It’s safe to say that just about all of us are familiar with that stomach-churning, queasy feeling of nausea – and its even more unpleasant companion vomiting. Nausea and vomiting are not necessarily unexpected guests when we’re dealing with things like food poisoning or a stomach bug. But it can be perplexing and downright concerning if our stomach decides to throw us a curveball – and the urge to upchuck seems to appear out of nowhere and with no identifiable cause.
So what on earth could cause seemingly unexplained bouts of nausea and vomiting? As it turns out, there are actually quite a few underlying causes that could be the culprit behind your mystery tummy troubles.
In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the unusual and less common potential causes of nausea and vomiting. Let’s dive in.
Nausea and Vomiting Defined
Nausea is that feeling of discomfort or unease in the stomach. This unpleasant sensation may or may not be accompanied by actual vomiting – also known as emesis – which is the forceful expulsion of the contents of your stomach through the mouth. It is a complex reflex involving the coordinated contraction of abdominal muscles, the diaphragm, and the opening of your gastroesophageal sphincter.
There are plenty of times that it makes sense for us to vomit – like when we’ve contracted food poisoning and need to expel contaminated food, when we’ve caught a bug and our tummy is trying to get rid of the infection, or when we experience motion sickness and our belly starts doing flip flops.
But what happens when you begin experiencing mystery nausea and/or vomiting with no clear-cut cause?
Potential Underlying Causes of Unexplained Nausea and Vomiting
While it can be perplexing and downright unpleasant to experience nausea or vomiting under any circumstance, it can be especially unsettling when you’re not sure what on earth is triggering it in the first place. So let’s break down some of the unusual underlying causes that could be making you feel like you need to hurl.
Gastrointestinal Causes of Nausea and Vomiting
While eating bad sushi or catching a stomach bug are some obvious reasons that your digestive tract might trigger feelings of nausea and/or vomiting, they aren’t the only potential causes. Some other gastrointestinal-induced causes of nausea and vomiting can include:
Inflammation of Various Organs Within Your Digestive Tract:
Think of inflammation as your body’s first line of defense. When it detects any kind of threat (like a foreign invader or an injury), it immediately launches your immune system into action – triggering a cascade of effects that preps your body to neutralize the perceived menace. While inflammation is highly valuable in many instances, it can also come with some not-so-pleasant side effects.
Nausea and vomiting can be triggered when various organs within your digestive tract become inflamed ranging from your appendix to your pancreas and from your liver/gallbladder to your intestines.
But this isn’t the only form of inflammation that can trigger nausea and vomiting. For some individuals, exposure to the protein gluten can incite severe inflammation and even more severe symptoms of nausea and vomiting.
Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity:
Gluten is a mixture of proteins found in wheat and related grains like barley and rye. And exposure to these proteins can spell serious trouble for those who have a condition known as celiac disease – a condition in which your immune system has a severe reaction to gluten. When your immune system launches an attack against gluten, your own tissues get caught in the crossfire – leading to damage to the small intestine lining, impaired nutrient absorption, and various symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.
Celiac disease is the most severe form of gluten sensitivity. But it’s still possible to have a significant negative reaction to ingesting gluten even if you don’t technically have celiac disease. For those with gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerance, exposure to gluten can still cause an influx of unpleasant symptoms – nausea and vomiting included.
Impaired Movement Within Your Digestive Tract:
Your digestive tract is designed to primarily move in one direction – shuttling food and nutrients from your mouth all the way to your rectum where waste is excreted. But sometimes, this motion can become disrupted – causing movement to slow or stop altogether. And this can subsequently cause food and waste to essentially “back up” and leave you feeling the need to upchuck.
Some conditions that can impede digestive movement include:
- Obstructions: Obstructions or blockages can come in many forms ranging from strictures in your esophagus to twisted intestines and from fecal impactions to tumors.
- Pseudo-obstructions: A rare condition where symptoms mimic those of a bowel obstruction, but no physical blockage is present, leading to impaired bowel motility.
- Gastroparesis: In gastropareses, your stomach muscles aren’t working correctly – causing delayed emptying of food into your small intestine.
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS): IBS occurs when there’s a breakdown in communication along your gut-brain axis – throwing your entire digestive tract out of whack and causing unpleasant symptoms.
While trouble with your digestive tract is a more obvious potential cause of tummy woes, it’s far from the only one.
Central Nervous System Causes of Nausea and Vomiting
The central nervous system is the complex network of your brain and spinal cord that coordinates and processes information – enabling communication between different parts of your body and regulating various physiological functions. Disruptions in this complex and delicate network can trigger signals that affect the gastrointestinal system – potentially leading to symptoms like nausea and vomiting.
Some examples of disturbances in the brain or central nervous system that can cause these unpleasant symptoms include:
- Cerebrovascular accident: Also known as a stroke (either caused by a blockage or bleeding in the brain) impairs blood flow to the brain which can hinder normal function and trigger nausea and vomiting.
- Head injury: Damage or trauma to the head causing injury to the brain can stimulate the vomiting center in the brain, leading to nausea and vomiting.
- Increased intracranial pressure: Elevated pressure within the skull can result in nausea and vomiting as a response to the pressure affecting the brain.
- Brain lesion: Abnormal tissue growth or accumulation in the brain can disrupt normal brain function, leading to nausea and vomiting.
- Brain inflammation: Inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord (meningitis), inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), or a collection of pus (abscess) within the brain can affect the brainstem and trigger nausea and vomiting.
- Migraine: Migraines or recurrent, severe headaches can activate the trigeminal nerve and release certain neurotransmitters that can lead to nausea and vomiting.
- Seizure disorders: Conditions characterized by abnormal electrical activity in the brain, may trigger the vomiting center in the brain, resulting in nausea and vomiting.
Your gut and brain are intricately interwoven and any alterations within your nervous system can subsequently disrupt this delicate balance and lead to an array of strange symptoms – nausea and vomiting included.
Infectious Causes of Nausea and Vomiting
Contracting certain pathogens can also be a sneaky underlying cause of mystery nausea and vomiting. Some less obvious infectious causes of nausea and vomiting include:
- Ear infections: More formally known as acute otitis media, infection and inflammation of the middle ear can disrupt your vestibular system (which helps maintain balance and spatial orientation by sensing head movement) – sometimes resulting in nausea and vomiting.
- Pneumonia: Pneumonia (inflammation of your lungs) can trigger nausea and vomiting due to the inflammatory response and the close proximity of the respiratory and digestive systems.
- Urinary Tract Infection/Pyelonephritis: Nausea and vomiting can occur as a response to infection and inflammation affecting your urinary tract or kidneys.
- Viruses and bacteria: Ingesting food contaminated with invading bacteria and/or viruses can trigger nausea and vomiting as your body tries to expel them. These pathogens can also trigger inflammation throughout your digestive tract – further exacerbating an upset belly.
Infections of any kind can be a major cause of nausea and vomiting as your body tries to rid itself of foreign invaders.
Medications That Can Cause Nausea and Vomiting
While most medications are designed to help us feel better, they can often come with some disagreeable side effects. While you’ll likely find nausea and vomiting as potential side effects listed on nearly every drug out there, some medications that commonly cause tummy upset include:
- Antiarrhythmics
- Antibiotics
- Anticonvulsants
- Chemotherapeutics
- Digoxin
- Hormonal Preparations
- Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs
- Cannabanoids
Overdosing or withdrawing from certain medications (especially opioids or benzodiazepines) also leads to nausea and vomiting as the body reacts to the sudden changes in chemical balance.
Toxins That Can Cause Nausea and Vomiting
Exposure to toxic compounds can also induce feelings of nausea and even cause you to vomit. There are some more severe and obvious toxins (like arsenic, ricin, or any variety of pesticides) that can trigger vomiting as your body attempts to rid itself of these harmful compounds. But they aren't the only compounds that can make you feel queasy.
There is actually a wide variety of toxins that we encounter on a day-to-day basis that can potentially trigger nausea and vomiting – especially if you’re unlucky enough to have environmental sensitivities, multiple chemical sensitivities, or mold-related illnesses. In that case, even low levels of certain compounds in your environment can cause a barrage of unpleasant symptoms that can often include nausea and vomiting.
Miscellaneous Causes of Nausea and Vomiting
A few other peculiar potential underlying triggers of nausea and vomiting include:
- Acute glaucoma: Glaucoma is a sudden increase in intraocular pressure in the eye. Nausea and vomiting can occur as a result of the severe pain associated with this condition.
- Acute myocardial infarction: A heart attack, which occurs when blood flow to a part of the heart muscle is blocked causes significant stress on the heart and the release of certain chemicals which can trigger nausea and vomiting.
- Nephrolithiasis: More commonly known as kidney stones can induce nausea and vomiting resulting from the severe pain caused by the passage of these stones through the urinary tract.
- Pain: Severe pain, whether from injury, inflammation, or other causes, can stimulate the vomiting center in the brain, leading to nausea and vomiting.
- Psychiatric disorders: Psychological conditions can influence the autonomic nervous system and hormonal balance, leading to nausea and vomiting. For example, anxiety and depression can cause gastrointestinal symptoms, and eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa may involve purging behaviors that induce vomiting.
With so mant potential triggers of nausea and vomiting, you’re probably curious when you should be concerned about experiencing these symptoms.
When To Be Concerned About Nausea and Vomiting
Feelings of nausea accompanied by vomiting can be triggered a broad range of underlying issues. And because those issues can range from minor and unpleasant to life-threatening, it’s important to pinpoint the source of these vexing symptoms. So, if you’re grappling with mystery nausea and/or vomiting, it’s crucial to consult with a trusted healthcare professional to help you pinpoint the root cause.
If your nausea and/or vomiting is triggered by a more complex underlying issue, it can also be immensely helpful to partner with an Integrative and Functional Medicine Doctor. They can help you identify and heal the root cause of your nausea and vomiting – rather than simply prescribing medications that just mask your symptoms. If you’re new to the Functional Medicine approach, I encourage you to head over and read my article How to Choose a Good Integrative and Functional Medicine Doctor.
And if you’re recovering from a bout of nausea and vomiting, it’s important to give your gut some extra support to help restore balance to your digestive tract.
How To Support and Rebalance Your Gut After Throwing Up
Vomiting repeatedly or regularly over a period of time can alter the balance of your gut. It can disrupt your fluid and nutrient balance, impact the acidity of your stomach, and even throw your gut microbiome off-kilter. So, if you’re worried your gut might be off-kilter after a bout of vomiting, here’s what you can do:
- Hydrate: Drink plenty of high-quality filtered water to replenish fluids lost during vomiting. It’s also a good idea to add in some electrolytes to help restore balance to these crucial minerals.
- Gradually increase your intake: When you feel ready to start eating, start with small, bland foods to ease back into eating without overwhelming the stomach. And be sure to steer clear of spicy, fatty, or overly seasoned foods that may irritate the stomach lining.
- Consider probiotics: Consider consuming probiotic-rich foods or adding a probiotic supplement to promote the growth of beneficial gut bacteria.
- Incorporate digestive enzymes: If the acidity of your stomach is affected, it can impair your ability to properly break down and absorb nutrients. Digestive enzymes can help support gastric acid balance and give your tummy a hand in breaking down the food you eat.
- Help your gut detox: It can be helpful to give your gut a little extra support in eliminating any opportunistic toxins or pathogens that may have attempted to set up shop while your gut was off-kilter. Incorporating supplements like Gut Immune to bolster the integrity of your gut lining and ZeoBind Plus to trap any free-floating invaders can help your gut bounce back.
- Get plenty of rest: Allow your body time to recover by getting adequate rest and sleep.
While these steps can help you recover from a short bout of vomiting, it’s crucial to identify what the underlying cause of your symptoms is. For that reason, I cannot overemphasize the importance of working with an experienced Integrative and Functional Medicine Doctor to help you get to the root cause if you are experiencing unexplained nausea and vomiting.
Tired of Dealing With Mystery Symptoms?
Have you been grappling with mystery symptoms – whether it’s nausea and vomiting or any other unexplained symptoms? If so, you’re not alone. While our conventional medical system certainly serves a vital and irreplaceable purpose, it’s not always great at addressing complex, underlying issues that can cause puzzling and difficult-to-pinpoint symptoms.
That is why I’m so dedicated to empowering people just like you with the knowledge and tools found in the Functional Medicine Approach. I’ve used this holistic, whole-person approach to revolutionize my own life and help countless patients transform their health and well-being. So if you’re in the trenches battling an ongoing diagnosis or vexing symptoms that you can't seem to get to the root of, Functional Medicine might just be the key to finding relief and restoring your health.
But I also know that it can be overwhelming to know where to start on your healing journey – especially when there is so much information out there. So, I’ve created a Resource Roadmap to help you get started and connect you with all of the very best resources I’ve created over the years. It’ll help you sift through all of the information and zero in on what you need most.
Don’t waste any more time feeling like a dimmed-down version of yourself. There is hope for healing and you have the power within you to transform your health. Click here to download your Resource Roadmap for free today!
Resources:
- Prevalence of vomiting and nausea and associated factors after chronic and acute gluten exposure in celiac disease | BMC Gastroenterology | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)
- Evaluation of Nausea and Vomiting | AAFP
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. The product mentioned in this article are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information in this article is not intended to replace any recommendations or relationship with your physician. Please review references sited at end of article for scientific support of any claims made.
1 Comment
I was wondering if I would see anything to answer the questions I’ve been pondering, lately. I was studying metoclopramide for a family member on chemo who accidentally overdosed a bit. I was very interested, as I’m newly postpartum and struggling with my milk supply, but I also have a history of histamine intolerance, chronic fatigue, and muscle twitches. Now I wish someone would better explain the relationships between histamine, dopamine, prolactin, and nausea, drowsiness, mood, and motor control. Is it just about the nervous system? Why does this family of issues show up as different disorders for different relatives, even between me and my Identical twin?
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