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Nausea (Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
: Nausea, from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: , "sea-sickness
Sea-sickness

Seasickness is a form of motion sickness characterized by a feeling of nausea and, in extreme cases, Vertigo experienced after spending time on a craft on water....
", also called wamble) is the sensation of unease and discomfort in the stomach
Stomach

In most mammals, the stomach is a hollow muscular organ of the gastrointestinal tract involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication....
 with an urge to vomit.

ea is also an adverse effect
Adverse effect (medicine)

In medicine, an adverse effect is a harmful and undesired effect resulting from a medication or other intervention such as chemotherapy or surgery....
 of many drugs, opiate
Opiate

In medicine, the term opiate describes any of the narcotic alkaloids found in opium, as well as any derivatives of such alkaloids....
s in particular, and may also be an effect of a large intake of sugary foods.

Nausea is not a sickness, but rather a symptom of several conditions, many of which are not related to the stomach.






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Nausea (Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
: Nausea, from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
: , "sea-sickness
Sea-sickness

Seasickness is a form of motion sickness characterized by a feeling of nausea and, in extreme cases, Vertigo experienced after spending time on a craft on water....
", also called wamble) is the sensation of unease and discomfort in the stomach
Stomach

In most mammals, the stomach is a hollow muscular organ of the gastrointestinal tract involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication....
 with an urge to vomit.

Causes

Nausea is also an adverse effect
Adverse effect (medicine)

In medicine, an adverse effect is a harmful and undesired effect resulting from a medication or other intervention such as chemotherapy or surgery....
 of many drugs, opiate
Opiate

In medicine, the term opiate describes any of the narcotic alkaloids found in opium, as well as any derivatives of such alkaloids....
s in particular, and may also be an effect of a large intake of sugary foods.

Nausea is not a sickness, but rather a symptom of several conditions, many of which are not related to the stomach. Nausea is often indicative of an underlying condition elsewhere in the body. Travel sickness
Motion sickness

Motion sickness or kinetosis is a condition in which a disagreement exists between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement....
, which is due to confusion between perceived movement and actual movement, is an example. The sense of equilibrium lies in the ear and works together with eyesight. When these two don't "agree" to what extent the body is actually moving the symptom is presented as nausea even though the stomach itself has nothing to do with the situation. The reason for the stomach's involvement is because the brain is concluding that one of the senses is hallucinating due to poison ingestion. The brain then induces vomiting to clear the supposed toxin.

In medicine, nausea can be a problem during some chemotherapy
Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, refers to treatment of disease by chemicals that kill cells, specifically those of micro-organisms or cancer....
 regimens and following general anaesthesia
General anaesthesia

In modern medical practice, general anaesthesia is a state of total unconsciousness resulting from general anaesthetic drugs. A variety of drugs are given to the patient that have different effects with the overall aim of ensuring unconsciousness, amnesia and analgesia....
. Nausea is also a common symptom of pregnancy
Pregnancy

Pregnancy is the carrying of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, inside the uterus of a female. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or Multiple birth....
, in which it is called "morning sickness
Morning sickness

Morning sickness, also called nausea gravidarum, nausea, vomiting of pregnancy , or pregnancy sickness is a condition that affects more than half of all pregnant women, as well as some women who use hormonal contraception or hormone replacement therapy....
." Mild nausea experienced during pregnancy can be normal, and should not be considered an immediate cause for alarm.

Other causes of nausea:

  • Addison disease
  • Alcoholism
    Alcoholism

    Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions to describe the detrimental effects of alcohol intake.In common and historic usage, alcoholism refers to any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite health problems and negative social consequences....
  • Anxiety
    Anxiety

    Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components. These components combine to create an unpleasant feeling that is typically associated with uneasiness, fear, or worry....
  • Appendicitis
    Appendicitis

    Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the Vermiform appendix. It is a medical emergency. All cases require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy....
  • Brain tumor
    Brain tumor

    A brain tumor is an abnormal growth of cells within the brain or inside the skull, which can be cancerous or non-cancerous .It is defined as any cranium tumor created by abnormal and uncontrolled Mitosis, normally either in the brain itself , in the cranial nerves , in the brain envelopes , skull, pituitary and pineal gland, or spread from...
  • Bulimia
  • Cancer
    Cancer

    Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cell display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis . These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, do not invade or metastasize....
  • Chronic fatigue syndrome
    Chronic fatigue syndrome

    Chronic fatigue syndrome is the most common name given to a poorly understood, variably debilitating disorder or disorders of uncertain etiology....
  • Concussion
  • Crohn's disease
    Crohn's disease

    Crohn's disease is an inflammatory disease which may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus, causing a wide variety of symptoms....
  • Depression
    Depression (mood)

    In the fields of psychology and psychiatry, the terms depression or depressed refer to sadness and other related emotions and behaviours. It can be thought of as either a disease or a syndrome....
  • Diabetes
  • Dizziness
    Dizziness

    Dizziness describes a number of subjective symptoms, which the patient may describe as feelings of lightheadedness, floating, wooziness, giddiness, confusion, disorientation or loss of balance....
  • Exercise
    Exercise induced nausea

    Exercise induced nausea is a nausea or vomiting which can occur shortly after exercise has stopped as well as during exercise itself. It may be a symptom of either over exertion during exercise, or from too abruptly ending an exercise session....
  • Flu
  • Food poisoning
    Food poisoning

    Food poisoning refers to the presentation of acute illness due to the ingestion of food. It can lead to infectious diarrhea.The term usually includes:...
  • Gastroenteritis
    Gastroenteritis

    Gastroenteritis is inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, involving both the stomach and the small intestine and resulting in acute diarrhea....
  • Gastroesophageal reflux disease
    Gastroesophageal reflux disease

    Gastroesophageal reflux disease ', Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease ', Gastric reflux disease, or Acid reflux disease is defined as chronic symptoms or mucosal damage produced by the abnormal reflux in...
  • Gastroparesis
    Gastroparesis

    Gastroparesis, also called delayed gastric emptying, is a medical condition consisting of a paresis of the stomach , resulting in food remaining in the stomach for a longer period of time than normal....
  • Heart attack
  • Hydrocephalus
    Hydrocephalus

    Hydrocephalus is a term derived from the Greek words "hydro" meaning water, and "cephalus" meaning head, and this condition is sometimes known as "water on the brain"....
  • Irritable bowel syndrome
    Irritable bowel syndrome

    Irritable bowel syndrome , also called spastic colon, is a functional bowel disorder characterized by chronic abdominal pain, discomfort, bloating, and alteration of bowel habits in the absence of any organic cause....
  • Kidney failure
  • Kidney stones
  • Medication
    Medication

    A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine or medicament, can be loosely defined as any substance intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease....
    s
  • Ménière's disease
    Ménière's disease

    M?ni?re's disease is a disorder of the inner ear that can affect Hearing and balance. It is characterized by episodes of dizziness and tinnitus and progressive hearing loss, usually in one ear....
  • Migraine
    Migraine

    Migraine is a neurology syndrome characterized by altered bodily perceptions, headaches, and nausea. Physiologically, the migraine headache is a neurological condition more common to women than to men....
  • Morning sickness
    Morning sickness

    Morning sickness, also called nausea gravidarum, nausea, vomiting of pregnancy , or pregnancy sickness is a condition that affects more than half of all pregnant women, as well as some women who use hormonal contraception or hormone replacement therapy....
  • Narcotics
  • Nervousness
  • Norovirus
  • Pancreatitis
    Pancreatitis

    Pancreatitis is the inflammation of the pancreas. See also acute pancreatitis and chronic pancreatitis for more details....
  • Peptic ulcer
    Peptic ulcer

    A peptic ulcer, also known as ulcus pepticum, PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is an ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful....
  • Sleep deprivation
    Sleep deprivation

    Sleep deprivation is a general lack of the necessary amount of sleep. This may occur as a result of sleep disorders, active choice or deliberate inducement such as in interrogation or for torture....
  • Stress
  • Superior mesenteric artery syndrome
    Superior mesenteric artery syndrome

    Superior mesenteric artery syndrome is a rare, life-threatening gastrointestinal disorder characterized by a compression of the third portion of the duodenum by the abdominal aorta and the overlying superior mesenteric artery....
  • Tobacco smoking
    Tobacco smoking

    Tobacco smoking is the inhalation of smoke from burned dried or cured leaves of the tobacco plant, most often in the form of a cigarette. People may smoke casually for pleasure, habitually to satisfy an addiction to the nicotine present in tobacco and to the act of smoking, or in response to social pressure....
     and second-hand smoke
    Passive smoking

    Passive smoking is the involuntary inhalation of smoke, called secondhand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke , from tobacco products....
  • Tullio phenomenon
    Tullio phenomenon

    Tullio phenomenon, sound-induced vertigo, dizziness, nausea and/or eye movements was first described in 1929 by the Italian biologist Prof. Pietro Tullio....
  • Withdrawal Syndrome
  • Vertigo
    Vertigo (medical)

    Vertigo is a specific type of dizziness, a major symptom of a balance disorder. It is the sensation of spinning or swaying while the body is actually stationary with respect to the surroundings....
  • Vestibular balance disorder
    Balance disorder

    A balance disorder is a disturbance that causes an individual to feel unsteady, giddy, woozy, or have a sensation of movement, spinning, or floating....
  • Viral hepatitis
    Hepatitis

    Hepatitis implies injury to the liver characterized by the presence of inflammatory cell s in the Tissue of the organ. The name is from ancient Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation" ....
  • Acute HIV infection
    Acute HIV infection

    Acute HIV infection or primary HIV infection is the first stage of HIV infection. It occurs before the latency stage and the potential AIDS succeeding the latency stage....


Treatment

While short-term nausea and vomiting are generally harmless, they may sometimes indicate a more serious condition, such as coeliac disease
Coeliac disease

C?liac disease , also spelled celiac disease, is an Autoimmunity disorder of the small intestine that occurs in Genetic predisposition people of all ages from middle infancy on up....
. When associated with prolonged vomiting, it may lead to dehydration
Dehydration

Dehydration is the removal of water from an object. In Physiology terms, it entails a relative deficiency of water molecules in relation to other dissolved solutes....
 and/or dangerous electrolyte
Electrolyte

An electrolyte is any substance containing free ions that behaves as an electrical conductor medium. Because they generally consist of ions in solution, electrolytes are also known as ionic solutions, but molten electrolytes and solid electrolytes are also possible....
 imbalances.

Symptomatic treatment for nausea and vomiting may include short-term avoidance of solid food
Food

Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
. This is usually easy as nausea is nearly always associated with loss of appetite
Appetite

The appetite is the desire to eating food, felt as hunger. Appetite exists in all higher lifeforms, and serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain metabolism needs....
. If the patient is dehydrated, rehydration
Rehydration

Rehydration is the replenishment of water, or water and electrolytes, lost through dehydration.In humans, methods of rehydration include oral rehydration therapy or intravenous therapy....
 with oral or intravenous electrolyte solutions may be required. Ingesting crushed ice has also proven effective. If the cause of the nausea is motion sickness
Motion sickness

Motion sickness or kinetosis is a condition in which a disagreement exists between visually perceived movement and the vestibular system's sense of movement....
, then sitting down in a still environment may also help.

There are several types of antiemetic
Antiemetic

An antiemetic is a medication that is effective against vomiting and nausea. Anti-emetics are typically used to treat motion sickness and the Adverse effect of opioid analgesics, general anaesthetics and chemotherapy directed against cancer....
s, and researchers continue to look for more effective treatments. The main types used post-operatively for surgical patients are ondansetron
Ondansetron

Ondansetron or GlaxoSmithKline's Zofran is a serotonin 5-HT3 antagonist used mainly as an antiemetic to treat nausea and vomiting following chemotherapy....
, dexamethasone
Dexamethasone

Dexamethasone is a potent synthetic member of the glucocorticoid class of steroid hormones. It acts as an anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drug....
, promethazine
Promethazine

Promethazine is a first-generation histamine H1 receptor antagonist, antihistamine and antiemetic medication. It can also have strong sedative effects although it is rarely used specifically for this....
, dimenhydrinate
Dimenhydrinate

Dimenhydrinate is an over-the-counter drug used to prevent nausea and motion sickness. It is marketed in Portugal as Viabom, but in prescription format....
, and in small doses droperidol
Droperidol

Droperidol is an antidopaminergic medication used as an antiemetic and antipsychotic. Discovered at Janssen Pharmaceutica in 1961, it is a butyrophenone, and is a potent D2 antagonist with some histamine and serotonin antagonist activity....
. Doxylamine
Doxylamine

Doxylamine succinate is one of the many sedating antihistamines used by itself as a short-term sedative, in combination with other drugs as a night-time common cold and allergy relief drug, and a preparation is prescribed in combination with vitamin B6 to prevent morning sickness in pregnancy women....
 is the drug of choice in pregnancy-related nausea. When ingested or inhaled, marijuana has been shown to reduce nausea in the majority of users. The antidepressant Mirtazapine
Mirtazapine

Mirtazapine is an antidepressant introduced by Organon International in 1994 used for the treatment of moderate to severe clinical depression....
 has anti-emetic effects as well. Also available are a variety of non-invasive, but often untested, mechanical devices for suppressing nausea due to motion sickness.

The spices ginger
Ginger

Ginger is a spice which is used for cooking and is also consumed whole as a delicacy or medicine. It is the rhizome of the Zingiber, Zingiber officinale....
 and peppermint
Peppermint

Peppermint is a Hybrid Mentha, a cross between the watermint and spearmint . The plant, indigenous to Europe, is now widespread in cultivation throughout all regions of the world....
 have also been used for centuries as a folk remedy to treat nausea, and recent research has supported this use.

Citron
Citron

The citron is a fragrant fruit with the botanical name Citrus medica Carolus Linnaeus, which applies to both the Walter Tennyson Swingle and Nobuyuki Tanaka systems....
 fruit was once widely considered as relief for Nausea.