Several approaches can ease nausea and vomiting, from simple breathing techniques and dietary changes to ginger, peppermint, and over-the-counter medications. What works best depends on the cause, but most people find relief by combining two or three strategies rather than relying on just one.
Slow Breathing Can Calm Nausea Fast
One of the quickest ways to settle a wave of nausea costs nothing and works anywhere. Deep, slow breathing from your diaphragm activates the vagus nerve, a long nerve running from your brain to your gut that helps regulate digestion and the vomiting reflex. When it’s stimulated through controlled breathing, it sends calming signals that can quiet a churning stomach.
The technique is simple: draw in as much air as you can, hold it for about five seconds, then exhale slowly. Repeat this rhythmically, focusing on your belly rising and falling rather than your chest. Even a minute or two of this can take the edge off acute nausea, especially when it’s triggered or worsened by anxiety or stress.
Ginger: The Best-Studied Natural Remedy
Ginger is the most reliable natural option for nausea, backed by clinical trials across pregnancy, chemotherapy, and post-surgical settings. Its active compounds speed up the movement of food through your digestive tract and block some of the chemical signaling (specifically serotonin-related pathways) that triggers the vomiting reflex.
Clinical trials have used dosages ranging from 250 mg to 2 g per day, typically split into three or four smaller doses. Interestingly, the 2 g dose doesn’t appear to work better than 1 g, so more isn’t necessarily more effective. You can get ginger through capsules, ginger chews, or freshly grated ginger steeped in hot water. Ginger ale is less reliable since many brands contain minimal actual ginger.
Peppermint Oil Inhalation
Breathing in peppermint essential oil is a surprisingly effective tool. In a randomized controlled trial of 106 surgical patients, those who inhaled 2% peppermint oil had significantly less nausea than the control group: 52.8% experienced nausea within 24 hours compared to 73.6% in the placebo group. The benefit was strongest in the first hour, when the peppermint group’s nausea rate was nearly 30 percentage points lower.
Peppermint works through two routes. The menthol reaches your brain’s emotional and autonomic centers through your sense of smell, which can dampen the nausea response directly. It also relaxes smooth muscle in the digestive tract, reducing the abnormal contractions that contribute to the urge to vomit. You can place a drop or two of peppermint oil on a tissue or cotton ball and hold it near your nose, breathing normally.
What to Eat (and What to Skip)
The old advice to stick strictly to bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast (the BRAT diet) is outdated. Those foods are fine for the first day or two, but there’s no reason to limit yourself to only those four items. A broader range of bland, easy-to-digest foods will give your body the protein and nutrients it needs to recover faster.
Good options include brothy soups, oatmeal, boiled potatoes, crackers, and unsweetened dry cereals. As your stomach settles, you can expand to cooked squash, carrots, sweet potatoes without skin, avocado, skinless chicken or turkey, fish, and eggs. All of these are gentle on the stomach while being far more nutritious than plain toast.
A few eating habits help too. Eat small amounts frequently rather than full meals. Avoid greasy, spicy, or strongly scented foods. Eating something before you get to the point of an empty, acidic stomach can prevent nausea from getting worse.
Staying Hydrated When You Can’t Keep Much Down
Vomiting depletes both water and electrolytes, and dehydration often makes nausea worse, creating a frustrating cycle. The key is taking very small, frequent sips rather than gulping a full glass, which can trigger more vomiting.
If you can’t keep commercial electrolyte drinks down (or don’t have them on hand), you can make an effective oral rehydration solution at home: mix 4 cups of water with half a teaspoon of table salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar. That ratio replaces the sodium and glucose your body needs to absorb fluid efficiently. Sip it slowly over an hour or two. Ice chips and frozen fruit bars are another way to get small amounts of fluid in without overwhelming your stomach.
Over-the-Counter Medications
Bismuth subsalicylate (the active ingredient in Pepto-Bismol and Kaopectate) works by coating and protecting the stomach lining. It’s a reasonable choice for nausea from stomach bugs, food poisoning, or general digestive upset, and it also helps with diarrhea that often accompanies these conditions.
For motion sickness, antihistamine-based products containing dimenhydrinate or meclizine are the standard OTC options. These work best when taken before you start feeling sick, so if you know a car ride or boat trip is coming, take them 30 to 60 minutes ahead of time. Drowsiness is the main side effect.
Acupressure at the P6 Point
Pressing on a specific point on the inside of your wrist, called P6, is a widely used technique for nausea. The point sits about three finger-widths below your wrist crease, between the two tendons that run up the center of your inner forearm. You can press it firmly with your thumb for a few minutes at a time, or wear an acupressure wristband (often sold as “sea bands”) that applies steady pressure to the spot. This approach is drug-free and carries no side effects, making it particularly useful during pregnancy or when you want to avoid medication interactions.
Pregnancy-Related Nausea
Morning sickness affects up to 80% of pregnant people, and the options narrow when you’re trying to avoid unnecessary medications. Vitamin B6 is the first-line treatment recommended by most obstetric guidelines. It’s available over the counter and is also combined with an antihistamine in a prescription delayed-release tablet designed specifically for pregnancy nausea. The prescription version uses a gradual dosing approach, starting with two tablets at bedtime and increasing over several days only if symptoms persist, up to a maximum of four tablets daily.
Ginger (at dosages around 1 g per day), acupressure bands, and frequent small meals are all considered safe during pregnancy and can be combined with B6 for better coverage. Eating a few plain crackers before getting out of bed in the morning helps many people avoid the worst of the early-day nausea.
Red Flags That Need Medical Attention
Most nausea and vomiting resolves on its own, but certain signs indicate something more serious. Get to an emergency room if your vomit contains blood, looks like coffee grounds, or is green. The same applies if you have chest pain, severe abdominal cramping, confusion, blurred vision, or a high fever with a stiff neck.
Dehydration is the other major concern, particularly in children and older adults. Warning signs include excessive thirst, dark urine, urinating very infrequently, dry mouth, and feeling dizzy or lightheaded when you stand up. If you or your child can’t keep any fluids down for more than 12 to 24 hours, that’s worth a medical visit before dehydration becomes dangerous.