From The April 2001 Issue of Nutrition Science News

Antioxidants Quell Sickle-Cell

by Jack Challem

A half-century ago, Linus Pauling, Ph.D., defined sickle-cell anemia as the first "molecular disease." The condition is characterized by severe pain caused by blood clots. Researchers at the Philadelphia Biomedical Research Institute asked 10 patients with sickle-cell anemia to take a combination of 6 g aged garlic extract, 6 g vitamin C, 1,200 IU vitamin E, and 1,000 mcg folic acid per day for six months. Twin siblings took only folic acid. Patients taking the antioxidants had one-third as many as painful sickle-cell episodes and also reported higher energy levels.

1. Ohnishi ST, et al. Sickle cell anemia: a potential nutritional approach for a molecular disease. Nutrition 2000;16:330-8.

Jack Challem, known as The Nutrition Reporter™, has been writing about vitamin research for 25 years and is the author of Syndrome X: The Complete Nutritional Program to Prevent and Reverse Insulin Resistance (Wiley, 2000).