*OPEN LETTER TO PRINCE OLUYEMISI ADETAYO ADEAGA, PRESIDENT, NIGERIAN RED CROSS SOCIETY
*Please Pay Attention To Indigenous Blood-Building Phytoceuticals!
I have lived with sickle cell anaemia for 60 years and I well know the difference blood makes in the life of those plunged into critical illness for its inadequacy within the body.
I have a long track record of blood transfusion, which began very early in childhood for me. There were occasions when I went to bed at night and woke up in the morning on hospital bed, receiving blood! From the age of 6, when I began consciously taking count, until the cusp of my 40th birthday, I received transfusion every three to four years. Like clockwork, like a jinx, like a curse.
In 2002, I was desperately ill and in need of blood. My PCV had plummeted to dangerously low levels (7%), so low that I could not take four steps without needing to sit down to rest and get my breath back. I had typhoid and malaria combined. On hospital bed, I was listless and unconcerned as the doctor told my relations I must be transfused. At once or else …
My wife murmured about being ‘tired of blood today, blood tomorrow’, at which a woman whose child was similarly on admission beckoned on her; and told her there was an alternative to transfusion: pòròpópò (botanical name: sorghum bicolor, proprietary name: Jobelyn).
On the woman’s encouragement, my wife signed DAMA (Discharged Against Medical Advice) papers and took me home. Rushing to Olaleye market (Somolu), she bought the leaf sheaths of sorghum bicolor, boiled as instructed and gave me to drink each time I needed to drink water. Within less than one week, my PCV was back, practically at my steady state level: 25%! It was nothing short of a miracle, a miracle that turned me into an advocate of natural medicine. To this day, 21 years on, on regular intake of Jobelyn, I have not once been transfused!
When Faith Forbids Blood
For eons, unknown to many, sorghum and other phytoceutical blood-builders have been the backbone of segments of the SCD community whose faith forbids blood transfusion. Apart from green leafy vegetables, which are also known to be blood enhancers over time, I learnt that one other good plant blood builder, among many others, is justicia carnea, known among Yoruba as ewe eje, and in Igboland as ogwu obara. Jehovah’s Witnesses with SCD are particularly fond of justicia for obvious reasons.
Blood is crucial to life. Worldwide, the Red Cross Society (and the Red Crescent Society) stands on the forefront of efforts to galvanize ordinary people to do the extraordinary – save lives by donating blood. Even in countries where such calls to noble deeds are heeded, blood is never enough. In Europe and America, black donors are encouraged to donate for folks with sickle cell (the overwhelming majority of people with SCD in these countries are of African-American ancestry, yet the response is dismal).
Receiving other people’s blood has its risks – infection, iron overload, antibodies, etc but restoring and maintaining blood level by natural means has practically none.
Clinical Trials for Sorghum Bicolor (Jobelyn)
In 2011, I participated in Clinical Trials for sorghum bicolor (Jobelyn) along with 500 fellow sickle cell warriors at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). The results confirmed the product as a viable alternative to blood transfusion!
Extensive studies have also been conducted on this product at research institutions in Europe and North America, making it one of the most thoroughly-studied ethno-medicines in the world.
Recently, the United States Cancer Institute added Jobelyn to its dictionary with this entry:
‘Jobelyn is a herbal-based nutritional supplement containing the leaf sheaths of the plant Sorghum Bicolor, with potential antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, chemopreventive and immunomodulating activities …’
https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-drug/def/sorghum-bicolor-supplement
I call upon the Red Cross Society in Nigeria to wade in to introduce and promote African blood-building phytoceuticals to the world. Yes, there will be emergency and immediate needs for blood transfusion – as in acute blood loss – yet, those with chronic need for blood will be greatly helped by these plant supplements.
The Red Cross will face obstacles doing this, particularly from medical doctors who have thoroughly imbibed the notion that folk medicine should be repudiated. More resistance will come from their patients who have also been fed the same notion by their doctors.
In trying to introduce Jobelyn to fellow Sickle Cell Warriors, I have met quite a handful who categorically stated they would never, ever take anything herbal! Incidentally, some doctors have been won over to this natural blood-builder and taken to prescribing it to their patients with and without sickle cell.
