Tip No. 2: What Can You Do About Nausea?

What can you do about this nausea?

Nausea commonly accompanies inflammatory bowel disease and seems more typical of Crohn's disease. Some people report nausea mainly in the morning; others experience it during the day. Either way, it is troubling, interferes with regular eating, and certainly does not help with maintaining good nutritional status and a healthy weight.

Over my time working with people with IBD who experience nausea, and through my approach combining body and mind, I have noticed that several methods should be combined to manage nausea effectively. Here are my tips:

1. Check for a connection between stressful situations and the onset or worsening of nausea. For example, if it worsens during exams or heavy workloads, this may be the body's response to stress. What can you do?

i. You can use natural calming products that do not cause drowsiness, such as Rescue, valerian root drops, and chamomile or passionflower tea.

ii. Guided imagery and breathing exercises have been found very effective in calming anxiety and relieving stress. Here is one example. Its Hebrew acronym is "IMA," meaning earth, water, and air. This is how to do it:

• "Earth": relax your body, choose 3 places in it, and focus on them.
• "Air": take 3 deep abdominal breaths, imagining the air flowing to the places you chose.
• "Water": fill your mouth with saliva, hold it, swallow, and repeat 3 times.

1. Foods that help with nausea. In Chinese medicine, nausea is a sign of a disturbance in the liver meridian. The balancing taste is sour. What can you do?

• Add a few drops of fresh lemon to half a glass of water, or add 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to a glass of water. Drink several times a day.
• Suck on a lemon wedge, ice cubes, or a lemon or pineapple ice pop.
• Ginger root is considered effective against nausea. Grate fresh ginger into cooked dishes, suck on pieces of dried ginger, or put it in a cup of tea and eat it after drinking, when its pungency is reduced.
• Also check which foods you eat may worsen nausea. Sometimes store-bought baked goods, fried foods, high-fat snacks, and margarine can be the "culprits."

1. Medications: consult your doctor and try a range of antiemetic, or anti-nausea, medications with minimal side effects.

When to see a doctor

Nausea accompanied by repeated vomiting, an inability to drink, severe abdominal pain, or fever is not a matter for tips. It is a reason to contact a doctor promptly, or your care team if you have inflammatory bowel disease.

Nausea lasting for many days and preventing normal eating also deserves evaluation. Sometimes a medication is responsible; sometimes it is another treatable cause.

This is general news information and is not a substitute for personal advice from a doctor or dietitian.