Therapy
Since nausea can have numerous causes, it is difficult to give a general treatment strategy. However, there are some things that are generally true. For example, if the nausea is caused by excessive food intake or alcohol consumption, you should avoid food/alcohol until the symptoms have disappeared.
However, if the nausea occurs because too little food was eaten, the patient should eat something light. Drinking enough should be ensured, preferably still water and gentle herbal teas such as camomile or peppermint tea. Sometimes it can help to put a hot-water bottle or a warm cherry pit pillow on the stomach or to massage the stomach gently.
Visual stimuli such as TV or computer games should be avoided if nausea is present. Homeopathic remedies are also frequently used. “Nux vomica” is particularly popular for this.
In medical institutions, mainly medicines with the active substance pantoprazole are used. The nausea is primarily combated as the cause. In the case of the effects of stress and migraine, attempts are made to alleviate the cause by sedation.
Likewise, incorrect nutrition can be adjusted as a cause of stomach upset. In the treatment of nausea in general, patient cooperation and intensive activity on the part of the doctor is required in order to investigate the exact cause and to be able to help the patient in a more targeted manner. There are several drugs that are used to treat nausea.
For example, scopolamine is recommended for travel nausea. This drug is to be applied to the skin as a patch (Scopoderm®). However, due to the way it is applied (patch) it has a delayed effect and should in the best case be applied before the nausea occurs, for example before the start of an air or sea journey.
Then it works relatively reliably over several days. However, it is relatively expensive and requires a prescription. For example, dimenhydrinate, better known as Vomex®, is available without a prescription.
It works relatively quickly against nausea, not only in the case of travel-related nausea. It is available as tablets, chewing gum and suppositories in pharmacies. Metoclopramide (MCP) is also an antiemetic, i.e. a remedy for nausea.
It is available in drop and tablet form, but only with a prescription. Both metoclopramide and dimenhydrinate can generally be taken during pregnancy, but the gynaecologist treating you should always be consulted beforehand. Ginger is known as a household remedy against nausea and vomiting.
For this purpose the part of a tuber should be peeled and cut into strips. Place the strips in a cup and pour hot but not boiling water over them and let them steep for a few minutes. Then drink sips.
Ginger is said to be able to trigger premature contractions in pregnant women, so this variant should not be used during pregnancy. Besides the already mentioned renouncement of alcohol and nicotine, rest and fresh air usually already provide some relief. In addition, only small, light meals should be taken.
Sufficient fluid intake is always important and helpful. and home remedies against vomiting signals or different or even conflicting information, especially of the vestibular system and the visual apparatus (concerning vision), lead to a conflict of sensory perceptions. The different sensory perceptions concern the posture in space.
The combination of these different information of different sensory organs seems to be impossible and therefore feelings of fear arise. The body reports movement through the organ of balance in the inner ear, but the eyes report the opposite. However, vision is not an absolute condition for motion sickness (kinetasio), because it is known that blind people can also get motion sickness.
The organ of equilibrium in the ear reports a rocking motion on a ship at sea, while below deck the impression is created for the affected person that everything is quiet. A frequently prescribed drug for motion sickness is butylscopolamine. Migraine attacks are characterized by strong, hammering and throbbing pain, which usually develops slowly and lasts 4-72 hours (Patient guideline Headache and Migraine, University of Witten, 2005).
In migraine attacks, the severe headache is usually limited to one side of the head, but rarely affects the entire head. Accompanying symptoms of migraine are often photophobia, nausea and vomiting.Overactivity, fatigue and ravenous appetite often precede a migraine attack. Migraine attacks can be triggered by certain circumstances such as lack of sleep, environmental influences, hormone fluctuations, stress, certain foods, noise, weather influences, fluctuations in the caffeine level – especially when drinking caffeine regularly -, hypoglycaemia (fluctuations in the blood sugar level) due to skipping meals, etc.
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