In this post I will talk about how I have been able to reduce my nausea through the many remedies I've tried.
Note: please consult your doctor before trying anything mentioned and especially if your nausea is uncontrollable or you are vomiting. I am not a doctor, I am only sharing remedies to consider and what has worked for me.
A very common symptom of gastroparesis is being incredibly nauseous. Whether you are nauseous before or after eating, at night or in the morning, it varies for each person. There are many people with this disease that end up throwing up everything they eat or drink making them in need for a feeding tube. There is a large majority of us though that are not vomiting, but do suffer with constant nausea. Whether you have gastroparesis or not, everyone gets nauseous at some point in their life, I hope this can be of use for you as well.
I used to wake up in the middle of the night so nauseous that it felt like I was dying. It would make me have to fall asleep sitting up on the couch, sitting at the kitchen table or in the bathroom. By morning I was completely exhausted but I wouldn't feel nauseous anymore. This would happen a few times a week and it lasted for months. Finally I knew I needed to change something I was doing, so the first thing I did was stopped eating anything solid after 5:30/6pm (if going to bed around 10:00). That was what completely stopped the nighttime nausea I was feeling. The reason I was experiencing this nausea is because with gastroparesis your body needs extra time to digest. Eating at 7:30 and lying down to go to bed at 10pm is not even close to enough time to let your stomach digest enough to not cause problems (at least that is the time frame for me). Everyone has different results when it comes to gastroparesis and the gastric emptying test we take. During my test, after 4 hours of eating two pieces of toast and scrambled eggs I still needed to digest 40% of it! Kind of annoying. I also know people with gp who only needed 10% left, or 60%, etc. It varies per person. What doesn't vary though is that we all have really hard symptoms to deal with. If you feel nauseous in the morning, still try not eating solids late. You may be able to get to sleep fine but when you wake up your stomach may be trying really hard to still digest the food from the night before.
I personally swear by not eating past 5:30/6:00. Does it suck sometimes? Yes. Is it hard to get used to? Yes. But to me it is worth it. Even if you aren't getting night time or morning nausea you should not be eating late! No one should be, your body needs time to digest before lying down. When you first start to not eat solids past 5:30/6 you will feel hungry the rest of the night and it will feel like torture. You WILL get used to it. Eat a popsicle or drink tea, have anything liquid to help you out because they digest much faster than solids. If you have gp, you should be eating more in the morning and afternoon than in the evening anyway, so try to get in the bulk of your food early in the day (especially protein).
Now, I still get nauseous here on occasion towards evening or even during the day sometimes but it is manageable and doesn't happen often. What I do for it now is drink ginger or peppermint tea and take a few ginger chews. I was able to recently find crushed ginger at a local food co-op, so I will be putting that in some of my loose leaf tea in the late afternoon/evening.
Ginger also comes in supplement form! My naturopathic doctor let me know about some ginger capsules just in case if my nausea continued, which thankfully it hasn't. I also know a friend who takes ginger capsules daily and they have worked tremendously for her.
Some other tips for nausea relief:
Do not slouch or lie down after eating. Hard to do at night on the couch but make sure you sit up right until you are actually ready to sleep. If you are nauseous in bed, sit up right, breathe, drink some ginger tea and relax. It will pass or you will fall asleep upright.
Sit in front of a fan or window. Being nauseous always made me feel incredibly sick and warm. I still occasionally sleep with a fan blowing on my face to help me.
Belly breathing and mediation can help. This was hard for me to do since it was about 2a.m. and I was completely exhausted, but making sure you breathe and relax will help you. I also do this at work if I start feeling a bit off.
Drinking warm water with lemon may also help you, I suggest doing this earlier in the day. Lemons are a great way to help nausea when traveling as well. If you're on a plane and start to feel sick, ask the flight attendant for a slice of lemon and suck on it (they will have some slices on the drink carts).
There are also a lot of other natural remedies to try to decrease your nausea whether in supplement form or not. Some of these are: staying hydrated, avoiding fatty foods, eating bananas, chamomile, cinnamon, cranberry juice, apple cider vinegar, pickle or cabbage juice.
You can also go to acupuncture which I highly recommend if you can't get your nausea under control, as well as aromatherapy and yoga.
There are also some other preventative ways to help your nausea, "food therapy". Watch what you're eating, eat easy to digest foods, low fat foods, etc.
Other things to research to help your nausea: homeopathy, hydrotherapy, imagery, juice therapy and reflexology.
I hope this post can be of use to you to figure out why you are nauseous and to help you feel your best. You need to listen to what your body is telling you in order to get better. Being nauseous is not "normal" even if it is caused your gastroparesis. I have been able to go from nightly nausea that affected my every day life to being able to hike mountains and not worry about it.
Let me know if this was helpful to you, your experience with nausea or if you try any of the suggested remedies!
Stay healthy,
-Loreal
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