Currently their are scientist working on technology to allow members of the sickle cell community the opportunity to review their blood cells independent of hospital visits. What this means is that their is a number of technological advancements consider to be cutting edge that will monitor blood cell development or even totally replace the bone marrow to no longer produced the same blood at the expense of the reproductive material of the patient. What has not been developed within the western context of hematology is the process of understanding food as having an anti-sickling effect on the blood.
For centuries our ancestors have had a strong grip on how food impacts health, even the father of western medicine knew that the relationship between food and medicine is a monumental one. There are a number of foods that have been known to add oxygen into the blood stream of a individual. Seemingly having a symbiotic relationship
Sickle cell disease is usually monitored by taking a blood sample and looking at the cells under a microscope. However, this method has several notable disadvantages: It’s time-consuming, delaying the capture of important changes that may lead to permanent cell damage, and further, these changes can’t be monitored in real time.
The new monitoring technology hopes to address some of these problems by using a microfluidics-based electrical impedance sensor.
The technology itself is relatively complex, but conceptually, it involves having cells move through tiny channels. The cells are monitored via changes in electric currents (because cells themselves have certain conductive properties). This allows a quantitative (number-based) assessment of just how the cells are moving and sickling.
Importantly, this system can measure these attributes in real time. So, for example, researchers could vary the oxygen levels in a sample of cells and observe how the cells change in response — mimicking what might be happening in a patient.