more than 700 Dallas-area children with the
disease over two decades.
Thirty years ago, only half of children with sickle cell
disease were expected to reach adulthood. This new study
showed that patients with sickle cell anemia, the severest
and most common form of the disease, had a survival rate
of 85.6 percent at 18 years old, and patients with milder
forms of sickle cell disease had a survival rate of 97.4
percent at 18. Also, 11.5 percent of patients with sickle
cell anemia had a stroke by 18 years old. Although this
rate remains constant, fewer children are dying as a result
of the stroke, researchers said.
"There weren't any modern or contemporary survival data
for children with sickle cell until now," said Dr. Charles
Quinn, assistant professor of pediatrics and the study's
lead author. "Previous survival studies began in the
1970s, and there have been significant advancements
made in the medical care of these children since then."
People with sickle cell disease have a genetic error in
their hemoglobin, a component of red blood cells. Instead
-20- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
of being soft and round, the red blood cells of a sickle
cell patient are inflexible and sickle-shaped, causing
blockages in the blood vessels and preventing body
tissues from receiving oxygen.
It is estimated that between 60,000 and 70,000 Americans
suffer from the disease. The disease is most common
among people of African descent. In the United States, it
is estimated that 9 percent of African-Americans have the
sickle cell trait, and 1 in 600 has sickle cell anemia.
UT Southwestern researchers attribute the improved
prognosis to widespread newborn screening that allows
physicians to identify the disease early and begin
treatment sooner; prophylactic penicillin used to prevent
fatal infections; effective, conjugated vaccines for the
pneumococcus bacteria, which is responsible for blood
infections, pneumonia, meningitis and Hemophilus
influenzae type b; and the increased use of diseasemodifying
therapies such as bone marrow transplants,
long-term blood transfusions and the medicine
hydroxyurea.
"Research developments during the past several decades
have improved the lives of many persons with sickle cell
disease," said Dr. George Buchanan, the study's senior
author and director of the National Institutes of Healthfunded
Southwestern Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center.
"Yet, the true impact of these investigations on survival
of children and adolescents with sickle cell disease has
not been clear until now."
"This work gives us contemporary and accurate data
confirming the success of our research. It was only a halfcentury
ago that very few persons with sickle cell anemia
and related conditions survived beyond 21 years of age,"
continued Dr. Buchanan.
Experts still have no way of knowing who will have
severe, moderate or mild forms of the disease until
complications occur, Dr. Quinn said. Discovering risk
factors can help a physician develop the best treatment
and match the risk of treatments to the risk of the disease.
"The next step is trying to capture and measure long-term
survival as these children transition into adulthood," Dr.
Quinn said. "We also hope to one day identify risk factors
that can help doctors and patients know what to expect
from the disease."
All study participants were diagnosed through newborn
screening and were all born in Texas on or after Nov. 1,
1983, when the state's screening program went into
effect. The patients were observed through Aug. 1, 2002.
Of the 711 patients, 15 deaths were attributed at least
partly to sickle cell disease. The average age of death was
5.6 years old, and all those who died from sickle cell
Continued on page 21

Continued from page 20 – Sickle Cell Sufferers Living
Longer
disease had sickle cell anemia, the most severe form. The
overall incidence of death among patients with sickle cell
anemia was 0.59 per 100 patient-years, compared with
1.1 per 100 patient years in a 1994 study sponsored by
the National Institutes of Health.
The proportion of deaths from infection was 20 percent
compared with 50 percent in the NIH-sponsored study.
The most common age of death was 4 to 6 years
compared with 1 to 3 years in the NIH-sponsored study.
Dr. Zora Rogers, associate professor of pediatrics, also
worked on the study.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/03/040325070823.
htm
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In Possible Boon to Sickle
Cell Victims, Basic Scientists
Find Reason Cells Stick
ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2001) — CHAPEL HILL - Despite
recent advances in treating sickle cell disease, an
inherited illness chiefly affecting black people in the
United States, patients still suffer periodic painful
episodes known as crises.
Those debilitating events result from misshapen red
blood cells sticking to and clogging up blood vessels like
twigs in a pipe and blocking oxygen supply to various
tissues. Organ damage and shortened life spans often
result.
Now, researchers at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill have discovered a protein on the surface of
sickled red cells that causes them to stick to another
protein that is part of blood vessel walls. Their work, so
far confined to the test tube, offers new hope that
treatments for sickle cell disease will improve, they say.
A report on the experiments, funded by the National
Institutes of Health, appears in the April 1 issue of the
journal Blood. Authors, all at the UNC School of
Medicine, are Dr. Julia E. Brittain, postdoctoral fellow in
pharmacology; medical student Kathryn J. Milnar;
technician Christopher S. Anderson; Dr. Eugene P.
Orringer, professor of medicine; and Dr. Leslie V. Parise,
professor of pharmacology.
"We had previously found that sickle red blood cells in
these patients are, in a sense, 'stickier' than normal red
blood cells," Parise said. "In our new work, we have
identified integrin-associated protein, or IAP, on sickled
cells as a receptor for thrombospondin, a blood vessel
wall protein. IAP now becomes a potential new thera-
peutic target for preventing the cells from adhering to the
vessels."
The findings are possibly good news for sickle cell
patients because the team may have identified the
mechanism, or one of the mechanisms, that causes the
painful crises, she said. Understanding what's involved in
such an important process could be the key to controlling
it.
Brittain said the team's experiments used a system that
mimics blood flow and shear conditions inside blood
vessels, as well as other characteristics such as
temperature and pressure.
An antibody against human IAP succeeded in keeping the
affected red blood cells from sticking to thrombospondin
in the blood flow system, she said. From that they
concluded that IAP may cause part of the impaired blood
flow.
Thrombospondin also is elevated in blood plasma of
sickle cell disease patients, Parise said. That might be
important in causing the crises if the circulating
thromobospondin acts like a glue. Blood vessel walls
damaged by the illness might boost clogging as the two
proteins interact more readily because of the damage.
"The next step will be to test our results in a mouse
model of sickle cell disease and evaluate potential
blockers there," Brittain said. "We are still years away
from taking this into the clinic, but we are one step closer
than we were a year ago."
About 150 in every 100,000 U.S. black children suffer
from sickle cell disease, also known as sickle cell anemia,
according to the American Medical Association. About
one in 12 blacks has sickle cell trait, which means they
carry a gene that produces a defective kind of
hemoglobin, the complex protein that carries oxygen to
tissues throughout the body.
If a person inherits the gene from a parent, he or she is a
carrier like the parent but usually is symptom free. When
two carriers have a child, there's a 25 percent chance the
child will have sickle cell disease, 50 percent chance the
child will be a carrier and a 25 percent chance he or she
will have neither.
Until about 1960, most infants born with the illness died
in childhood, but today with improved treatments many
survive into adulthood. A relatively simple blood test can
show who carries the sickle cell gene, and doctors advise
that couples who both carry it should undergo genetic
counseling before starting a family.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/04/010402073355.
htm
☻☻☻☻☻☻
-21- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Red Cell Substitute Shows
Promise as Treatment for
Sickle Cell Disease
ScienceDaily (Jul. 31, 2007) — Studies in mice suggest
that a red blood cell substitute based on human
hemoglobin could be a promising new treatment for
sickle cell disease in humans.
The August issue of the journal Anesthesiology features a
study showing that a newly developed "hemoglobinbased
oxygen carrier" (HBOC) called HRC 101
(Hemosol, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) dramatically
improves survival in mice with "sickled" red blood cells
exposed to low-oxygen conditions. "HRC 101 warrants
further evaluation as a therapeutic modality in sickle cell
disease," concludes the study, led by Dr. Mark W.
Crawford of The Hospital for Sick Children, University
of Toronto.
Dr. Crawford and colleagues report on experiments in
mice genetically engineered to produce a condition
similar to human sickle cell disease—an inherited
disorder in which the red blood cells have an abnormal
sickled or crescent-moon shape. Especially during attacks
called "sickle cell crises," the sickle cells obstruct small
blood vessels, blocking blood flow to organs and other
parts of the body and thereby depriving the body’s tissues
of oxygen.
The researchers compared the effects of low oxygen
conditions—intended to mimic sickle cell crisis—in
sickle-cell versus normal mice (all animals were under
anesthesia [asleep] during the procedure). Some mice
received HRC 101 to see if the red cell substitute could
protect organs against the damaging effects of obstructed
blood flow, while others, in control groups, received a
placebo.
All of the normal mice tolerated a one-hour period of low
oxygen. By comparison, untreated sickle-cell mice did
not tolerate the low-oxygen condition.
In contrast, more sickle-cell mice that received the
artificial oxygen carrier tolerated the one-hour period of
decreased oxygen. HRC 101 allowed the sickle-cell mice
to tolerate the low-oxygen environment about five times
longer.
Patients with sickle cell disease need frequent blood
transfusions to treat anemia and other complications.
Although transfusions are beneficial, they have several
short- and long-term risks.
"Hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers are red cell
substitutes that can be used to increase oxygen-carrying
capacity and intravascular volume," according to the
-22- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
authors. HRC 101 may be useful in the management of
sickle cell disease because of its potential to bypass the
obstruction caused by sickled cells and allow more
oxygen to reach the organs and tissues. HRC 101, like
some other HBOCs, also has other important
advantages over blood transfusions—it can be stored
for long periods and doesn’t require a matched blood
donor.
The results "are consistent with the hypothesis that
HRC 101 augments oxygen delivery to the
microcirculation," the researchers write—possibly by
increasing the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood,
reducing red cell sickling, and/or bypassing occluded
blood flow. Although much more research is needed
before human trials can be designed, HBOCs may one
day provide a new approach to treatment for patients
with sickle cell disease.
While a number of studies of anesthetic drugs in
animals have provided useful direction for further
research, it is important to note that animal studies are
considered basic science and their findings do not
always translate to the complex physiological system of
human beings. For additional information on this study,
go to:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/07072721342
2.htm
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Continued from page 18 –Sorghum and Millet…
neutral. These treatments have implications in the taste
preferences and nutrition of the people.
Thin porridges are called uji (Kenya, United Republic
of Tanzania), ogi or koko (Nigeria, Ghana), edi
(Uganda), rouye (the Niger, Senegal), nasha (the
Sudan), rabri (India), bota or mahewu (Zimbabwe)
and motogo we tiny (Botswana). Sorghum flour,
sorghum malt, pigeon pea and groundnut are mixed in
different proportions to improve the nutritional value of
traditional porridges.
Breads and other baked products
Flat breads are made by baking batters made with flour
and water on a hot pan or griddle. Almost any flour
may be used. The batter is based on sorghum, millet or
any other cereal and it may or may not be fermented.
These flat breads are known by many local names: roti
and chapatti in India, tuwo in parts of Nigeria,
tortillas in Central America, etc. Unfermented breads
include roti and tortillas.
Roti and chapatti made from sorghum or millets are
common foods in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Arab
countries. More than 70 percent of sorghum grown in
Continued on page 23

Continued from page 22 –Sorghum and Millet in African
Nutrition
India is used for making roti.
Tortillas, which are prepared in Mexico and Central
America, are similar to roti except that the grain is limecooked
and wet milled. Although corn is the preferred
grain for making tortillas, sorghum is widely used in
Honduras. Sometimes tortillas are made by mixing
sorghum and corn. White sorghum is the preferred
sorghum for making tortillas.
Injera (Ethiopia) and kisra (the Sudan) are the major
fermented breads made from sorghum flour. Teff is the
preferred cereal for injera preparation. However, sorghum
and teff can be mixed, and sorghum alone is often used.
Kisra is a traditional and staple food of the Sudan,
prepared from sorghum and millet. It is made with a
fermentation starter, which shortens the time required for
fermentation to less than 16 hours.
A comparison of sorghum and millet flours and bread
(roti) made from them indicated that baking did not
affect the chemical composition including the fatty acids.
A slight increase in tyrosine, lysine and methionine
content is observed when sorghum flour was made into
fermented bread.
Other Nutritional Factors
Phytate
Phytate represents a complex class of naturally occurring
phosphorus compounds that can significantly influence
the functional and nutritional properties of foods.
Although the presence of these compounds has been
known for over a century, their biological role is not
completely understood. Phytic acid, (dihydrogen
phosphate), is the main phosphorus store in mature seeds.
Phytic acid has a strong binding capacity, readily forming
complexes with multivalent cations and proteins. Most of
the phytate-metal complexes are insoluble at
physiological pH. Hence phytate binding renders several
minerals biologically unavailable to animals and humans.
Polyphenols
Polyphenols are the most abundant antioxidants in the
diet. Their main dietary sources are fruits and plantderived
beverages such as fruit juices, tea, coffee, and red
wine. Vegetables, cereals, chocolate, and dry legumes
also contribute to the total polyphenol intake. Despite
their wide distribution in plants, the health effects of
dietary polyphenols have come to the attention of
nutritionists only rather recently. Current evidence
strongly supports a contribution of polyphenols to the
prevention of cardiovascular diseases, cancers,
osteoporosis and suggests a role in the prevention of
neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes mellitus.
-23- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
Widely distributed polyphenols in plants are not
directly involved in any metabolic process and are
therefore considered secondary metabolites. Some
polyphenolic compounds have a role as defense
chemicals, protecting the plant from predatory attacks
of herbivores, pathogenic fungi and parasitic weeds.
Polyphenols in the grains also prevent grain losses from
premature germination and damage due to mould and
protect seedlings from insect attack.
Sorghum is a good source of phenolic compounds with
a variety of genetically dependent types and levels
including phenolic acids, flavonoids, and condensed
tannins. Most sorghums do not contain condensed
tannins, but all contain phenolic acids. Pigmented
sorghums contain unique anthocyanins that could be
potential food colorants. Some sorghums have a
prominent pigmented testa that contains condensed
tannins. These tannin sorghums are excellent
antioxidants, which slow hydrolysis in foods, produce
naturally dark-colored products and increase the dietary
fiber levels of food products. Sorghums have high
concentration of 3-deoxyanthocyanins (i.e. luteolinidin
and apigenidin) that give stable pigments at high pH.
Pigmented and tannin sorghum varieties have high
antioxidant levels that are comparable to fruits and
vegetables. Finger millet has tannins in some varieties
that contain a red testa. There are limited data on the
phenolic compounds in millets; only phenolic acids and
flavones have been identified.
Flavonoids in sorghum are called anthocyanidins. The
two flavonoids identified to be abundant in sorghum
grains are luteoforol and apiforol. The latter compound
is also found in sorghum leaves.
Tannins are polymers. In the plant, tannins are
defensive compounds that counteract bacteria and fungi
by interfering with their surface proteins. They also
deter herbivores by virtue of their astringent effect on
the mouth and their interference with digestion.
Enzyme Inhibitors
The nutritional significance of the enzyme inhibitors
present in sorghum and millets is not clearly
understood and more research on enzyme inhibitors of
cereal grains is needed. However, when we look at the
function of flavonoids and phenolic acids and
polyphenol compounds with respect to melanin, we
find these foods to be extremely compatible with the
biological makeup of African people and to other
people of colour as they have been for centuries.
http://www.blackherbals.com/sorghum_and_millet_in_africa
n_nu.htm
☻☻☻☻☻☻

Sickle Cell Anaemia: A
Forgotten Illness
Patience Atuhaire
August 16, 2007
Daily Monitor
About 5,000 sickle cell patients are registered with the
Sickle Cell Association. Being the only one in Uganda,
the clnic has to operate every day of the week, within
which it receives 200-250 patients.
When J. Namara (not real name), 26, went to the doctor
for a general medical checkup just a few months to her
wedding, the sickle cell test was not on the list of tests
she wanted to do. However, out of curiosity, she opted
for it in addition to others. She was worried about Aids,
syphilis and other diseases but not sickle cell. To her
shock, she tested positive to sickle cell anemia and
negative to all the others. The doctor’s words ring in her
mind up to today. “You are a carrier,” he had told her.
With this shock came the realization that she had to
reveal this to her fiancé if they were to avoid any
complications in future. “What if he is also a carrier”
she wondered.
Namara might not be the only one in this boat. She says,
“I look very healthy and doing this test was a big joke. I
imagine how many people out there could be like me.”
In her situation, if she makes the mistake of getting
married to a fellow carrier, there is a one out of four
chance of giving birth to a sickler at every pregnancy; a
one in four of giving birth to a normal child and two out
of four of giving birth to a carrier with a harmless sickle
cell trait.
As we speak, Namara is torn between revealing her status
to her fiancé and asking him to test, and keeping it all to
herself thus running the risk of passing it on, if not,
multiply it when she gets children.
Being a carrier means that Namara inherited the trait
from only one of her parents. Luckily, sickle cell carriers
should lead a normal life. And if their genes don’t ever
mix with a sickler’s or another carrier’s, their children too
have high chances of either turning out normal or being
just carriers.
The sickle cell disease, a hereditary illness is a result of a
change in red blood cells, from their normal round shapes
to sickle-like shapes.
Though 1 out of every 5 Ugandans carry the sickle cell
trait (but are not necessarily sticklers), the anaemia
causing disease seems to be a forgotten one. Or at least
that is the opinions of those working with sickle cell
-24- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
patients. “It is the commonest hereditary disorder in
Uganda and affects about one percent of all the babies
born in this country. But no one seems to pay attention
to the grave problem at our hands, despite our
sensitization campaigns,” says Prof. Christopher
Ndugwa, the doctor in charge of the sickle cell clinic at
Mulago Hospital.
And this neglect and lack of awareness, according to
Ndugwa, is the reason many children don’t live through
childhood or Namara and many others discover too late
and are thrown in a dilemma that would rather have
been avoided. The earliest time sickle cell disease
manifests itself in babies is between the ages of three to
six months. The disease at this stage usually presents
with swelling of fingers and toes (hand/foot syndrome).
The Plight of Sickle Cell Patients
This happens to about 75 per cent of all babies born
with the disease, who also go through an abnormal
frequency of malaria attacks. “This means, if you
suspect the sickle cell gene to run in your family and
you give birth to a baby with a frequent malaria
problem, test them for sickle cell disease as early as
possible,” warns Ruth N. Mukiibi, Chairperson of the
Sickle Cell Association of Uganda.
Unlike most widely occurring diseases, sickle cell
disease has no permanent treatment. But for every
patient, there is always supportive treatment, free of
charge, at the Mulago Clinic, which also houses the
association offices.
Abut 5,000 sickle cell patients are registered with the
association. Being the only one in Uganda, the clinic
has to operate every day of the week, within which it
receives 200-250 patients.
When a patient arrives at the clinic, besides the
education and counseling offered to them and their
caretakers, they are treated depending on whatever
ailments resulting from the disease such as malaria,
anaemia and pain. The clinic has no in-patient facility.
It only affords a day care room for critical cases for the
day. Admission cases are referred under the general
hospital system.
Looking at thin, yellow eyed children and adults
braving the queue at the only clinic in the country
makes you wonder if anyone out there is responsible
for their help. The sickle cell disease really needs as
much attention and awareness campaigns as HIV/Aids.
The disease, which was first diagnosed in Uganda in
the early 50’s, can only be monitored by regular
follow-ups, in the form of clinic visits and case
reviews. A sickle cell patient should visit a clinic and
be reviewed every four months. Continued on page 25

Continued from page 24 – Sickle Cell Anaemia: A Forgotten
Disease
The clinic operates under the Department of Paediatrics
and Child Health and this creates more complications of
under staffing. Since the same doctors allocated to it
work on other general child health, it is not rare for a
patient to show up at the clinic and have no doctor to
attend to them. Above all, there are no budgetary funds
for dealing with the disease.
Ambassador of hope
Mariam Ndagire, a local artiste, is the only individual
who has ever taken the courage to be an ambassador for
sicklers, through the Sickle Cell Initiative, one that brings
together doctors and parents of sicklers. Having been
born and brought up in a family of sicklers, Ndagire was
always touched by their situation. But the real boost to
her courage came when her brother (a sickler) was
admitted in Mulago for anaemia. “The careless way in
which he was being treated made me realize I had to do
something about it. The situation of this disease in
Uganda is very threatening,” Ndagire says. Her
campaign, the 3 rd , 4 th and 5 th November 2006 concerts
and approaching individuals for help, have so far raised
about Shs8m.
The Clinic is also grateful to the American Sickle Cell
Association Rescue Fund that donated a van to ease
transportation for sickle cell patients.
Home Treatment
Sickle cell disease can be easily managed at home, except
for ailments that may necessitate professional handling.
For the six-year-olds and below, a tablet of Chloroquin
can be given as well as 1 tablet for adults above this age,
every week, to prevent ceaseless malaria attacks.
Painkillers can be given for joint and general body pains
resulting from blockage of veins by the sickle cells.
If malaria and pain are under control, anaemia is the other
biggest worry in both child and adult sicklers. However,
it can also be home managed. Fluids from boiled local
herbs, specifically avocado leaves, taken in amounts of a
litre by children 0-12 years every month and one litre for
adults every three months are vital in revitilising patients’
blood levels.
Beetroot (a vegetable with onion-like roots and spinachlike
leaves) can also either be blended into juice, the
leaves boiled and the liquid drunk or eaten as vegetable
salad. Since it has a high fluid concentration, following
the same age brackets, beetroot, in which ever form, can
be taken in a kilo every two months by children and a
kilo every three months by adults.
In all cases, one has to make sure that their blood level is
regulated. It should not be too low or too high. “If it be-
comes too low, you are struck with an anaemia case.
And if it becomes too high, it might cause nose
bleeding, or come through the ears, in your urine or you
might start coughing it out. That is actually a blessing.
If it didn’t come out, it could end up clotting on the
brain and lead to a stroke,” Mukiibi elaborates.
The best survival treatment for sickle cells is making
sure that your body has enough fluids at any one point.
This has nothing to do with alcohol, but everything to
do with milk, porridge, water, juice and tea. It is
recommended that children 12 years and below, drink
at least three litres while every adult (12 and above)
should drink five litres per day. Fluids in the system
flush out the sickle cell that would instead block the
veins.
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Living with Sickle Cell
Evelyn Lirri & Jane Nafula, Kampala
February 23, 2008
Daily Monitor
Catherine Luyombo has lived with sickle cell disease
for the last 54 years. Too many, she is among the oldest
survivors of the disease whose victims, often blighted
by lifelong blood transfusion and daily injections, die at
tender ages.
“I am lucky to have survived up to this age,” she says.
According to the chairperson of the Uganda Sickle Cell
Association Ms. Ruth Nankanja Mukiibi, the associations’
longest living member is Mr. Blasio Wamala
who is 79 years old.
“Most sicklers die before their fifth birthday,” Ms
Mukiibi said.
Sickle cells disease is caused by a mutation in a red
blood cell gene but changes smooth, round blood cells
into sickle-shaped cells that are stiff and sticky and tend
to clot in blood vessels. When they get stuck in small
blood vessels, the sickle cells block blood flow to the
limbs and organs and can cause pain, serious infections,
damage the lungs, kidneys and brain.
Normal blood cells are smooth and round. They move
easily through blood vessels to carry oxygen to all parts
of the body but sickle shaped cells don’t move easily.
Sufferers of sickle cell often experience retarded
growth.
The Sickle Cell Association estimates that over 25,000
children are born with the disease annually, but 80 per
cent of these children die before celebrating their fifth
birthday.
Continued on page 26
-25- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Continued from page 25 – Living with Sickle Cells
“It’s still a big problem, unfortunately it has been
neglected. Few people think when you suffer from this
disease, you can grow up and have children,” Ms Mukiibi
says.
“People who openly admit that they have sickle cells,
face a lot of discrimination from their families and also at
school.”
Cases of the disease are common among people where
the burden of malaria is also high.
Patients Testify
Ms Luyombo started experiencing endless pain in her
joints at the age of 10 but it took another 10 years before
she was diagnosed with the sickle cell condition.
“Each time I got the pains, I was taken to the hospital but
the doctors were testing for other diseases. I used to be
anaemic and doctors could de-worm me thinking I had
worms. They could also give me painkillers,” she said.
Most sickle cell patients have periodic intensely painful
episodes called crises. The frequency, severity and
duration of these crises vary tremendously.
For Ms Lyombo, despite the attention from doctors, she
continued to experience severe pain, prompting her
parents to take her to witchdoctors. She recalls that while
she was at Mbarara School of Midwifery, she fell sick
quite often. Some tutors suggested that she be
discontinued from the training, saying she unfit for the
profession. But because she was a bright student, she was
allowed to continue.
Ms. Mukiibi has been living with sickle cells for the last
33 years. She was told that she would not live beyond 11
years old. She has proved doctors wrong.
“We need more drugs to prevent the underlying processes
that cause pain in this disease. We need better treatment
to reduce the chronic pain and suffering that these
patients go through,” she says.
Sickle cell conditions are inherited from parents in much
the same way as blood type, hair colour and eyes. For
example, if one parent has sickle cell anaemia,
scientifically known as SS and the other is normal, all
their children will have the sickle cell trait (AS). If one
parent has sickle cell anemia and the other has sickle cell
trait, there is a 50 per cent chance of a child having the
sickle cell disease and a 50 per cent chance of the child
having sickle cell trait. And when both parent have sickle
cell trait they have a 25 per cent chance of a child having
sickle cell disease.
Ms Luyombo has four children. Three of them are
sicklers while one is a carrier.
-26- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
Sicklers are so selective with food. The girls take long to
start their periods or develop breasts. Males can
experience abnormally painful erections.
☻☻☻☻☻☻
Anti-Malaria Traits 'Cancel
Out'
Two genetic traits that give Africans natural protection
against malaria appear to cancel each other out when
they occur together.
BBC News
November 20, 2005
Sickle cell trait and thalassaemia, both mutations in red
blood cells, appear to hinder the malaria parasite. But a
Kenya Medical Research Institute team found children
with both mutations were at no lesser risk of malaria. The
Nature Genetics study was presented at the pan-African
Malaria Conference in Yaounde, Cameroon.
The researchers, who examined the genetic and malarial
status of more than 2,000 Kenyan children, said their
finding showed that natural immunity was underpinned
by complex biological mechanisms.
Unexpected result
Lead researcher Dr Tom Williams said: "We've looked at
these traits individually and we expected that if people
had both of them, they would be really protected.” But it
turns out that when you start combining the two, you can
lose the effect of both.
"Our study shows that it can be very complicated to turn
up genetic associations and properly understand them. If
one trait can interfere with the effects of another, you
may miss an association where one truly exists.
Conversely, you may find a trait that seems to provide
protection but not see how other traits could alter the
effect."
People with sickle cell trait inherit one normal
haemoglobin gene from one parent, and a mutated sickle
haemoglobin gene from the other. They do not have
sickle cell anaemia, which results from inheriting two
copies of the sickle gene.
Research has shown that children with sickle cell trait
exposed to malaria develop far fewer parasites in their
blood, and are 90% less likely to be hospitalised than
those without the trait. The protective effect increases
with age. Similarly, alpha thalassaemia, a mild blood
disorder not associated with major health problems, also
helps people fight malaria by reducing the risk of
developing severe anaemia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4439828.stm
☻☻☻☻☻☻

Continued from page 3 –The Divine Serpent in Myth…
usually strongly structured and their meaning is only
discerned by linguistic analysis [Levi-Strauss].
Sometimes they are public dreams which, like private
dreams, emerge from the unconscious mind; they more
often reveal archetypes of the collective unconscious
[Jung]. Myths are symbolic and metaphorical, and they
orient people to the metaphysical dimension, explain the
origins and nature of the cosmos, and on a psychological
plane, address themselves to the innermost depths of the
human psyche. Some of them are explanatory, being
prescientific attempts to interpret the natural world (such
as the shedding of snake skin). As such, they are usually
functional and are the science of primitive peoples.
Religious myths are sacred histories and are distinguished
from the profane. But, all tell of the truth told by human
experience which cannot be explained by normal use of
language. It was that great scientist, Albert Einstein, who
said “Science without religion is lame; Religion without
science is blind.”
The myth, in any primitive society that is in the original
living form of the myth, is not a fairy tale but a reality
lived. Myths are human experience, and when myths are
narrated it is not usually the speaker who speaks but the
wisdom of the forefathers speaking through him. The
principal role of the shaman was the myth holder and
narrator.
In the theories of the eminent Swiss psychologist, Karl
Jung, the fantasies of the collective unconscious stem
from the actual experiences of ancient ancestors, and the
development of prehistory as a serious field of study is of
considerable importance to the creators of myth. Certain
facts exist in human history, and these are most often
found hidden in myths. I have even been led to muse on
the fact that the usual depiction of the double helix
representing DNA is remarkably similar to the ancient
depiction of the serpents guarding the world tree, a figure
still found in the caduceus.
In Jung's view, the snake, as a chthonic (relating to the
underworld) and at the same time spiritual being,
symbolizes the unconscious. In particular, according to
Jung, the symbolism of the snake's has sudden and
unexpected manifestations and painful or dangerous
intervention in human affairs often has frightening
effects. Crucial to the understanding of the serpent as a
libido symbol is a consideration of the biological
characteristics of the actual creature. Jung stresses the
fact that the snake is a cold- blooded vertebrate and with
that fact alone the true psychic rapport that can be
established with practically all warm-blooded animals
comes to an end. Like the Gnostics of early Christianity
who identified the serpent with the human medulla and
spinal cord, Jung regards the serpent as the psychic
representation of the profoundly unconscious functions
which are governed by these organs. I think that
perhaps this is why the serpent is so often seen as a
divine creature, a sort of god which lies behind all
human functioning.
The mysterious dynamism of the snake, its
extraordinary vitality and its seeming immortality
through the periodic rejuvenation of shedding the old
and appearing new each year must have instilled a
sense of awe and invoked a powerful response in our
earliest ancestors, the Neolithic agriculturist. The snake
was consequently mythologized, attributed often with
powers that could control the entire cosmos.
Everywhere we find the snake, or its representation, the
spiral, on primitive pottery. Vases show forth gigantic
snakes winding over the whole universe, or over the
sun, moon and stars; elsewhere the snake appears
below a growing plant or coils above the belly of a
pregnant woman. The snake was the symbol of energy,
spontaneous, creative energy, and of immortality.
Respect and worship of the serpent by humans has been
obvious from the time that both humans and serpents
co-habitated the earth.
One must consider, for example, not only the serpent's
seeming immortality but also its ability to periodically
desquamate the integument covering its entire body
without bleeding, illness or infection and immediately
replete a new body covering. In accomplishing this
'miraculous' function the serpent liberates itself from
scars, dermatoses and ticks. Such ability is beyond the
scope of human efforts. This early connection between
the serpent and healing becomes a permanent facet of
serpent worship.
The wonderful ability of the serpent to shed its skin and
so renew its youth makes it the master of the secret of
death and rebirth. The moon, waxing and waning is the
celestial body capable of this same ability. The moon,
long associated with the life-creating rhythm of the
female, and therefore of time itself becomes the lord of
the mystery of birth and death and the serpent id the
earthly counterpart.
In early rites of initiation where the candidate was seen
to die and be reborn, the moon was the goddess mother
and the serpent the divine father.
If we summarize what we expect to find about the
divine serpent at the onset rather than at the conclusion
of this work it would look like this:
The Serpent is emblematical;
1. Of wisdom… [Biblical: "be ye therefore wise as
serpents "Matt 10:16] Continued on page 28
-27- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Continued from age 27–The Divine Serpent in Myth…
2. Of subtlety…[Biblical: " Now the serpent was more
subtle than any beast of the field" Gen. 3:1]
The Serpent is symbolical;
1. Of deity: Plutarch et al
2. Of eternity: forming a circle with tail in mouth
3. Of renovation and resurrection: the old becomes young
[skin shedding]
4. Of guardian spirits: Greek and Roman temple altars
Egypt
When we come to the snake as a divinity in Egypt we
need look no further than the great crowns worn by the
divine Pharaoh. No matter which crown, the Blue crown,
the informal crown or the great double red and white
crown we examine we will find the snake god of Lower
Egypt present. Even when the vulture god of Upper
Egypt is missing, the asp, or Egyptian cobra, is there. The
serpent, in Egypt, has a varied career, the Uraeus, or
cobra, and other mythical snakes are all considered quite
differently. The spinal cord was symbolized by the snake
and the Uraeus serpent coiled upon the foreheads of the
Pharaoh represented the divine fire which had crawled
serpent-like up the tree of life.
The Uraeus, or asp, is a benevolent guardian god, a
tutelary god of the delta region of Egypt. This is probably
where this snake was most often found. Even today the
swamp-like areas of the Nile delta is home to the
Egyptian cobra. This snake was also connected to the god
Horus, and therefore with the living Horus, who is seen
incarnate in the Pharaoh. The Uraeus rules by day, and
therefore is also connected to the sun god Ra, who is also
a god of Pharaoh. It is not an accident of history that the
legendary Cleopatra chose to be joined to the Egyptian
cobra, the asp, by being bitten by the serpent. She is
identifying the goddess Isis, whom she represented, to the
sacred Uraeus who was her protector and who would lead
her into eternal life in the western land.
When we come to night and darkness, the crocodile
becomes supreme. Ra, the sun god of Heliopolis is
diminished. The solar ship has entered the realm of night
and encountered darkness. The crocodile, in Egyptian
legendary, is seen as an aspect of the serpent rather than a
separate creature. There are places in the world where the
great saurians are not seen as serpents, but as a
completely separate genus of creature. The Americas
would serve as an example of this, but in Egypt and other
Africa nations which were influenced by Egypt, the
crocodile is a serpent, no matter in what form it is
depicted.
In the original Egyptian creation story we find a serpent
-28- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
and the primordial egg, which contained the “Bird of
Light”. In Chapter 175 of the Book of the Dead we
find the prophecy that when the world returns to its
original chaos, the hidden aspect of the supreme god,
Atum, will become the new serpent. There is a text I
found in the "Coffin Texts" [I.161 ff] which contains
Atum's description of himself:
“I am Atum, the creator of the Eldest Gods,
I am he who gave birth to Shu,
I am that great he-she.
I am he who did what seemed good to him,
I took my space in the place of my will.
Mine is the space of those who move along
like those two serpentine circles" [emphasis
mine]
Later in a debate, which can be found in "The Book of
the Dead, [chapter 175] which takes place between
Osiris and Atum, [described here as the "High God"],
we find Atum's description of the end of all, when
"Then I will be what will remain, just I and Osiris,
when I will have changed myself back into the Old
Serpent who knew - no man and saw no god."
Also, in the Book of the Dead, in the Eleventh section
of the Tuat, we find the story of how the boat of Afu Ra
[the sun god] passes the territory of the town of Sais.
"The region to the left of the god is one of fire, and
close to the boat stands Horus who is working magic
with the snake-headed boomerang which he holds in
his hand, Before him stands the serpent god, called
'Seth-heh', i.e. the 'eternal Seth'.
Before the boat is the great serpent Ankh-neteru, and
twelve amikhiu gods, taking hold of the tow line, enter
this serpent at the tail, and drawing the god in his boat
through the body of the serpent, bring him out at his
mouth.
During his passage through the serpent, Afu Ra is
transformed into Khepera [the ancient god associated
with the creation of the world] and is now towed into
the sky by 12 goddesses."
The Egyptians also adopted the ancient Persian god
Azhi Dahaka, the sky serpent who formed all of the
observable heavenly planets. So, in one sense powerful
gods of both light and darkness are seen as serpents.
This may have some connection to the linking of the
snake to the moon in the mythological and
psychological areas. This identification is intensified
because of the waxing and waning of the moon,
demonstrating the death of the old and the rebirth of the
new and forever young. Continued on page 29

Continued from page 28 –The Divine Serpent in Myth…
One of the chief powers of this darkness is the serpent
god Apep, who tries to swallow the sun ship. Apep [or
Apepi or Apophis] is the great primordial serpent who
lived in the waters of the celestial Nile [the Milky Way]
and is considered the serpent of chaos and destruction. A
mighty struggle took place and when the sun appeared in
the east the next day, prayers of thankfulness were
offered that Ra was triumphant and the sun would
continue to shine. Just imagine what chaos a solar eclipse
would cause!
The serpent Apep is seen in two other forms, or
traditions. The first was most likely the crocodile and was
called Typhon, or dragon. Two other serpents divinities
mentioned in Egyptian mythology are Nehebkau, a
serpent with human arms and legs. This fearful god, once
he was tamed by Ra, became his faithful servant. The
other serpent god is Am-Mut, the 'eater of souls'. The
other and more extensive is as Set, or Seth, or Sethos.
This is a half-crocodile, half -human creature who
becomes important in the Egyptian pantheon. The serpent
Typhon is the youngest son of Gaea and Tartarus in
Greek legend. He was taller than any mountain, and had
great wings, eyes of fire, hands made of dragons, and a
lower body composed of vipers. He and Echidna gave
birth to Hydra, Cerberis, Chimera and the Nemean lion.
The Egyptian Typhon was a more simple serpent lord.
Again, it is important to note here that the dragons we
have included in this study are only those dragons which
are seen as serpentine. The classic European dragon
which looks more like a mammal with wings, like the
Griffin, is excluded. The Egyptian and Chinese dragon
concepts depict them as serpents, as does the Greek. [I
will speak more of dragons when I write of the Asian
serpents].
Perhaps the most fearsome aspect of Set can be seen in
the famous weighing of the soul picture in the Book of
the Dead. Sitting beside the scales, waiting to devour the
sinful soul of a condemned person is a half crocodile, half
jackal or hyena creature who is identified as Set. It was
Set, as the brother of Osiris, of course, who slew Osiris.
Set becomes a powerful god in the Egyptian 'two
kingdoms'. The cult of Amun, later Amun-Ra lasted
about twenty dynasties, the cult of Osiris was very shortlived,
although Osiris was venerated for a long time.
The Isis cult lasted into the Christian era as an active
mystery cult. But, the original priesthood of the serpent
god, Set, in ancient Egypt survived for twenty-five
recorded dynasties (ca. 3200-700BCE) It became one of
the two central priesthoods of predynastic times, the other
being that of HarWer (Horus the Elder).
-29- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
Unification under both philosophical systems, one in
Upper, and one in Lower Egypt, resulted in the name of
the empire being called the 'Two Kingdoms' and its
Pharaohs wearing the famous 'double crown' of Horus
and Set. The vulture (early hawk and cobra/asp).
Set was originally a stellar deity, perhaps the cyclical
counterpart of the solar Horus. But, later, the cults of
Osiris and Isis recast Set as an evil principle. Set did
return, for a short time during the XIX and XX dynasties,
as the patron of Pharaoh, but by the XXV dynasty a new
wave of persecution by priests of Osiris led to the final
destruction of the Set priesthood.
When the Egyptians abandoned the mines in the Timma
Valley (about nineteen miles north of the Gulf of Aqaba)
during the Egyptian decline of the twelfth century BCE,
the Midianites converted the local temple into a Midianite
shrine. In the makeshift Holy of Holies of the shrine,
modern excavators have found only one religious object.
They found a molded copper serpent with a gilded head,
the ancient symbol of life and fertility of the Middle East.
This would indicate that the Midianites had a serpent god
or goddess in their pantheon. Again. We see echoes of
Biblical stories here.
Before we leave Egypt we must briefly mention two
other aspects of the divine serpent; Nehebu-Kau is the
great snake under the world and upon which the world
rests, and there is a winged serpent found in hieroglyphs
which may be the ancestor of our Mesoamerican
Quetzalcoatl.
Central and Southern Africa
Traveling further south in the African continent we find
the great serpent "Anyiewo' who comes out to graze on
rain and whose refection is the rainbow. This is found in
the Ewe tribe.
The strange, stone-age Dogan people of central Africa
have a divine being named Lebe. Lebe is the first member
of those creatures called the living dead, and he lives as a
serpent.
In Dahomey, the Fon people have a great serpent god
who is seen as a rainbow named Danh, the son of Mtawu-
Lisa. This serpent encircles the whole world with his tail
in his mouth, representing unity and wholeness. This god,
also called Da orders the whole cosmos. Da has a dual
nature rather than a female-male identity. When he
appears in the rainbow, the male is the red part of the
rainbow, the female the blue. Above the earth Da has
3500 coils, called asa-xasa, and the same number of coils
beneath the earth; together they support the world. Da is
the name given to this god in action, Mawu-Lisa is the
name given the god in thought. This god was exported to
Haiti and Surinam.
Continued on page 30

Continued from page 28 –The Divine Serpent in Myth…
The Fon legend says that the world was created by
Nana-Buluku, the one god, who is neither male nor
female. This god gave birth to twins, Mawu and Lisa
and it is they who shaped the world, and control it still.
Mawu, the female, is the moon and Lisa, the male, is
the sun. In the beginning, before Mawu had any
children, the rainbow serpent, Aido-Hwedo, already
existed, and this great serpent assisted in the creation.
For example, all the mountains were formed from the
serpent's dung. Later, because Aido-Hwedo cannot
stand heat, the oceans were created for him to live in.
And there Aido-Hwedo has remained since the
beginning of time, with his tail in his mouth [this tailin-mouth
representation is common]. Nana-Buluku
charged the red monkeys that live beneath the sea to
keep Aido-Wwedo fed, and they spend their time
forging the iron bars that are the serpent's diet. When
the monkey's supply of iron eventually runs out, the
serpent will be so hungry that he will start to chew his
own tail. Then his writhings will be so terrible that the
whole earth will tilt, and then slip into the sea, and that
will be that!
In what is now Zimbabwe, there is the legend of the
creation of humanity. The first man, Mwuetsi [moon]
was created by Mwari, the high god. He was given a
wife, Massassi, who gave birth to all the plants of the
world. Then he was given Morongo, who bore goats,
cattle, sheep, humans. On the fourth night Moromgo
warned Mwuetsi not to sleep with her, but he did so
anyway. She then gave birth to snakes, scorpions, lions,
and all other creatures which harm man. After this the
Great Serpent became ruler and husband of Morongo
and fathered a great tribe.
In the land between the present Union of South Africa
and Zimbabwe there lives a people called the
vhaVenda, who have a god who is a white crocodile.
This crocodile is viewed as a serpent divinity of great
strength and great wisdom who watches over the
peoples. This divine serpent creature is identified with
the vhaVenda chiefs, who may be his sons.
Perhaps the most impressive architecture in ancient
Africa, excepting Egypt, would be the royal city of
Benin in Nigeria. The most prominent feature of this
architecture is the form of the serpent. Early artifacts
found in this area also display the serpent motif.
There is a famous legend told among the tribes of
central Africa. The tale concerns two unmarried men,
one too mild and one too bad-tempered to find wives.
One day they met the great rock python. Moma. After a
gesture of extreme kindness towards her she rewarded
him with a wife, the most wonderful wife in the whole
village. The bad-tempered man was given the same
opportunity, reacted insultingly toward the serpent
goddess and was rewarded with an ugly, nagging, abusive
wife.
The Middle East
Before leaving Africa we journey back to the Middle East
to spend some time examining the Hebrew attitude
toward the divine serpent. To do so we will use the best
source available, the Jewish Holy Scripture. When the
Hebrews emigrated from Egypt during the XIX dynasty
they took with them a caricature of Set and gave him the
title Satan from the hieroglyphic Set-hen which was one
of this god's formal titles.
We first meet the serpent in the Jewish Scripture in the
Book Genesis. In Genesis 3:1 we find that "the serpent
was the shrewdest of all the wild beasts" [1]. We might
remember, that in all of scripture only two animals had
the gift of speech; Balaam's ass, [Numbers 22:30] and the
serpent. [Genesis 3] This was a God-given gift. We might
certainly ask why these two beasts, among all the rest, are
singled out for such a distinction. In the case of Balaam's
ass the message is clearly God's, what about in the case of
the serpent
It should be noted, from the beginning, when one
carefully examines Biblical passages regarding serpents,
that you will never find anyplace where serpents are
specifically called evil creatures. Rather, the snake is
used as a symbol for everything from the Devil to the
highest order of angels; from lying to wisdom. This
symbolism is common to the Bible and should not be
taken as a literal judgment about the snake. The Bible
uses the dove, for example, as a symbol of the Holy Spirit
and this does not mean that doves are holy birds.
The Bible uses many Hebrew words to describe the
snake: akshub means a coiled serpent, epheh is a hissing,
probably venomous snake, Livyathin [Levaithan] is the
sea serpent, nachash, a hissing serpent, pethen, a twisting
snake, probably the asp, seraph, the burning serpent,
shephiyphon, a snapping serpent, the adder, tsepha or
tsiphoniy is the toungue thrusting snake. We might
compare the Greek words for snake: aspis, drakon,
echnida. Herpeton, [from whence we get the classical
name for the study of serpents, herpetology], and ophis,
which gave a name to an early Christian sect.
But, to continue with the Biblical picture, the ass was
given speech to deliver the 'word of God'. Can we assume
that the snake had the gift for any other reason We find
here the serpent guarding the tree of life and knowledge
just like he did in Sumner. There are too many
similarities in the tree and the serpent to be accidental.
It is evident to me that the account of the "fall of man"
Continued on page 31
-30- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Continued from page 30 – The Divine Serpent in Myth..
from Eden, was adapted by biblical writers from pre-
Judaic polytheistic traditions in which a divine and
omniscient serpent, representing the female creative
nature, was pitted against the created order of a male
oriented divinity. It is for this reason that the serpent
is stressed as demonic, in spite of the fact that the
Genesis authors are compelled to harmonize their
account with those of the surrounding peoples, and
therefore must write that the serpent is a creature of
God, and "more 'subtil' (sic) [Genesis 3:1] than any
beast of the field which the Lord God has made."
Here we might suggest that the serpent saves
humanity by putting it in touch with nature; death is
recognized as a function of all nature, including
humanity, and this knowledge is necessary for new
life to begin. This would bring Jewish legends into
more equivalent to other Near East traditions.
In Genesis the serpent is not only sentient of God's
prohibition against partaking from the Tree of
Knowledge; it knows why God will enforce that
command; it knows the gift of the Tree of
Knowledge, as if it possessed that gift.
The deific aspect of the serpent is further underscored
by the punishment imposed upon it by God: "upon
thy belly shalt thou go……..". Does this mean that
before punishment the serpent had legs or even
wings
We next meet the serpent in Exodus 4:3,4 and
Exodus 7: 10-12. In these passages the snake,
presumably the Egyptian asp, is connected to a rod.
Aaron's rod. When Moses doubts that he is really
hearing the voice of Yahweh, he is asked what he is
holding in his hand and when he replies that he is
holding a rod, he is commanded to throw the rod
down on the ground. When he does this, the rod
becomes a serpent [Exodus 7:1-16]. When he picks it
up it becomes a rod again.
This association between serpent and rod is a very
ancient one. Later when Aaron throws his rod down
before Pharaoh, it becomes as snakes. Pharaoh
recognizes this magical association, as do the
Egyptian priests, who also change their rods into
serpents. However, to demonstrate the superiority of
the Jewish god, Aaron's snake ate the Egyptian
snakes.
Again, when Moses sets the plagues upon Egypt, he
does so by stretching forth this serpent/rod. When
Moses parts the sea for the passage of his people, he
again does so with the assistance of this powerful
rod/serpent. In the wilderness Moses strikes the rock
with this same rod to create water. This object
becomes so "sacred" that it is one of the objects for which
room is made in the Ark of the Covenant.
Before we examine some more ominous aspects of the
serpent in Jewish scripture we will have to look at Numbers
21:9. Moses, who had thrown a fit when Aaron made a
golden image of the Egyptian goddess of mercy and miners,
Hathor [Exodus 32: 19-20] claming that God condemned
such terrible action, himself makes and puts on a pole a
copper, or brass serpent, claiming that God had ordered him
to make and display this image to cure the people from
snake bites.
“Yahweh sent fiery serpents [seraphim] among the people;
their bite brought death to many in Israel. The people came
and said to Moses we have sinned by speaking against
Yahweh and against you. Intercede for us with Yahweh to
save us from these serpents”. Moses spoke for the people,
and Yahweh replied, ' make a fiery serpent and use it as a
standard. Anyone who is bitten and looks at it will survive.
Moses then made a serpent out of bronze and raised it as a
standard ….. [Numbers 21: 6-9].
We are informed, in II Kings 18:4, that this serpent symbol
was so popular that the people continued to revere the
bronze serpent until the time of King Hezekiah [719-691
BCE], who, according to the record "broke in pieces the
bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days
the people of Israel had burned incense to it”.
Here we see not only the divine power of the serpent, but
also the connection with healing which pervades this part of
the world. This action by Moses might show his Midianite
heritage or the universal recognition of the divinity of the
serpent, but it certainly shows a different Moses. One might
ask how can a 'jealous God' condemn the golden calf and
approve the 'brazen serpent' What is it about the snake that
commands such loyalty
Perhaps we can find a hint as to the position of power in
Judaism when we discover that one of the most powerful of
the heavenly creatures may have serpentine connections,
the Seraphim.
We find in Isaiah 14:29 a description of the highest of all of
God's angelic creatures, the Seraphim. The word 'seraph'
[of which Seraphim is the plural] can be translated "fiery
serpent". Therefore there must be significance that the word
used for serpent in Isaiah 14:29, Isaiah 30:6 and in the
Numbers 21:8 description of a serpent, is the word "seraph"
Could it be that these "fiery serpents" stood highest in the
hierarchy of angelic beings There is no doubt that the
Hebrew 'shrpm' refers to serpents.
Judeo-Christian tradition, however, comes down very hard
on this serpent concept, perhaps as a part of the conflict
between the ancient maternal gods which underlie and
-31- Traditional African Clinic April 2008
Continued on page 32

Continued from page 31 – The Divine Serpent in Myth..
support early matriarchal tribal traditions and the later
paternalistic nomadic traditions. Where early traditions
depict the serpent as one of the favorite theriomorphic
{having a form of a beast} forms of gods and
goddesses, it becomes with the "fall" of Adam and Eve
the infernal enemy of the so-called "one true God."
The most fearful creature in the Bible is that creation
called Leviathan. We have many mentions of Leviathan
in the Jewish scripture. Basically, he appears like a
chaos which underlies the order of creation or like a
dragon which threatens order and creation. Perhaps we
should point out that Leviathan is a female and her
male counterpart is Behemoth. We find a lengthily
poem about Leviathan in Chapters 40 and 41 of the
Book of Job, and a wonderful hymn about Leviathan in
Psalm 74. Where we hear the words: "…it was you
[God] who crushed the head of Leviathan who left him
as food for the seafaring men". [1] [Translation from
the Tanakh: Jewish Publication Society]
Perhaps the best citation would be Isaiah 27. In this
passage Leviathan is described as the 'elusive serpent'
and 'Dragon of the sea'. This latter description can be
translated [and we find it so in the Tanakh] "The
monster which the Lord vanquished of old; the
embodiment of chaos, or perhaps the forces of evil in
the present world. The Leviathan appears in more than
one religion. In Canaanite mythology and literature, it
is a monster called Lotan, the 'fleeing serpent', the
coiling serpent, the powerful with seven heads'. It was
eventually killed by Baal. The Leviathan is also the
Ugaritic god of evil.
In Christianity, St. John did draw a comparison
between Jesus on the cross and Moses' snake on the
pole, saying that both were lifted up upon a pole for the
salvation of mankind, and I have in my possession
copies of art work showing a crucified serpent with the
thorn-crowned face of Christ. To be continued
http://www.blackherbals.com/
☻☻☻☻☻☻☻
Serious Illness among
Children with Sickle Cell
Disease Reduced with
Vaccine
May 02, 2007
Infectious Diseases Society of America
A vaccine introduced in 2000 has reduced by more than
90 percent the rate of a serious bacterial illness among
young children with sickle cell disease (SCD), who are
particularly susceptible to it, according to a new study that
appears in the June 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases and
currently is available online.
SCD is an inherited blood disorder that affects red blood
cells, sometimes turning these cells crescent-shaped. The
deformed cells can get stuck in small blood vessels, creating
blockages that can reduce blood flow. SCD can cause painful
episodes and strokes, and can damage organs including the
lungs, kidneys, liver, and spleen. The average life expectancy
of someone with SCD is in the mid-40s. In the United States,
it is estimated that more than 70,000 people are living with
SCD and about 1,000 babies are born with this condition each
year.
Diseases caused by a bacterium known as pneumococcus are
a leading cause of death among children with SCD. People
with SCD are between 30 and 600 times more likely to
develop pneumococcal meningitis, bloodstream infections,
and other serious infections, compared to individuals of
comparable age and race without SCD.
The new study, by Natasha Halasa, MD, MPH, of Vanderbilt
University's School of Medicine and colleagues, looked at
pneumococcal disease rates among young children with SCD
in Tennessee's Medicaid program before and after the
introduction in 2000 of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine
(PCV). They found the rate of serious pneumococcal disease
dropped by more than 90 percent among children under 5
years of age. "I was not surprised that there was a decrease,"
Dr. Halasa said, "just surprised about the magnitude of the
decrease."
Since its introduction in 2000, PCV has been recommended
for all children younger than 2 years of age, and for selected
children 2 to 4 years with certain high-risk conditions,
including SCD. The authors write: "With the universal
administration of PCV to all children, both with and without
SCD, it is expected that the rates of invasive pneumococcal
disease (IPD) will continue to decline in all children."
Dr. Halasa did express concern, however, that other strains of
pneumococcus besides the seven included in the vaccine
might become more common, thus renewing the threat of
IPD. For this reason, she said, monitoring for IPD should
continue in all populations, including those who are at highrisk
for IPD, such as those with SCD or HIV.
Fast Facts:
* Infections with the pneumococcus bacterium are a leading
cause of death among people with SCD.
* This study shows that rates of serious pneumococcal
infections fell by 90 percent after the introduction of the
pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in 2000.
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/30284/Serious_illness_
among_children_with_sickle_cell_disease_reduced_with_vaccine.h
tml
☻☻☻☻☻☻☻
-32- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Anticlotting Drug Found to
be Safe in Sickle Cell
Patients
October 12, 2007
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
CHAPEL HILL - An intravenous "blood thinner"
widely used in patients with acute coronary syndromes
and during coronary artery stent placement appears to
be safe in patients with sickle cell disease and may
have beneficial anti-inflammatory effects, a small study
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
School of Medicine has found.
"We have tested a potentially promising drug in sickle
cell patients, and the drug appears to be well tolerated.
This gives us the impetus to go ahead with further
studies of eptifibatide in these patients," said Dr. Leslie
V. Parise, department chair and professor of
biochemistry and biophysics at the UNC-Chapel Hill
School of Medicine.
The hallmark of sickle cell disease is malformed red
blood cells that can cause sudden painful episodes
when they block small blood vessels. However, sickle
cell patients are also at increased risk of developing
multiple other complications, including strokes, lung
complications and pulmonary hypertension.
The most frequent manifestations of sickle cell
disorders are anemia and pain episodes. The episodic
exacerbation of pain, often called "crises," is
unpredictable and may occur often in some patients.
The only drug presently approved for the treatment of
sickle cell disease is hydroxyurea, which has been
shown to reduce the frequency of painful episodes.
Parise emphasized the need for further study. "We did
not test this drug in patients who are in crisis, and we
cannot recommend that doctors prescribe this drug for
sickle cell patients at this time," she said.
The results of the study were published online (Oct. 6)
in the British Journal of Haematology.
The researchers gave intravenous infusions of
eptifibatide (brand name Integrilin) to four patients
with sickle cell anemia who were not experiencing pain
episodes. "They did well clinically. They did not
experience any deleterious changes in their blood tests
or have a pain episode," said coauthor Dr. Kenneth I.
Ataga, assistant professor of medicine at UNC-Chapel
Hill.
In the current study, blood tests showed that while the
patients' liver, kidney and other functions remained at
baseline, several indicators of inflammation decreased,
including levels of a protein called CD40L known to play a
role in inflammation and in blood clotting.
Previous studies conducted by Sheritha Lee a graduate
student in Parise's lab showed that patients with sickle cell
disease have CD40L levels that are as much as 30 times
higher than in patients without the disease. Eptifibatide's
known ability to decrease CD40L led the researchers to
study whether the drug might help sickle cell patients.
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/33556/Anticlotting_dr
ug_found_to_be_safe_in_sickle_cell_patients.html
☻☻☻☻☻☻☻
Anticancer Drugs Might be of
Benefit to Sickle-cell Patients
December 07, 2007
Journal of Clinical Investigation
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder
caused by a genetic mutation that leads to the generation of
a mutant form of the beta-globin chain of hemoglobin (Hb).
Red blood cells containing Hb with this mutant beta-globin
chain change shape upon deoxygenation and this causes
them to get stuck in blood vessels, depriving the
surrounding tissues of oxygen, which can lead to organ
damage. Although hydroxyurea, a treatment for SCD that
works by increasing fetal Hb (HbF) expression, benefits
some adults with moderate and severe SCD, it does not
work for all individuals. Now, hope for a new therapy for
SCD has been provided by the work of Laure A. Moutouhde
Parseval and colleagues working for Celgene
Corporation.
In the study, lenalidomide and pomalidomide, immunomodulatory
anticancer drugs, were both shown to be more
effective than hydroxyurea at inducing HbF expression by
erythrocytes derived in vitro from CD34+ cells from
healthy individuals. In addition, the effects of
pomalidomide and hydroxyurea on HbF expression were
synergistic. As pomalidomide was able to induce HbF
expression in CD34+ cells from patients with SCD, the
authors suggested that it might provide a new therapy for
SCD, either alone or in combination with hydroxurea.
Furthermore, because the induction of HbF has been shown
to be of some benefit to individuals with beta-thalassemia
(a hereditary anemia caused by decreased beta-globin
production), the authors also suggested that pomalidomide
might be a good therapeutic for the treatment of betahemoglobinopathies
other than SCD, such as betathalassemia.
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/34656/Anticancer_dru
gs_might_be_of_benefit_to_sickle-cell_patients.html
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-33- Traditional African Clinic April 2008

Mission Statement
Our aim at The African Traditional Herbal
Research Clinic is to propagate and promote the
awareness in Afrikan peoples at home and abroad of
their health, biodiversity, history and cultural
richness. We gather pertinent information on these
issues and disseminate these freely to our people in
Uganda, the rest of the continent, and anywhere in
the Diaspora where Afrikans are located…. One of
the main ingredients for increasing poverty, sickness,
exploitation and domination is ignorance of one's
self, and the environment in which we live.
Knowledge is power and the forces that control our
lives don't want to lose control, so they won't stop at
anything to keep certain knowledge from the people.
Therefore, we are expecting a fight and opposition to
our mission. However, we will endeavor to carry
forward this work in grace and perfect ways.
“Where there is no god, there is no culture.
Where there is no culture, there is no indigenous
knowledge. Where there is no indigenous
knowledge, there is no history. Where there is no
history, there is no science or technology. The
existing nature is made by our past. Let us
protect and conserve our indigenous
knowledge.”
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C ALENDAR OF E VENTS
SPECIAL EVENT: CLINIC OPENING
PLACE: AFRIKAN TRADITIONAL HERBAL RESEARCH CLINIC
TIME:
Afrikan Traditional Herbal Research Clinic
1175A Mukalazi Road, P.O. Box 29974
Bukoto, Kampala, Uganda East Africa
Phone: +256 (0) 414 530 456
Email: clinic@blackherbals.com
Herb of the Month
Manihot esculenta
Cassava
Cassava is the main food for many third world nations, and
is a staple in most regions of Africa. There are about 29
species, ranging in taste from sweet to bitter. These 29
species are planned to be grouped into only one or two
species--Sweet Cassava and Bitter Cassava. This name
change will confuse people who want to know which
cassava plants have the best concentrations of nitrilosides
also called vitamin B17, or which have other desirable traits
such as long storage. It is the Bitter Cassava Plant (Manihot
esculenta) that produces the cancer vitamin, B17, which
helps kill single cancer cells before they can form a lump. It
also helps keep blood cells from sickling in people who
have two recessive genes for sickle cell anemia.
In Africa and other swampy areas where mosquitoes and
malaria germs thrive, people more often have red blood
cells shaped like a quarter-moon, or like a sickle (instead of
normal round cells). People who have both a normal gene
and a sickle gene, can survive malaria diseases better than
people with totally normal hemoglobin genes. It is when
people have two sickle genes that death can occur from
sickle cell anemia.
Cyanogenic plants containing nitrilosides can help control
the sickle cell crisis. Thiocyanate is thought to be the active
molecule that helps people with sickle-shaped red blood
cells. It is an intermediary product in the metabolism of
vitamin B-17.
There are over 1200 cyanogenic plants, about 350 of which
are edible. It is estimated that 1/3 of all tropical vegetation
contains nitrilosides. The African Traditional Diet is
composed of many foods, fruits, plants and herbs that
contain nitrilosides such as cassava, millet, sorghum, yams,
sweet potato and beetroot to name a few.
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-34- Traditional African Clinic April 2008