Nausea is one of the most miserable — and unfortunately common —afflictions in the human experience. Fortunately, there are home remedies for nausea that can provide relief.
Nausea is that unmistakable feeling something is wrong, and can come with vomiting, abdominal pain, reflux, constipation and diarrhea.
It can be caused by everything from pregnancy, food poisoning or motion sickness to gastrointestinal issues, neurologic conditions, migraines and inner ear problems.
But the No. 1 cause is usually the side effect of medications, says Dr. Sydney Pomenti, a gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.
She’s been seeing more patients complaining of nausea since weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, and Type 2 diabetes treatments like Ozempic and Mounjaro have become popular. Nausea is one of their most common side effects, partly because the medications slow down stomach emptying.
“For weight loss, more and more people are taking them,” Pomenti tells TODAY.com. “(There’s) certainly an uptick in patients with nausea and other GI complaints that go with it.”
Nausea can just be a benign symptom, but in some cases, it can be a sign of something more serious like appendicitis or Crohn’s disease, says Dr. Tochi Iroku-Malize, board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
“At any given point in time in their life, somebody has felt nauseous,” Iroku-Malize, chair of family medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell on Long Island, New York, tells TODAY.com.
“Sometimes it’s just mild, and sometimes it can be so bad that it prevents you from doing what you need to do.”
If you are feeling nauseous, there are simple steps you can try. Here are five home remedies for nausea:
Ginger
Compounds in ginger increase stomach emptying, part of the reason the fragrant stem is an effective, safe and inexpensive treatment for nausea, studies have found.
Research also shows that ginger may be helpful for pregnant women who experience mild nausea, though they should talk with their doctor before using it, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
Ginger is Pomenti's No. 1 pick for a nausea home remedy. "Ginger always helps," she says.
Fresh ginger is the best option, both doctors advise. Shred a bit of it into warm water to make a ginger tea. You can also try ginger chews or ginger candies, which have added sugar but are sometimes better tolerated, Pomenti notes.
Ginger ale made with real ginger and ginger capsules can also help, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says in its guide for pregnant women dealing with morning sickness.
Peppermint
Research has shown smelling peppermint essential oil is effective at reducing nausea, Iroku-Malize says.
“The scent of it helps to calm the stomach so that you don’t get nauseous,” she notes.
When cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy put a drop of peppermint oil just under their nose three times a day, their frequency of nausea was “significantly reduced,” a 2021 study found.
Drinking peppermint tea, or eating peppermint candy or pills can also help with nausea because peppermint leads many areas of the GI tract to relax, Pomenti adds.
“We use it for many different conditions including irritable bowel syndrome,” she notes.
Be sure to ingest only food-grade peppermint products — many oils are not for consumption, she cautions.
A 2020 study of breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy found those who were given 40 drops of peppermint extract mixed with a bit of water every eight hours had less severe nausea than patients who drank the same amount of plain water.
Alcohol prep pads
Smelling wipes saturated with 70% isopropyl alcohol, also known as rubbing alcohol — the kind used in doctors’ offices to cleanse skin before an injection — is a surprising home remedy.
“It certainly works,” Pomenti says, noting doctors use it all the time in the hospital to help patients stop vomiting. “It’s pretty helpful to relieve nausea.”
Inhaled isopropyl alcohol vapor has a modest effect in reducing nausea in adult patients, a 2022 review of studies found.
The exact mechanism behind why it works is not clear, but one theory is that since smell and nausea are closely related, the sharp odor of alcohol vapor is a strong stimulus to our sense of smell and provides a “distraction” from other signals that cause nausea, researchers say.
A study also found the smell of lemon can help with nausea.
Bland foods
If you’re nauseous, try the BRAT diet, which consists of bananas, rice, apples or apple sauce, and toast — foods that are gentle on the stomach because they’re bland and won’t upset the digestive system.
“Stay with the bland (foods and) drinks — things that your stomach will take and handle better, easily,” Iroku-Malize says.
“You don’t want to aggravate your stomach. You don’t make your stomach work extra hard during that time period. … You want something your body can just take and easily pass through until you’re feeling better.”
It’s one of the reasons doctors recommend avoiding greasy, high-fat foods while on Ozempic — they’re slower to digest and tend to stay in the stomach the longest, boosting the risk of nausea, as TODAY.com previously reported.
Belly breathing
Also known as diaphragmatic breathing, belly breathing can help turn on the body’s parasympathetic — or the calming “rest and digest” — part of the autonomic nervous system.
“(It’s) helpful for many GI conditions, and in particular nausea. I teach this often in my clinics and have great success,” Pomenti says.
"It decreases your stomach pressure and it helps the stomach to relax."
Practice inhaling with your belly — you should see it rise as you take a breath, while the chest moves minimally or not at all, and then fall as you exhale fully.
People who practiced belly breathing during a virtual reality experience meant to trigger motion sickness reported fewer symptoms than people who breathed using their chest, a study found.
“You’re trying to calm your body down so that it can naturally do what it needs to do,” Iroku-Malize notes.
When to go to a doctor for nausea
If the nausea continues to persist no matter what you do or it starts to get worse, talk to your family doctor, Iroku-Malize advises.
If you’re noticing other symptoms with the nausea or feeling abdominal pain, experiencing a bloated belly or finding that you’re unable to have bowel movements, seek medical care, Pomenti says.
For some people, marijuana can cause nausea, which can take a long time to improve, she adds, so she encourages stopping the use of marijuana if that symptom develops.
