Natural Nausea Cures
Whether you have nausea caused by motion sickness, something you ate, a hangover, or just an upset stomach in general, there are ways you can help it without using medicine.
Ginger root is a completely natural product that is incredibly effective against nausea and upset stomachs. While there are many different ways to consume ginger these days, one of the best ways I’ve found is to make a cup of strong ginger tea. While they sell ginger tea in tea bags, it is stronger and more effective if you make it yourself, not to mention cheap and easy to make.
What you need:
Ginger root: You can find ginger root at the grocery store. It is usually kept with the produce and costs about $2-$3 a pound, so one root usually comes up under $1 and can last for a month or more. If you prefer organic, organic ginger root can be found at health food stores.
A tea ball (also found at the grocery store, a small metal ball with holes in it for brewing loose tea)
A cheese grater
Honey or another type of sweetener (optional)
What you do:
Begin by shredding the ginger root at one of the ends with the cheese grater. The cheese grater should be fairly small (you don’t want long shreds of ginger) but not too small or it will become a pulpy mess and harder to work with. If you want you tea to be strong, shred enough to pretty much fill the tea ball. If you prefer you tea less strong, you can fill the tea ball halfway or less.
Once you’ve got enough shredded ginger, boil water fo tea. Put the tea ball in a mug. Once the water has boiled, pour it over the tea ball, filling the mug.
Again, how long you let it steep depends on how strong you want your tea to be. Generally, the stronger it is the more effective it will be but also the burnier it will taste (it does have a bit of a bite to it, but many people, myself included, enjoy this aspect of it). If you do not like spicy/burny foods and drink, make it less strong. I usually let it steep for about 5 minutes and taste it to see after that. If it tastes like lightly flavored water, it probably isn’t strong enough. Also, I usually leave the tea ball in as I drink it so it keeps getting stronger but you can take it out once it has reached desired strength.
You may also want to add a sweetener. I find that honey goes very well with ginger.
Drink it slowly and try to finish it. It should help immensely. Ginger is known for its healing properties concerning the digestive system.
When you are done, put the rest of the ginger root in a sealable bag and keep it in the fridge. When you go to use it again, you may find that where it was used before (where the skin has been shredded off) has gotten a little funky. If so, just cut that part off and the rest of it should be fine.
(In a pinch, I’ve just chewed on ginger root, but be careful doing this because it can be very spciy and your mouth may burn)
In addition to ginger root, I’ve found another natural remedy that works very well. Peppermint essential oil, an aromatherapy oil, has proven very helpful in fighting nausea and upset stomachs. While there are a variety of other aromatherapy oils that can be used for stomach complaints, I’ve always been partial to peppermint oil because it’s always been very helpful and has such a refreshing, inoffensive smell.
Peppermint oil is harder to find than ginger root, but you can find it at a variety of places. Anywhere that sells essential oils will sell peppermint oil. You may have to go to a specialty store. Small “hippie” or “new age” stores often sell aromatherapy oils, as do some health/natural food stores. You can also find it online.
There are various ways to use peppermint oil. If you have an oil diffuser (can also be bought at places that sell oils) you can put a few drops of peppermint oil in a small amount of water and burn a candle underneath it. That will cause the smell to waft through the room.
You can also put it on the collar of your shirt. That way, the smell will stay with you for a long time.Or you can just inhale the scent by holding it up to your nose periodically.
While it is recommended that you don’t put in directly on your skin (it can burn), you can dilute it and then put it on your skin. Despite the recommendations, I’ve always put it directly on my skin with little to no negative side effects (it stung a little but I never minded) but be very careful doing this. When putting it on your skin, either diluted or undiluted (again, not recommended, please use caution in doing this), it can be put directly under your nose, on your upper lip, or even on your nostrils. Then just breathe deeply, inhaling the fragrance.
Take care not to get it in your eyes if you have it on your hands because it will sting!
Peppermint oil has other desirable effects too; it’s known for increasing concentration and lessening headaches, so it is a good oil to have around in general and can be used frequently. (For years I never went anywhere without a little container of peppermint oil in my pocket)
You can use ginger root and peppermint oil together for an added affect. Please keep in mind any allergies or health problems you may have (ginger should not be used for people with internal bleeding and those with gallstones should contact their doctor first. Also, it can interact with certain medications so again, check with your doctor) and use ginger root and peppermint oil carefully.
