Probably one of my most hated things ever would have to be the stomach-turning sensation that is nausea, and I am sure I am not alone in thinking this. It ruins a good meal, it makes sleeping hell and it is most certainly not the most pleasant thing to wake up to.

I've been chatting with both family and friends about nausea, as well as stomach problems in general, and the popular opinion seems to be that while prescribed medication does work, alternative methods are just as good.

I've heard quite a few different remedies, from peppermint tea to yogurt to just stickin' it out. So now, I am curious. Do any of the Escapists have any methods for treating, or at least helping deal with, nausea and stomach sickness? Also, any stories you have about dealing with this crappy ailment would be interesting.

Anonymouse:
I don't know if it is the same but I do suffer from like a burning stomach at times. I just take a antacid known as Quick-Eze and it fades.

Ugh, heartburn. That's up there with nausea for me. Bloody horrible stuff.

It's probably not healthy, but I just tend to wait it out. Anything I take just seems to exacerbate it.

Do you have a balanced diet? Or is it a medical issue?

Personally the only thing that has made me feel really nauseous is people vomiting!

Noamuth:

I've heard quite a few different remedies, from peppermint tea to yogurt to just stickin' it out. So now, I am curious. Do any of the Escapists have any methods for treating, or at least helping deal with, nausea and stomach sickness? Also, any stories you have about dealing with this crappy ailment would be interesting.

Buccastem. You can get it from your doctor and that deals with it quite nicely.

JakalMc:
It's probably not healthy, but I just tend to wait it out. Anything I take just seems to exacerbate it.

Yeah, that's what I am doing at the moment. I've had it when the meds I am taking at the moment. They work, but not long enough to justify taking it.

rossatdi:
Do you have a balanced diet? Or is it a medical issue?

Personally the only thing that has made me feel really nauseous is people vomiting!

Funny thing is, my diet is a lot better than it used to be. But since it changed (about a year ago now), I've been having problems. o.o Probably still adjusting.

As far as I know, it is not a medical issue. Just a royal pain in the arse. Stomach. Whatever.

And ugh. Seeing/hearing people throw up makes me cringe.

cuddly_tomato:

Noamuth:
-snip-

Buccastem. You can get it from your doctor and that deals with it quite nicely.

I might look into it. Cheers.

Ugh, nausea. My only nemesis besides headaches and douchebags.
And heartburn. Man, I hate heartburn, it's like a puppy that won't stop mauling your leg, only far less endearing.

What I do is drink soda, any clear one will work. I also try and eat a small bit of bread or maybe a mini muffin. I dunno if these just work for me or not, but they work.

I get that too,
I'm fine during the day, but as it get towards having a meal in the evening, I feel ... ill?

What I found is, that quite a lot of it is physiological;
If I sit and eat a meal, and do nothing I don't enjoy it, and it becomes worse.
But when I went to Spain the other year, The family that I stayed with see food as a social occasion. And it was less about eating, more about talking.
Try being more relaxed when you go into eat a meal, the more comfortable you feel, the less you're thinking about the food, so the less impact it has.

Works for me anyways.

Mylanta for the win. That helps most stomach irritations.

If I ever have stomach troubles "Mylanta" solves them.

handofpwn:
What I do is drink soda, any clear one will work. I also try and eat a small bit of bread or maybe a mini muffin. I dunno if these just work for me or not, but they work.

Yea i agree with the soda. Also try "flat" soda.

I have a big problem with heartburn. I eat Tums as if they were candy.

On topic though, I always drink Ginger Ale whenever I get nauseous.

handofpwn:
What I do is drink soda, any clear one will work. I also try and eat a small bit of bread or maybe a mini muffin. I dunno if these just work for me or not, but they work.

I do kind of the same. Ginger Ale, and some crackers are something similar to get something in my stomach. I've long suspected though that this works for me largely because of the placebo effect; this is what my mother would always give us when we were feeling ill as children.

That said, I very rarely actually feel sick anymore unless I instigated it (see: drank too much). I'm fortunate in that I rarely get sick.

No shit apples help with nausea. I dont know exactly why but its one of the chemicals in them settles the stomach. Always lessens my symptoms.

Ginger ale is used as a home remedy to prevent or alleviate motion sickness, to relieve upset stomachs and to soothe coughs and sore throats.

Thats from Wikipedia. I was always curious as to whether or not it actually helped or if it was in my head. It seems the ginger in Ginger Ale is effective at treating nausea.

Wait it out 'till I puke. Problem solved. I always feel fine after that.

Any ginger will work, and I believe they sell ginger pills for specifically this purpose. They tested motion-sickness treatments on Mythbusters and they said the ginger pills worked the best.

I have a serious hatred of nausea. For some reason I tend to get nauseous when I'm nervous,like some people get headaches or whatever, so I get nauseous a lot more than is common for most people, especially when I was a kid before I learned to recognize that it was psychological and control it. I also hate vomiting, almost to the point of a phobia, so I've got a fear thing going with it too. And it does tend to ruin a lot of things for me, my mood, my appetite (which isn't good since I need to gain weight). Sucks.

This is how bad i hate nausea.

I would take 10 hours of machine gun squits over 3 seconds of vomitting.

But! I have hyper acidity...good and bad.

Bad because I get really nauseous if I don't take my pills everyday.

Awesome because i never feel nauseous with my pills!

JakalMc:
It's probably not healthy, but I just tend to wait it out. Anything I take just seems to exacerbate it.

Same here, I don't really act on it. Although I will say that I find the feeling of vertigo and free-falling to be even worse.

Sprite (and identically brewed carbonated drinks) all seem to quell upset guts. For me it does anyway.

What I can't stand is people saying they're nauseous, which means nausea inducing. The correct term is nauseated.

"That gas smells, its nauseous"

"After smelling that gas I feel nauseated.

I've always found that drinking some ginger ale helps.

EDIT: Damn, I didn't see that people had beaten me to it. Sorry.

So I was reading this book by Sartre and... oh wait.
So I was listening to this song by Beck and then... hm.
Well, all that's really worked for me in the past is ginger ale, something with electrolytes (gatorade perhaps), and meditation. Best of luck though!

Last year I was throwing up for two and a half months solid, I lost three stone and couldn't sleep for more than half an hour. Ended up needing a blood transfusion, I'd torn my oesophagus so much!

Nausea is also why I hardly drink anymore (I prefer a good old sugar rush instead). I'm the type that only gets stomach hangovers, to the point where on several occasions I've had to take a newspaper and blanket into the bathroom with me because I wouldn't have time to make it back to bed before the next wave hit. My personal record is twelve hours one New Years Day.
To the people who only ever get and complain about headache hangovers, I HATE YOU WITH EVERY CONCEIVABLE PART OF MY BEING.

Treatment depends on what the meds are that are causing the problem - ginger is a good remedy for motion sickness, and probably for nausea in general (I find Ginger biscuits really help).

If it's nausea caused by NSAID's (some types of painkller, i.e. Ibuprofen), then you need to ask your doctor to prescribe some heavy duty antacids (i.e. PPI's), as the former are well are known for preventing your stomach protecting itself from it's own acids.

If it's an allergy to your new meds, then possibly anti-histimines, but most likely a change of medicine is in order - it's much better move to a different type than have to take another bunch of pills to try to rectify what's gone wrong.

nausea never really bothered me while trying to sleep but i do get alot of gas that wont come out and it keeps me up

My experience with nausea is extensive enough that I can accurately predict the likelyhood of my throwing up (in percentages no less) but sticking it out is not recommended unless you have no other recourse. Trust me on that. Working while nauseated is never good.

Actually, a bit off topic but, being underweight is actually dangerous to your health. Not anorexic thin but thin enough that you can eat several times a day and still lose weight. A fast metabolism I think it's called. Can cause a host of problems: nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. HEY PEPTO BISMOL! Sorry.

Benadryl.

I have an iron stomach and rarely throw up, but my wife had a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum while she was pregnant with our kids... she threw up morning, noon and night practically the entire nine months. Her ob/gyn had a medical book from the 1920's that listed the progression of the illness as nausea, vomiting, dehydration, delirium, and death. Before IV fluids, there wasn't anything they could do except abort the pregnancy. Anyway, while she was sick, she was prescribed zofran, but the doc told her to take benadryl to help with the nausea as well. If you look at the packaging, you'll notice that it's the exact same medicine in OTC sleeping pills, too.

Ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory, which can often ease whatever's out of whack in the digestive tract, making you feel ill. Ginger ale can work, though it's more for the carbonation in it than any effects of ginger (sometimes a good ol' burp will help). Ginger amounts in most ginger ale are negligable.

When I feel nauseated (you are correct, Bryn) I make a ginger tea. Take fresh ginger root, peel off the skin and cut the ginger into chunks. You only need a little - maybe a little less than a cubic inch, 3 cubic cm. Toss that into some water, simmer for about 8-10 minutes and drink. It's quite nice with a bit of honey to sweeten it a tad. And it makes your house smell good.

My fiance swears by ginger snaps, too. Same deal with the ginger there, but I think it likely takes a special person to be able to eat cookies when you're sick to your stomach. He's pretty special. ;P

PumpItUp:
Actually, a bit off topic but, being underweight is actually dangerous to your health. Not anorexic thin but thin enough that you can eat several times a day and still lose weight. A fast metabolism I think it's called. Can cause a host of problems: nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. HEY PEPTO BISMOL! Sorry.

Sounds like something that needs checking out in case of an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) to me?

Blue Sonnet:

PumpItUp:
Actually, a bit off topic but, being underweight is actually dangerous to your health. Not anorexic thin but thin enough that you can eat several times a day and still lose weight. A fast metabolism I think it's called. Can cause a host of problems: nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. HEY PEPTO BISMOL! Sorry.

Sounds like something that needs checking out in case of an overactive thyroid (hyperthyroidism) to me?

Actually, I have been checked out and it was simply the result of an overactive metabolism. Nothing I can control. The proof is that I can eat any quantity of any food (though I usually shouldn't) and NEVER gain weight. The only weight I've ever gained is through muscle and bone growth, which doesn't really count. And the weirdest part? I'm around 115 pounds and I'm 19!