Pillar 1 – Water

Water is critical in terms of life itself but even more so if you have sickle cell. Without adequate water the body will begin to remove water from areas within itself and one of those areas is the blood system. If you are 5% dehydrated that effect can be multiplied several times by the body removing water from the blood.

The consequence is that the blood gets thicker and the clumping together of misformed, or sickle shaped, cells become more prominent. Net effect is that the crisis becomes more severe and the pain goes through the roof as more cells and tissues become deprived of oxygen.

It is for this reason principally that when someone gets taken to hospital with a sickle cell crisis that they get put on a glucose/saline drip to rapidly rehydrate the blood stream. Doing this c

an in some instances alleviate the crisis.

This is the first of the 4 pillars of wisdom regarding Sickle Cell.