Who hasn’t experienced nausea? A queasy stomach and an imminent urge to vomit are common digestive problems. Most often, nausea occurs as the result of ingesting foods or medications or traveling in a moving vehicle. Here's some practical advice on avoiding nausea from Johns Hopkins.
Nausea isn't inevitable, especially when it comes to the most common causes. Here are some no-nonsense precautions to follow:
- Eat smaller, more frequent meals, and eat at a slow pace. This will allow your stomach to digest foods at a reasonable rate.
- Be careful what you eat, especially while traveling in foreign or tropical locales. Whether you're at home or on vacation, don't eat raw or undercooked meat or seafood, or food that appears to have been sitting out for a long time. Also avoid spicy and fried foods. In countries with poor sanitation, don't drink tap water or consume any fruits and vegetables that you can't peel or boil before eating.
- Wash your hands frequently to cleanse away any bacteria or viruses.
- Monitor your medication use closely, particularly when you first start taking a drug to see if it causes stomach upset. Many times the nausea goes away after a few days or weeks of taking the medication, but if nausea persists talk to your doctor or pharmacist. He or she may recommend that you change the time of day you take the medication (for example, taking your pills at night so that you'll be asleep when the nausea occurs and less likely to notice it), or take the medication with food. If you're going for cancer treatment, your doctor will typically prescribe anti-nausea drugs to prevent stomach upset and vomiting.
- Sit in the front seat of the car if possible, and don't read while riding. If you're on a boat, look at the horizon and stay in the midsection of the ship, where it's most stable. On a train, sit in the same direction that the train is moving.
- Medication is also an option, particularly if you've had motion sickness and nausea before, the seas are rough, or you're traveling on windy roads. Non-prescription drugs such as dimenhydrinate (Dramamine) and meclizine (Bonine) or the prescription agent scopolamine, which is available as a patch (Transderm Scop) or pill (Scopace), should be taken half an hour to an hour before you get on the vehicle.
Medications That Can Cause Nausea
Although medications help treat illnesses, a number of them can cause an upset stomach as a side effect:
- Chemotherapy and hormonal drugs for cancer
- Antidepressants
- Antibiotics (particularly erythromycin)
- Pain drugs containing opioids such as codeine
- Theophylline (a drug for asthma)
- Aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
- Nausea is also common after anesthesia for surgery and following radiation therapy for cancer.
High doses of zinc and potassium supplements as well as fish-oil capsules may also make you feel nauseous.
