What Is Sickle Cell Anemia and How Do You Get It?

This complicated blood disorder affects people from many backgrounds and walks of life, famously including 1 in 400 African-Americans. But how did we discover it in the first place?

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What You Need to Know About Sickle Cell Disease
“Sickle cell disease is an inherited disorder that causes the red blood cells to be abnormally shaped and get stuck inside the blood vessels, making it hard to deliver oxygen throughout the body.”

Who Should Decide If Gene Therapy Is Too Risky, Patients or the FDA?
“Gene therapy is one of those biomedical breakthroughs that has promised to cure Alzheimer’s, cancer, and other disorders for decades. Armed with gene-editing tools like CRISPR, it’s easier than ever to snip out problematic strands of DNA and replace them with new code that deactivates or reverses genetic mutations that cause disease.”

Major ‘Milestone’ Realized in Quest to Transform Stem Cells Into Blood Cells
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This episode of Seeker was written and hosted by Trace Dominguez

[NessaBoo]

Im in the hospital right now due to a pain crisis.... the pain is very real. Some days i feel amaizing. Some days i cannot walk because the pain is too great. Thank you for this video we need more awareness

[Seeker]

Dang it! We had the silliest of typos in the word "stimulus." Sorry about that y'all. Victoria, Megan and I all watched it and none of us spotted the error!! DAMMIT BRAIN! Well, at least this video was very stimulouting? Thanks to those brains who managed to spot it! - Trace

[infringedblue]

Also note, in many African countries, people tend to know their genotype. If you are AA, your dominant and recessive genes are normal. If you are AS, you carry a recessive sickle cell gene but your dominant expressive gene is normal. If you are SS you have sickle cell anaemia. In Nigeria, if two people who intend to get married find out they are both AS, most churches and families will discourage the union in order to avoid an SS child (even with a 25% chance of having an SS child). You grow up knowing your blood type and your genotype as much as you know your height and hair colour. I have found that this kind of knowledge is not encouraged in the western world where there isn't as much attention given to sickle cell and ways to avoid it.

[crfstewarje]

My father passed away from sickle cell back in 2011. He was in and out of the hospital for 10 years. The word "sickle cell" certainly brings back bad memories.

[Rsmith]

OMG Seeker, thank you SO much for making this video & bringing attention to Sickle Cell!!! I have Sickle Cell SS (the worst type) and this disease is no joke!!! It's 4pm, I got stuff to do, & I've been in bed all day because of the pain from it. We are mistreated in hospitals & there is nowhere near enough attention given to this illness, so thank you VERY Hopefully this video will help change something, ANYTHING, for the better!!

[DAR_TO_WIN]

The relation between sickle cell and malaria resistance should have been mentioned.

[lionprubbs]

My science teacher told me that having sickle celled anemia makes it harder for malaria to infect you maybe that is why it affects people of african decent.

[Soraviel]

I've got the sickle cell trait, not the disease itself, so I've heard many times, that my blood cells offer some sort protective measure against malaria, which I'm completely skeptical about, to be honest, I've never been to Africa, I'm black British and Congolese by descent, when my mother told me my trait, it thought I'd be dead, but in fact I feel perfectly fine like a normal person who doesn't have my sickle cell trait. I just feel sorry for those who have the full-blown disease.

[sarkozygaming]

Is it possible to have Hammer cell anemia ?

[tracyachieng]

Last year I dropped all my medication including hydroxyurea, it wasn't helping, I only manage my sickle cell through diet and positive thoughts and feelings and yoga practice and it has worked great no more crisis pains...how I made this work is by rising through a lot of crisis pains I strengthened my Will and have been able to manifest a life of balance, no stress/dealing with stress/self awareness= no crisis pains

[hambone]

I wish someone would do a video on sickle cell and stamina running. A different sickle cell trait and stamina running. And the same for normal people running

[Infernoraptor]

I'm shocked you didn't mention the fact that sickle-cell may have evolved as an advantage : if a child gets 2 copies of the gene, they get sickle cell but 1 copy gives malaria resistance. (If you run the numbers, if both parents have 1 copy of the gene they have 25% chance of a sickle-cell kid, 25% of a "normal" kid, and a 50% chance of malaria resistance.) It's a fascinating situation and it might be something to consider before trying to remove the gene from the population completely

[afafjuma]

Most of my family has it and they spend most of the time in the hospital. I have it too, but i don't suffer any pain thankfully.

[EnyinnaE]

I have sickle cell. I am glad that Seeker made a video about this. Great video

[SunWarrior]

I'm not from Grenada but I'm glad you pronounced it right.

[grantjm]

It should also be noted that the sickle cell trait isn’t the only evolutionary example of development of innate resistance to malarial infection. There are individuals who lack expression of the Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines (DARC) & the Duffy blood group is necessary for infection with Plasmodium vivax. There are also individuals who have a deficiency with the Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase enzyme. There are also a few other examples of evolutionary development of malarial resistance.

[VrP]

Can you do a video for Mediterranean anemia as well?

[Camphreneas]

My past was a horrifying nightmare with this disorder, now I live a happy healthy normal life with plenty of water and support from my doctors and family members.

[EnviusX]

Sickle cell is a common disease not only in Africa, but also in the middle eastern society. I personally carry this disease.

[longforgotten]

In biology, we discussed a relationship between people who suffer from sickle cell anemia and those who get malaria. I would like to know more about this relationship. Who is susceptible to each NY.