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Sickle Cell Anaemia Information
Introduction
There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.
Dietary causes of sickle cell anaemia:
Low levels of blood cholesterol?; Western cereal-based dietSickle cell anaemia
Introduction
Sickle cell anaemia is a disease in West Africa in which red blood cells are not the usual round shape but curved like the blade of a sickle. This condition prevents haemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen around the body, from doing its job.
There is some disagreement as to whether sickle cell anaemia also increases the risk of coronary heart disease.
Low cholesterol and sickle cell anaemia
Scientists at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, analysed the blood serum of children with the disease looking for levels of total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, and homocysteine.[2] They found that both the male and female children with sickle cell disease had much lower cholesterol than healthy children of the same ages and sex.
Total cholesterol means in those with sickle cell disease (SCD) were 100-102 mg/dl (2.60-2.65 mmol/L) and the LDL levels, at 54 mg/dl (1.40 mmol/L) were below the lower limit of the reference range (59-137 mg/dl). The mean HDL levels in males at 23.1 mg/dl (0.61 mmol/L) and in females at 24.5 mg/dl (0.64 mmol/L), were well below the lower limit of the reference range (35-84 mg/dl), respectively, the LDL-cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratios of the sickle cell disease subjects were not abnormal.
Because those with sickle cell disease had low levels of cholesterol, the scientists concluded that:
'Collectively, these results indicate that children with SCD [sickle cell disease] in northern Nigeria are not at increased risk of CVD.'
But they obviously recognised that this low cholesterol was not as healthy as we think it is, because they continued:
'However, their marked hypocholesterolemia should be a cause of concern about the overall mortality and general well-being.'
In fact, low levels of cholesterol are predictive of death in people of all ages: The young,[2] the middle aged,[3] and the elderly.[4, 5]
Western cereal based diet and sickle cell anaemia
But, getting back to sickle cell anaemia, there are neglected connections between food production systems and infectious killer diseases to which people with sickle cell disease are much more susceptible. Malaria, for example, was rare until the introduction of agriculture into Africa as a result of missionaries' attempts to bring a 'better' way of life.[6] It was only after we gave them our 'healthy' diet that malaria spread to the human populations of Africa.
Over the last 30 years, the numbers of people with SCD has increased 10-fold, [7] and today, malaria kills more people in the world than any other infectious disease.
Importantly — and significantly — sickle cell disease is also increasing in Western industrialised countries such as the UK and USA since cereal-based 'healthy eating' was introduced.
References
1. VanderJagt DJ, Shores J, Okorodudu A, et al. Hypocholesterolemia in Nigerian children with sickle cell disease. J Trop Pediatr 2002; 48: 156-6.
2. Child mortality under age 5 per 1,000. 1992 Britannia Book of the Year. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago.
3. Wannamethee G, et al. Low serum total cholesterol concentrations and mortality in middle aged British men. BMJ 1995; 311: 409-13
4. Weverling-Rijnsburger AWE, et al. Total cholesterol and risk of mortality in the oldest old. Lancet 1997; 350: 1119-23.
5. Jonsson A, Sigvaldason H, Sigfusson N. Total cholesterol and mortality after age 80 years. Lancet 1997; 350: 1778-9.
6. Livingstone FB. Anthropological Implications of Sickle Cell Gene Distribution in West Africa. American Anthropologist 1958; 60: 533-62.
7. Wong WY, Powars DR, Chan L, et al. Polysaccharide encapsulated bacterial infection in sickle cell anemia: a thirty year epidemiologic experience. Am J Hematol 1992; 39: 176-182
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