James: Treatment for symptoms of the sickle cell trait

I found out recently that my girlfriend is a carrier of the sickle cell trait and has been told that she is anemic by a doctor in her childhood. Her dad has the disease, but her mom does not; a free DNA test that she took one month ago says that she's a carrier of the sickle cell trait.

The symptoms for sickle cell anemia suggest that some of the problems that she experiences may in fact be related to this disease. She gets abdominal pain, joint pain, breathlessness, fatigue, and has poor eyesight. But each of these symptoms could be something else, like Arthritis (the joint pain that she experiences during storms, and sometimes during sunny days), or asthma (she was diagnosed with it when she was young, and it has improved dramatically since then). The abdominal pain is typically a burning sensation that occurs a few times a month and lasts anywhere from a few seconds to an hour each time. This is fairly recent, as it started happening four years ago, unlike the joint pain, which began in childhood. She has had different kinds of abdominal pains in her childhood, though, and continues to have different kinds in addition to the burning sensation to this day. The fatigue has been present since childhood as well. Iron pills every other day seem to help with fatigue. It is too early to tell if the Bone and Joint Formula is working for the arthritis, or whatever her joint pain may be.

We've read that being a carrier of the trait often includes sickle cell anemia-like symptoms. (Her childhood doctor also said that her anemia is related to being a carrier for the trait.) Why is this, considering that it doesn't develop into the disease? I thought that being a carrier for something means that the gene is present but is not expressed.

Do you know of any effective treatments for these symptoms? Are these symptoms treated like anyone else's who do not have the trait or the disease? Tweet