So they won't die from cyclic vomiting. But doctors don't know what causes it, or even how common it is. Only two studies have been done, one in Western Australia and one in Scotland. That's about one in 50. In adults, it's much rarer.
Chances are, the milder cases are undiagnosed and untreated.
Not a lot of doctors are aware of cyclic vomiting, even though it's been in the medical literature for a while. Dr B. Li is from the Columbus Children's Hospital in Ohio. Since that time, we really haven't known what this is, and still don't know today. And we don't know the cause, we don't know it exactly happens, or if the main thing that's affected is even the brain or the stomach. Vomiting's controlled by the brain, but it has a lot of different causes.