Coping with nausea

January 2007     View PDF     En español

Getting control

Preventing and controlling nausea helps ensure that you’re able to eat food and take medicine properly. Generally speaking, you should try to control nausea through practical and dietary changes first. These are often effective and generally do not add the risk of other possible side effects.

However, if nausea does not improve with these types of changes, anti-nausea medications may help. In cases of severe drug-related nausea that persists or worsens despite your attempts to curb it, it may be necessary to stop or switch therapy. (See Switching or Stopping Therapy.)

Keeping track of when your nausea occurs and what may be triggering it (specific foods, time of day, surroundings) can give you information you need to prevent or lessen feelings of nausea in the future. You can also share this information with your doctor.