PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE USE OF NUTRACEUTICALS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF SICKLE CELL ANEMIA: A CASE SERIES

There is growing recognition of the benefits of nutraceuticals in the management of sickle cell disease but a scarcity of reports on their use. Nutraceuticals are food or parts of food that provide medical or health benefits. They include botanicals, functional foods and medicinal foods. This is a preliminary report on the use of nutraceuticals in the management of a small cohort of children with sickle cell disease in Nigeria.

The retrospective audit of clinical outcomes was carried out at a brain center located within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Children, aged 1 to 12 years, presenting with sickle cell anaemia were evaluated at baseline and at six months after the commencement of a cocktail of nutraceuticals using an objective grading tool. Changes in weight, haematocrit and frequency of sickle cell crises were determined. On account of the small sample size, Wilcoxon sign test was used to determine the similarity / difference between the average values of weight, PCV, and crises obtained at enro7lment and six months.

Ten children with sickle cell anaemia were placed on nutraceuticals therapy. The average age of the children was 8.5 (range 1 - 12) years. Aroga immune support was the commonest component of the nutraceutical cocktail given to the children. There was a rise in average weight (from 21.8 to 23.0 Kg, p-value 0.236) and average haematocrit (22.8 to 27.2, p-value 0.011) at six months compared to values obtained at baseline. There was also a fall in the average frequency of sickle cell crises at six months compared to values obtained at baseline (from 7.4 to 3.2, p-value 0.011). Overall, eight out of the ten children showed moderate to good clinical improvement. There was no documentation of any adverse reaction to the medications in any of the children.

The results suggest that the use of nutraceuticals may be beneficial in the management of sickle cell anaemia in children. However, the results are preliminary and will require stronger evidence. There is a need for controlled clinical trials for using larger sample sizes. Such clinical trials of unconventional therapies should be conducted with great care and concern for the safety of the participants.