- Google celebrating the 131st birth anniversary of leading English hematologist, Lucy Wills who was the pioneer in tackling prenatal anemia during pregnancy.
- Lucy's seminal work in India in the late 1920s and early 1930s helped identify folic acid supplementation to prevent anemia in pregnant women.
- She spent her life traveling the world and researching on the health of pregnant women until her death in 1964.
- Lucy Wills observed an apparent correlation between the dietary habits of different classes of Bombay women and the likelihood of their becoming anemic during pregnancy.
- This anemia was then known as 'pernicious anemia of pregnancy'.
- The nutritional factor called the 'Wills Factor' was subsequently shown to be folate, the naturally occurring form of folic acid.
Published On : 10 May 2019
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