Nausea

[Beth]

Hi everyone,

I've been getting clobbered with terrible nausea for the past several days. Last night it was so bad, I had dry heaves. (Yuck!) What do you all do for nausea? I can't bear the thought of pepto bismal. That stuff alone makes me want to vomit, never mind forcing it down when I'm so nauseated. Any other (natural?) solutions out there?

Thanks!
Elizabeth

[Deb]

Ginger is usually helpful (tea, ale, etc). Also, I've heard acupuncture can help. Deb

[ldubois7]

Beth,

What is causing the nausea? I have slight nausea some mornings. But it's nothing I can't handle. Sometimes after I eat, it goes away. I can't imagine having it severely. So sorry!

Try yoga and deep breathing. I have tried natural remedies (ginger & peppermint), but I can't say that it lessened my queasiness in the past.

There are prescription suppositories that can help.

[Gabes-Apg]

Hi there
Nausea can be histamine/mast cell related.

Beth - hope you feel better soon.
I had a natural peppermint cream that you put on your wrists that would help reduce nausea.

[wmonique2]

Beth,

I had horrible nausea that no doctor could treat without making me sicker...the only thing that stopped my nausea was elavil, 10 mg stops it dead in its tracks. generic is amitriptiline (sp?). If 10 mg don't do it, go up half pill to 15 mg. It's an anti-depressant that in small doses calms the gut. You definitely have a mast cell issue. It saved my life because I didn't have a life anymore.

feel better,

Monique

[Lesley]

I get terrible nausea with the GERD, especially at night. I find that sipping ice water, and maybe sucking on something helps to settle it faster.

[Julie]

Hi,

I use breathing techniques (that I found on the internet) and Litican (medicine --> Alizapride). I only use the Litican when the nausea is severe. The breathing techniques usually work for me.

I always keep myzelf busy when feeling nauseaus. I play games on the internet, I read a book, I watch TV, ... I do this for this reason: When you feel nauseaus, you tend to focus on that feeling, and therefor you will get even more nauseaus. When you keep your mind of it, it could get better.

Good luck!

Julie

[Beth]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I was on an SSRI for years and it gave me 10 years of adrenal fatigue, so I won't be touching the meds. But I'll try the ginger and the deep breathing.

Also, if I can't take an antihistamine (makes me jittery), is there anything I can do about the mast cell issue?

[tex]

Hi Elizabeth,

I'm sorry that you're having severe nausea problems. It used to really get my goat back when I was still reacting, and it was the main reason why I was unable to work, on many days.

Of course, corticosteroids suppress mast cell numbers, but please be aware that mast cells numbers are apparently mediated by vitamin D. From pages 176 and 177 of my book:

Another reason why an adequate level of vitamin D is essential for proper immune system function can be inferred from the fact that vitamin D plays a vital role in regulating the development of mast cells.20 Baroni et al. (2006) showed that mice without vitamin d receptors produced mast cells that matured much more rapidly than mast cells from normal animals, and their mast cells were much more sensitive (subject to inappropriate degranulation). These researchers also showed that mice without vitamin D3 receptors produced more mast cells than normal mice, thus creating a potentially unstable mast cell environment that predisposes to a proinflammatory environment. These are very important observations because as we shall see in chapter 16, this phenomenon appears to play a vital role in the development of not only microscopic colitis, but also in all inflammatory bowel diseases and possibly all autoimmune issues.

Here's the reference:

20. Baroni, E., Biffi, M., Benigni, F., Monno, A., Carlucci, D., Carmeliet, G., . . . D’Ambrosio, D. (2006). VDR-dependent regulation of mast cell maturation mediated by 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. Journal of Leukocyte Biology, 81(1), 250–262. Advance online publication. doi:10.1189/jlb.0506322

The full article is now available at:

http://www.jleukbio.org/content/81/1/250.long

I have no idea how much it would take to have an effect on mast cell numbers, unfortunately, nor how long it would take to see results. But if your blood level of vitamin D is low, this could be an important factor.

Tex

[Beth]

Tex - thank you! I hadn't gotten to that part in your book yet, so I'm really grateful to you for telling me about this. I'm going to hit the vitamin D again!

[carolm]

HI Beth, I've had the kind of nausea that Tex describes-- so intense that you just can't move, let alone work, etc. Unfortunately I had gastritis and take Dexilant, but Zantac is also helpful and is an H2 inhibitor. I know pregnant women have been prescribed Benadryl for nausea and early contractions. I had the best luck with acupuncture however. I was tired of taking meclizine and zofran and wanted to try something else. Nausea is one of the conditions that acupuncture has been clinically proven to help. Pain is the other.
I will still get slightly nauseated if my gut motility seems aggressive that day. But it doesn't plague me like it used to. It was awful.

I hope that helps-- take care
Carol

[maestraz]

First thing I thought when I read your post; could you be pregnant again?

[Beth]

Thank you, Carol. I really appreciate your thoughts. The nausea seems to have lessened in the past couple of days - thank goodness!

Suze - oh, my god! Please, don't even breathe a word of it!