Radiation Mystery

Vomiting is an important protective function, i.e., the stomach eliminates or warns against dangerous substances in the body. But, while doctors know how to induce vomiting,* they have never found out exactly how it is caused. Scientists at the University of Utah College of Medicine are now studying vomiting for a clue to the nature of one of man's newest ailments: radiation sickness.

Doctors have found that--for unknown reasons--radiation victims who vomit almost immediately after exposure are almost sure to die, and those who do not vomit at all are almost certain to survive. This fact led Utah's Pharmacologist Herbert L. Borison to conclude that vomiting may hold the key to the process that causes death from radiation.

Convinced that a "thread" somewhere in the human body linked vomiting with many types of illness, Dr. Borison and Columbia University's Dr. S. C. Wang determined, in 1953, the existence of a vomiting control center and a trigger zone in the brain stem. By removing the trigger zone from the brains of dogs and cats, Dr. Borison and his research staff have been able to prevent vomiting that ordinarily follows the injection of certain chemicals into the blood stream.

Researcher Borison is sure he has discovered an additional trigger zone somewhere "lower down" in the central nervous system, that sets off radiation-induced vomiting. By cutting certain nerves in the upper abdomen that lead to the control center, he is able to prevent vomiting from radiation. If he can discover the cause of radiation-induced vomiting, a way may be found to combat death from radiation sickness.

*By tickling the back of the throat, administering solutions of mustard or potassium tartrate, or by injecting other emetic drugs.

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