Coping with nausea

January 2007     View PDF     En español

Nausea, or feeling sick to your stomach, is a common but uncomfortable condition. Feelings of nausea can range from slight queasiness to strong urges to throw up. Nausea is not a disease, but rather a symptom of some other problem. It is a common side effect of many drugs used to manage HIV disease. Nausea can also be caused by stress, headaches, spoiled foods, stomach viruses, unpleasant odors, eating or drinking too much or too little, alcohol, street drugs and morning sickness in pregnant women.

Though everyone experiences nausea from time to time, prolonged nausea can interfere with your quality of life. It can make eating, drinking and taking medications difficult, often resulting in not taking your medications as prescribed. For these reasons, it’s important that you prevent and control nausea.

This publication focuses on ways to manage nausea. For more information on managing other specific drug side effects, read Project Inform's publication, Dealing with Drug Side Effects.