More than 70,000 Americans suffer from sickle cell anemia, an inherited blood disorder that can be very painful and has no cure.

Fortunately doctors may be on the verge of discovering new treatments.

The hospital is a painfully common place for Juanita Gougis and Dave Auberry.

They have sickle cell anemia, and pain is just part of it.

In Dave's case it affected his growth. For Juanita it meant countless days away from school and social events.

Blood transfusions and surgery can reduce the risk of stroke and other complications, but there is no cure yet.

Dr. Yutaka Niihara may change that.

He made a surprising discovery when he was doing research on sickle cell.

"We did not want to believe it because it just seemed so simple," Dr. Niihara said.

The researchers found that when they applied glutamine, a common amino acid and nutritional supplement, to sickled cells in the lab it caused them to open up and become the normal ball-like shape.

"What this treatment does, is we are adding substance that is going to increase anti-oxidant in red blood cell and this seems to prevent all the damages that's caused by sickling," explained Dr. Niihara.

When Nihara and his team began to administer a strong form of glutamine to patients, the results were astonishing.

"We had about 85 percent success. One child had kidney dysfunction which is not uncommon for sickle cell patients. After starting on this medication, the kidney function start to normalize and this was really a fascinating story for me because this was one case where things actually reversed," he said.

Juanita and Dave volunteered for the study.

"It's better to try something that could possibly give me less frequent crises. Even if it doesn't work for me, it might work for the next person that has sickle cell," Dave said.

Dave's crises went down from once a month to once every three months.

Juanita, who used to go to the the hospital for treatment six times a year, only went once in the last year and a half.

Researchers hope to one day start the treatment in infancy in order to prevent organ damage.