Nausea and Vomiting

Overview

What is Nausea and Vomiting? 

Nausea is a feeling of discomfort in the stomach that often comes before vomiting, making you feel queasy or like you need to throw up. Vomiting is when your stomach forcefully pushes out its stomach contents through your mouth. This happens as a reflex triggered by different things like sickness, infections, motion sickness, or eating something harmful. Nausea and vomiting are common symptoms caused by various conditions, and they’re your body’s way of getting rid of things that are indigestible and could be harmful.

Causes

There’s a diverse range of causes of nausea and vomiting, which may include:

Gastrointestinal Infections

Viral infections (e.g., norovirus), bacterial infections (e.g., food poisoning), or parasitic infections affecting the stomach and intestines.

Motion Sickness

Disruption of the inner ear balance due to motion, such as during car rides, boat trips, or air travel.

Morning Sickness

Common during the first trimester of pregnancy (morning sickness) due to hormonal changes.

Medications

Certain medications like chemotherapy drugs, antibiotics, opioids, or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can cause nausea and vomiting as side effects.

Digestive Disorders

Conditions such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), gastritis, peptic ulcers, or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Food Poisoning

Consuming contaminated food or beverages can lead to nausea and vomiting.

Food Intolerances and Allergies

Eating foods that trigger allergic reactions (e.g., peanuts, shellfish) or intolerances (e.g., lactose intolerance) can cause digestive symptoms including nausea and vomiting.

Psychological Factors

Stress, anxiety, fear, or emotional distress are the reasons for nausea and vomiting.

Neurological Conditions

Migraines, vertigo, or conditions affecting the brainstem can be associated with nausea and vomiting.

Motion or Balance Disorders

Disorders like Meniere’s disease or benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) can cause recurrent episodes of nausea and vomiting. Seeing movement out of the side windows of a car can make nausea worse.

Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy

Cancer treatments often cause nausea and vomiting as side effects. Individuals may have an increased risk of severe symptoms.

Toxins and Chemicals

Ingestion of toxins, alcohol, or exposure to certain chemicals can lead to gastrointestinal symptoms.

Some serious conditions that may bring on nausea or vomiting include:

• Concussions
• Encephalitis
• Meningitis
• Intestinal blockage
• Appendicitis
• Brain tumors

However, changes in your immune system and central nervous system can trigger your nausea and vomiting reflexes

What helps Nausea? 

To relieve nausea, try sipping ginger tea or nibbling on plain crackers. Rest in a calm, quiet environment and avoid strong odors. If you feel nauseated when you wake up in the morning, eat some crackers before getting out of bed or eat a high-protein snack (lean meat or cheese) before going to bed to prevent nausea. Also, if nausea persists or worsens, seek medical advice for appropriate nausea and vomiting treatment options.

What causes an upset stomach? 

An upset stomach can happen if you eat too much or eat spicy, fatty foods, feel stressed or anxious, have an infection like gastroenteritis, or take certain medications. It can also be due to food intolerances or conditions like gastritis or acid reflux. 

Why do I feel nauseous? 

Feeling nauseous after eating can happen if you eat too fast or have spicy, greasy food, or heavy foods. Conditions like acid reflux, gastritis, or food intolerances can also make you feel like you’re having nausea after eating. Stress, anxiety, or pregnancy can contribute to this feeling too.

What is Stomach Flu?

Stomach flu, or viral gastroenteritis, is an infection of the stomach and intestines caused by viruses like norovirus and rotavirus, leading to symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and fever. It is highly contagious and spreads through contaminated food, water, or close contact with infected individuals. Treatment focuses on staying hydrated and resting, with most cases resolving within a few days.

Symptoms

The signs of feeling sick and throwing up can differ depending on what’s causing them and the person experiencing them. Here are some common nausea and vomiting symptoms:

 Nausea

• Feeling like your stomach is upset
• A sense of discomfort or unease in your stomach
• More saliva or sweating than usual
• Not wanting to eat
• Being sensitive to certain smells
• Just feeling generally unwell
• Feeling nausea by the smell of hot or warm foods

 Vomiting

•    Strongly throwing up what’s in your stomach out of your mouth

•    Usually feeling sick before throwing up
•    Dry heaving or trying to throw up when there’s nothing left
•    Feeling a bit better after throwing up
•    Vomiting happening suddenly
•    Feeling tired or weak after throwing up

 Other nausea and vomiting symptoms, based on the underlying cause include:

 Stomach pain or cramps

• Having diarrhea or being constipated
• Getting a fever or feeling cold (if it’s because of an infection)
• Feeling dizzy or like you might faint
• Having a headache or body aches
• Getting dehydrated (losing too much fluid from throwing up)
• Feeling your heart beating fast or irregularly

Are You Vomiting Blood?

Vomiting blood, known as hematemesis, is a serious condition that requires immediate medical attention. It can be caused by various factors, including gastrointestinal bleeding, stomach ulcers, severe gastritis, or esophageal varices. The blood may appear bright red or resemble coffee grounds, indicating partially digested blood. In this case, seek medical care as soon as possible.

Diagnosis

Feeling sick and throwing up are signs that something might be wrong in your body. Your primary care physician can help figure out why.

To find out why you’re feeling this way, your doctor will examine you, ask about your nausea and vomiting symptoms, along with your health conditions, and check for signs of dehydration like dry lips or mouth and dark urine. This helps them to find out the causes of nausea and vomiting so they can give you the best treatment. If needed, your doctor might do some tests for nausea and vomiting diagnosis. These tests could include:

– Blood test: This can show signs of infection, anemia (low red blood cells), problems with minerals like sodium and potassium, or issues with your kidneys and liver. It can also check your nutrition.

– Urine test: This can check for infections or other health issues.

– Pregnancy test: This test shows if a pregnancy causing ongoing nausea.

– Upper GI endoscopy: If you have serious and ongoing nausea and vomiting, a specialist might use a long, flexible tube with a camera to look inside your upper digestive tract through your throat.

These tests can help your doctor understand what’s happening and how to treat you correctly.

Treatment

The nausea and vomiting treatment depends on why it’s happening and how bad the nausea and vomiting symptoms are. Here are the most common and most effective ways, answering ‘how to cure nausea?’:

Medications

• Anti-nausea Medicines: These drugs are made to stop nausea and vomiting. Examples include ondansetron, promethazine, metoclopramide, and dimenhydrinate. The type of medicine depends on what’s causing your nausea and vomiting symptoms.

• Motion Sickness Pills: Certain pills like meclizine or dimenhydrinate can help if you’re feeling sick from motion. Besides, to treat motion sickness in a car, sit in a way so you can face the front windshield.

• Acid Reducers: Drugs like Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) or Histamine-2 (H2) Blockers can lower stomach acid and ease nausea from acid reflux or gastritis.

• Anxiety Medicines: If anxiety makes you feel sick, medicines like benzodiazepines might be used.

Replacing Fluid and Salt 

• For mild cases, drinks like Pedialyte can replace lost fluids and salts.
• In severe cases, you might need IV fluids at the hospital to fix dehydration.

Changing Your Diet

•  Avoid big meals and hard-to-digest foods

• Avoid solid foods that can trigger nausea like spicy or fatty foods.
•  Eat small and bland meals like crackers, toast, bananas, or rice.

Using Home Remedies for Vomiting Nausea

• Ginger tea, ginger ale, or ginger supplements can help with nausea.
• Peppermint tea or candies can soothe your stomach.
• drink small amounts of clear and sweetened liquids, such as fruit juices
• Some wristbands press on certain spots that might help with nausea, especially for motion sickness.

Treating the Underlying Problem

• If your nausea is from a specific condition like a stomach bug, acid reflux, or migraines, treating that problem can help stop nausea and vomiting symptoms.

Changing Your Habits

• Avoid things that make you feel worse like strong smells, heat, or stress.
• Try relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation to manage stress-related nausea.

Prescription Medicines

•  For severe or ongoing nausea from things like chemotherapy or pregnancy, stronger prescription drugs might be needed.

How to stop Vomiting? 

To stop vomiting, it’s best to give your stomach a break by not eating solid food or greasy food and instead drinking clear liquids such as water or ginger ale, and eating smaller, and more frequent meals. If you keep throwing up or have severe nausea and vomiting symptoms, it’s important to see a doctor right away to get checked and treated properly.

Define Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome.

Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS) is a disorder characterized by recurrent, constant nausea and vomiting that have no apparent cause. These episodes can last from hours to days, with symptom-free periods in between. The exact cause of CVS is unknown, but it is often linked to migraines and may be triggered by stress, infections, or certain foods.

When To See A Doctor

It’s important to see a doctor if you have nausea and persistent vomiting that won’t go away after a few days, especially if you feel dehydrated with a dry mouth, dark urine, or dizziness. Also, seek medical help right away if you see blood in your vomit, have severe stomach pain, or can’t keep any fluids down because you’re vomiting too much. These signs could mean there’s a serious problem that needs to be checked and treated by a doctor.

Disclaimer

This information is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical advice. If you have concerns about nausea and vomiting or any other medical condition, please see a doctor for an accurate nausea and vomiting diagnosis and personalized treatment suggestions.