Sickle Cell Disease - Essay 2

Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disease.   It is inherited from either parent and is in the red
blood cells of the body.   Hemoglobin which is a protein has a chemical change that causes these red blood cells to become sickle shaped.   The regular shape of a red blood cell is a round doughnut shape.   When people have sickle cell the shape of the cell changes.   The round shape makes it easy for the blood to move throughout the blood vessels.   When the cell is sickle shaped this causes the cell to get caught in the vessels.   This leads to the flow of blood becoming blocked.   The red blood cell breaks apart and this leads to anemia.   Anemia is when a person has a low amount of red blood cells in the body.   Many people have anemia due to different medical problems but sickle cell anemia can also cause pain as well as other complications.
Sickle cell anemia is the most common genetic disease in the United States as of today over 80,000 people have this disease.   More than three and a half million people in the US have the sickle cell trait.   This means that a person has a sickle cell gene but they are not affected by the disease themselves.   The majority of people who have sickle cell anemia are African American.   If two people have the trait and have a child then that child can have the disease themselves.   People with sickle cell disease usually live until the age of fifty.  
People with sickle cell have one amino acid which is glutamic acid that is changed to valine.   This is what causes the cells to have their sickled shape.   Blood is used in the body to transport oxygen, and remove dissolved waste, and deliver nutrients.   Blood flows through the body in blood vessels.   The sickled shape of these cells makes it harder for them to flow through the vessels to do their jobs.   This is why many people with this illness become sick.   They are not getting the oxygen and nutrients delivered normally.   The cells cannot flow through the vessels...