A significant scientific advance has revealed the possibility of a safe medication that can be taken before pregnancy to prevent annoying morning sickness.
Previously, scientists had discovered a hormone that appeared to trigger morning sickness in the brain, but they spent nearly a decade trying to understand how it works.
Now, they have made an important breakthrough by discovering that this hormone, called GDF15, must be at a high level in a pregnant woman's body, but she also needs a low level of it before pregnancy, in order to experience morning sickness.
It appears that the sudden rise in the hormone, higher than what the woman had previously experienced, is what causes nausea and vomiting.
This discovery paves the way for a drug that women can take even before pregnancy, to increase their GDF15 level, and thus reduce their likelihood of suffering from morning sickness.
Professor Stephen O'Reilly, from the University of Cambridge, led a study that presented the new findings, and said: “Severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy is very common for women. "Our findings show the role of GDF15, and should change the way we treat morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum, to reduce women's suffering."
Scientists already had early evidence that GDF15 was usually higher in women with pregnancies, and they confirmed this in the new study using high-quality blood tests from more than 400 women.
But clearly this wasn't the whole story, as women with very high GDF15 did not always have morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum (HG).
To better understand how the hormone works, the research team looked at women who had a rare genetic mutation known to increase the risk of HG during pregnancy by 10-fold.
They discovered for the first time that women had very low levels of the hormone GDF15 before pregnancy.
The detailed study, published in the journal Nature, indicates that enhancing a woman's ability to tolerate the hormone before pregnancy, by giving her a medication containing it, could be the key to preventing morning sickness.
The scientists say their data shows that a drug that doubles GDF15 levels before pregnancy could cut the risk of HG in half.
Metformin, which is currently given to people with type 2 diabetes, is a promising candidate, and scientists are preparing to test it in women early next year.
Blocking the hormone from triggering nausea, using an injection, could be another potential treatment method, although this should be safe for pregnant women.
8 years after his brain tumor was overlooked a patient reveals warning signs he witnessed!
A man who suffered from a brain tumor undetected for eight years has revealed the key warning signs to look for based on his experience.
Matt Carpenter spoke about the signs that should have prompted him to return to doctors in the years after the failure to detect the tumor in a CT scan in 2010.
In January 2018, Carpenter was told he had a low-grade glioma on his brain and would need urgent surgery.
Previously, Carpenter admitted that he had suffered from high stress and fatigue, and said: “In the eight years, my brain tumor remained unnoticed, and it obviously became larger and larger, but I never suffered from headaches.”
Headaches top the NHS's list of brain tumor symptoms, which makes it understandable that Carpenter was hesitant to get tested despite some other symptoms. He also added that he did not suffer from blurred vision.
Carpenter explained: “The brain tumor did not cause any symptoms that I could notice until 2012-2013. Every now and then I would forget how to say certain words or forget what to say in the middle of a sentence.”
Like vision problems, speech problems are a relatively common sign of a brain tumor, but Carpenter said he ignored it, thinking he needed to "see a speech therapist."
It was another few years before he experienced changes in his mental and emotional health. “My emotional responses and mental health have been completely skewed,” he said.
But, this could also be explained another way, in his opinion, by working in a “high-pressure environment.”
“The biggest sign that should have been detected didn’t start until 2017, about a year before the diagnosis,” Carpenter says. The first incident was when I was on my way to America.” He explained that he sat on the plane next to an Irish couple before he went to sleep. When he woke up, he described feeling “some strange noises, drooling, but he was unable to move and struggling to breathe.”
Carpenter continued to endure similar experiences for several months until his diagnosis the following year.
The seizure he felt at an important business meeting was the straw that broke the camel's back, as he felt like he was having a stroke, after which Carpenter was diagnosed with a brain tumor after seeing medical professionals.
Although the tumor was not initially detected, he explained: “The best advice I can give to anyone who is worried about their body: if you feel something, just talk to your doctor.”
After being diagnosed in January 2018, the tumor was removed two months later.
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