<p class="title">Google Doodle on Friday paid tribute to English haematologist Lucy Wills, whose early research in India helped identify folic acid supplementation to prevent anaemia in pregnant women.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The doodle, depicting Wills working in a laboratory setting, commemorates her 131st birth anniversary.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Born in 1888, Wills conducted seminal work in India in 1928 on macrocytic anaemia during pregnancy, which is characterised by enlarged red blood cells and is life-threatening.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Her observations led to the discovery of a nutritional factor in yeast which both prevents and cures this disorder.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The nutritional factor called the 'Wills Factor' was subsequently shown to be folate, the naturally occurring form of folic acid.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Macrocytic anaemia was prevalent in a severe form among poorer women with dietary deficiencies, particularly those in the textile industry.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Wills observed an apparent correlation between the dietary habits of different classes of women in Mumbai and the likelihood of their becoming anaemic during pregnancy.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This anaemia was then known as 'pernicious anaemia of pregnancy'.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, Wills was able to demonstrate that the anaemia she observed differed from true pernicious anaemia, as the patients did not have achlorhydria or inability to produce gastric acid.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Wills spent her life travelling the world and researching on the health of pregnant women until her death in 1964. PTI SAR SAR</p>
<p class="title">Google Doodle on Friday paid tribute to English haematologist Lucy Wills, whose early research in India helped identify folic acid supplementation to prevent anaemia in pregnant women.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The doodle, depicting Wills working in a laboratory setting, commemorates her 131st birth anniversary.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Born in 1888, Wills conducted seminal work in India in 1928 on macrocytic anaemia during pregnancy, which is characterised by enlarged red blood cells and is life-threatening.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Her observations led to the discovery of a nutritional factor in yeast which both prevents and cures this disorder.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The nutritional factor called the 'Wills Factor' was subsequently shown to be folate, the naturally occurring form of folic acid.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Macrocytic anaemia was prevalent in a severe form among poorer women with dietary deficiencies, particularly those in the textile industry.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Wills observed an apparent correlation between the dietary habits of different classes of women in Mumbai and the likelihood of their becoming anaemic during pregnancy.</p>.<p class="bodytext">This anaemia was then known as 'pernicious anaemia of pregnancy'.</p>.<p class="bodytext">However, Wills was able to demonstrate that the anaemia she observed differed from true pernicious anaemia, as the patients did not have achlorhydria or inability to produce gastric acid.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Wills spent her life travelling the world and researching on the health of pregnant women until her death in 1964. PTI SAR SAR</p>