Tips for fighting pregnancy nausea as new study finds link between hormone and morning sickness

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Some people will be welcoming an addition to the family in the new year.

But there’s an unwelcome part of a pregnancy researchers are taking a closer look at.

A new study published in the journal “Nature” found some women might be more sensitive than others to a hormone considered to be the cause of morning sickness.

The hormone is called GDF15 and is normally present in low levels in the body.

But when women are pregnant, the fetus causes those levels to go up, which can bring on nausea and vomiting.

“So this study was a little different because it looked at how we are exposed to this hormone prior to pregnancy and how that relates to how we experience nausea and vomiting during pregnancy,” Dr. Lee Ann Garner, a Novant Health gynecologist at Glen Meade OBGYN said. “So women who were exposed to lower levels of this prior to pregnancy tended to have a more robust response to is, in a very negative way.”

Garner said eating small and frequent meals and taking foods or supplements that have ginger in them, may help in the fight against morning sickness.