Holistic Care For Sickle Cell Warriors Helps Them Stay Healthy Longer, Avoid Painful Crises and Feel Better Overall
When it comes to sickle cell disease, staying healthy is the key to living well, and that’s often easier said than done.
Sickle Cell Warriors know firsthand just how painful a crisis can be. It’s something they want to avoid at all costs, but they often face challenges when it comes to health care and treatments for sickle cell disease.
That’s one of the reasons Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia (SCFG) CEO Tabatha McGee founded the Sickle Cell Sanctuary Holistic Healing For A Better Tomorrow in June of 2024. It was the first holistic wellness center for sickle cell disease (SCD) patients, known as Warriors, in the country. The state-of-the art facility in Atlanta focuses on improving the quality of life for SCD Warriors by providing an all-encompassing approach to health care that complements traditional medical care.
For a better understanding of traditional Western medicine compared to holistic care, think of it as a disease-centered model of care versus whole-person healing or treating the body, mind and spirit.
Holistic care, like that at the Sickle Cell Sanctuary, looks at the “big picture” when it comes to a Warrior’s health, instead of focusing on what’s wrong and fixing it through targeted intervention with drugs and surgeries. Both have strengths and limitations, and more and more healthcare professionals are using integrative medical solutions, kind of combining the best of both systems.
That’s actually what the Sickle Cell Sanctuary does. It offers a range of services from IV infusions and hydration, electro-acupuncture, biometrics, fitness and nutrition programs to hematology, psychotherapy and traditional medical care.
But are Warriors using the sanctuary, and do they prefer holistic or traditional care? McGee touched on those topics in an episode of the SCFG’s new TV series Unveiling Sickle Cell: Beyond the Pain, which she hosts.
“Do you find sickle cell Warriors are open to holistic, you know integrative care, or do you feel that they like more of a traditional route of care?
“I think both,” said Dana Hill, a dually certified psychiatric mental health practitioner and a family nurse practitioner at the Sickle Cell Sanctuary, who focuses on a Warrior’s complete health, “head to toe, the mind and the body.”
Foundation program coordinator, transition specialist, SCD educator and advocate Keecilon Wright agrees.
“It’s definitely both and I think it’s because it’s becoming more prevalent to do both because a lot of them are asking questions about how to implement the traditional medicine and holistic services in their life.
Hill said she’s already seeing Warriors who are combining both practices.
“And they come in with questions about the things they’re already taking and how they can continue to take it with the traditional medicines and the interactions and so we do education on that as well.”
McGee said the holistic services at the Sickle Cell Sanctuary are complementary to traditional medicine.
“You need them both. You can use them both. There’s nothing wrong with that,” she said.
“I’m really glad that our Sickle Cell Warriors are starting to really understand preventive care can keep them from being reactive on the back end,” McGee continued.
“And then it also has helped decrease the number of emergency visits, you know the number of hospital stays and that’s what we’re really looking to do is really make an impact there,” she added.
Hill and Wright are both Sickle Cell Warriors so they honestly know what they’re talking about when it comes to integrative care for those with SCD.
Wright has been using holistic care practices for four years.
“It’s something that I wanted to do for myself because of the things I experienced when I was younger with my family members who had sickle cell disease and I wanted a better life for me, a healthier life.”
She uses massage therapy, which is offered at the Sickle Cell Sanctuary, for leg pain.
“I noticed that, you know, going consistently and taking good care of my health, the pain crises started lessening in my in my legs,” Wright said.
It’s because it helps the blood flow better, she added.
“I don't have to get up at night worrying about my legs clumping on me because I'm taking the proactive needs to do the regular care for massage therapy,” Wright told McGee.
She also uses a chiropractor and acupuncture and said she really notices a difference in how she feels because of it.
Hill, on the other hand, is a big fan of IV hydration.
“I take advantage of everything that keeps me lined up, which is chiropractic care and massage therapy. I do those monthly, but IV hydration is something I’ve been doing for the last eight years now,” she explained.
“With that we can add vitamins that helps with the symptoms sickle cell patients have like fatigue. You can load it up with vitamin B. We can add some L-glutamine, which helps with the production of red blood cells, and vitamin C.
Sickle cell patients are immunocompromised, and the IV hydrations can help them fight off infections and get the red blood cells flowing.
“I think IV hydration is my favorite part of holistic care,” Hill added.
-By: Shelby Lin Erdman