By Tamika Moseley

I have a son, Aiden, who has sickle cell disease.

Sickle cell is a fatal blood disease that affects the red blood cells; it’s when a person’s body does not produce enough red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. The blood cells die off every 10-20 days, which leads to the blood “sickling,” turning “moon shape” or “crescent shape.” This causes the cells to get stuck in the vessels and when this happens, it leads to chronic pain, strokes, organ damage and unfortunately death. Millions of people globally are suffering from this debilitating disease and millions are dying.

My son suffered multiple crisis at the age of 1. He was hospitalized every 2-3 months with splenic sequestration crisis, which affects the spleen. It’s when the blood gets trapped in the spleen and cannot properly filter through, the spleen enlarges and can lead to other complications. Shortly afterwards, he received multiple blood transfusions, because his body could not keep up producing red blood cells on its own.

It was at this moment, I decided to turn from all western medication and turn toward plant medicine. We watched our son suffer for an entire year and when he was not getting any better, we immediately changed our diet to more plant-based foods, we cut out white sugar and all process foods. Since my son was very young, I also turned to herbs, which is the same as food, this way I could get them in his system faster. I found things such as liquid chlorophyll and Even Flo. Chlorophyll is found in all leafy green vegetables and it gives plants its green pigment. Chlorophyll is very similar to human’s hemoglobin; the only difference is the center atom in chlorophyll is magnesium and the center atom in hemoglobin is iron. Even Flo, is an all-natural supplement that consist of herbs, enzymes, minerals and vitamins and these two supplements manage the root cause in sickle cell by keeping the body consistently producing red blood cells on a consistent basis.

Today, my son is 9 years old and he has not had a crisis in eight years. He plays sports, swims, travels and lives a normal, happy productive life!

I was inspired by my journey and my son’s condition, and in 2010, I decided to write a book about my journey called “Sickle Cell Natural Healing: A Mother’s Journey,” in hopes to be an inspiration to many others who were walking in my same footsteps.

I spend the majority of my time consulting and speaking globally on sickle cell and natural ways to manage so people can have a better quality of life. I later partnered with Healing Blends Global, the maker of Even Flo, and today, we are in the process of conducting a double-blind study at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu Kenya at the Obama Children’s Clinic with Even Flo. Our hope and vision is to complete the study and supply Even Flo to children and adults throughout Kenya and saving millions of lives.

Tamika Moseley is a Redmond resident. Twitter: @sicklesolution