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Subscribe to RSSWhether you’re a victim of illness or boozy overindulgence, a suddenly watery mouth – atop of a queasy stomach – is never a sign of good things to come.
When the drool pools, you know what’s up: your stomach contents. Literally. It’s not going to look pretty. And afterward, you’re not going to feel pretty.
But salivating before vomiting runs counter to our basic understanding of slobber. Shouldn’t that oral reaction only accompany the scent, sight, promise or actual consumption of tasty morsels?
Actually, it’s all part of the same digestive chain reaction – a chemical concoction involving your mouth and your gastric juices, the fluid generated within your gut to help your body dissolve chewed food.
“The body is attempting to solve the problem of whatever is causing the nausea and (in a sense) digest it,” said Dr. Isaac Eliaz, who blends Western medicine with acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine – an approach known as “integrative medicine.”
“Our digestive process starts in the mouth with the saliva, which is high in amylase, an important digestive enzyme that helps break down carbohydrates. So as part of the digestive process triggered by whatever may be causing the nausea, we have increased salivation,” said Eliaz, based in Sebastopol, Calif.
At the same time, nausea stimulates the vagus nerve – which runs from the brain down through the neck, relaying information about the condition of body’s organs, Eliaz said. An upset stomach also awakens the parasympathetic nervous system, which revs and runs your “rest and digest” functions, including crying and urination plus, in this case, digestion and salivation.
In short, that extra drool means your stomach and brain are chatting up a storm as you just try to hang on through that bumpy night, or that rough morning.
But we’re not here to simply explain this weird sensation. We seek to provide a tip to, perhaps, prevent you from hurling.
Check out the wisdom offered by Ken Beckstead, 48, a Las Vegas resident: “Whenever I start to salivate excessively and feel like I am going to vomit, I start spitting the excess saliva.
“Swallowing the saliva actually makes you vomit. Spitting it out until the saliva stops filling your mouth will help you not vomit,” Beckstead said.
Doctor?
“I can say that there is, indeed, an explanation to such relief,” Eliaz said. That reason, he adds, comes via his knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine.
“It is specific to a certain energetic pattern or issue that will cause nausea: what we call in traditional Chinese medicine the accumulation of phlegm and mucus in the stomach,” Eliaz said. “In this case, spitting saliva will help relieve the condition.”
So, East or West, the solution: spit and rest. Either way, though, you'll probably need a bucket.
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Being someone with chronic nausea due to a medical condition, Gastroparesis (paralyzed stomach), this can definitely hold true. I don't hurl often, thankfully, but when I do, it is almost always preceded by this.
I don't hurl often, but when I do, I choose Dos Equis.
Stay thirsty my friends...
The association with acupuncture also reduces the credibility of the the "physician." Despite its many adherants, acupuncture has a very powerful, but seldom discussed nocebo effect. Generally, scientific evidence-based medicine requires not only performance clearly better than the placebo effect but the near-absence of a nocebo effect.
And as a side comment --- the Chinese goverment have mounted campaign after campaign to try to get Chinese people to quit spitting all the time as a public health issue. The Chinese culture and traditional medicine is oriented to constant spitting to improve health. During the Olympics, for example, there was a huge (and unsuccessful) crackdown on spitting in public. Even Chinese researchers have been unable to make correlations between spitting and health but have found causal relationships between public spitting and the transmission of disease.
The article didn't mention the dillutive and coating effects of saliva for the mouth and throat when vomiting. Saliva is often better than plain water at reducing the burning sensation/some effects caused by gastric juices. That said, no matter what you do the gastric juices are really bad on the throat and teeth and regular vomiting and gerd have been linked with cancer.
>Chris.. Excellent point. I remember reading about the spitting thing during the Chinese Olympic game hosting. It seems as though in China spitting really is highly viewed as a standard treatment for about anything and everything.
I don't choose Dos Equis often, but when I do, I hurl.
Actually, the headline should be Why do we salivate when we're nauseated. Nauseous means to cause nausea. Nauseated means to feel sick.
The misuse of the word nausea and its forms are a pet peeve of mine. You don't feel "Nauteous", you feel nauseated because some nauseous thing caused you to feel sick, i.e., fried eggs nauseate me.
Yes, thank you!
Actually, from Webster's dictionary:
Definition of NAUSEOUS
1
: causing nausea or disgust : nauseating
2
: affected with nausea or disgust
xraygun beat me to it.
I'd rather puke and get to feeling better than keep all the putrid stew in my gut for hours more.
Ugh, I'm severely emetophobic (seriously, I've been through a lot in my life, and it's my worst fear), and I'd rather feel like crap for days than vomit and get it done. I know it's an irrational fear (as phobias tend to be), but I'm far from the only person with that mindset.
Megidolaon, It all depends for me. I have fairly constant nausea, but when it starts getting to where I start having the vertigo with it, it ramps up and I'd rather just have done with it.
Having no medical knowledge, but with considerable experience, I was always glad for both this warning that enabled some preparation, and the added lubrication and protective coating in my esophagus that saliva provided as everything was regurgitated. So, I figured it was a result of natural selection. Now I try to simply indulge more responsibly, since that causes less pain all around.
You know, I thought that exact same thing. That the reason we salivate when we're feeling nauseated is so that the acidic contents don't irritate the esophagus and oral cavity when we vomit. Maybe saliva can provide some sort of lubricant/protective barrier.
Totally agree - isn't this basic common sense? The nice PH of salvia protects your mouth and throat..... I didn't even see where it said that in the article.
I take a BP medication that sometimes makes me cough really hard. And that coughing can upset my stomach, especially after I eat, causing me to become nauseous. When I start to salivate excessively, I take deep breaths in through my nose and out though my mouth, along w/spitting the saliva. Most of the time it works. Once in a while it doesn't. But I find that deep breathing and spitting out the saliva works for me.
Severe coughing is a bad side effect of some BP medicines. Your doctor can switch medications until you find one that doesn't cause this.
Personally I would rather just throw up and be done with it....not prolong the misery.
Had this every other day of my first pregnancy until I was just 2 months off delivering. Nasty! It really upset my digestion for a couple of years after that. Glad that period of my life is over.....
According to dictionary.com
"nauseate
1640, "to feel sick, to become affected with nausea," from pp. stem of L. nauseare, see nausea. In its early life it also had transitive senses of "to reject (food, etc.) with a feeling of nausea" (1646) and "to create a loathing in" (1654). Careful writers use nauseated for "sick at the stomach" and reserve nauseous (q.v.) for "sickening to contemplate." "
I figured it was practical in nature....stomach acid has to be harsh on the teeth and lubricating them as best the body can must save some enamel...right?
I think that feeling nauseous, or throwing up may be a primal defence mechanism that is no longer needed. Not that fair back, our ancestors used this defence while testing new offerings of food. It would work for fevers and infection too. When I'm in a fast elevator, or subjected to unexpected movements at an amusement park, I feel like one of these early folks thinking that my body wants to prevent me from being poisoned by tossing my cookies. Drinking too much may be a better example. Anything, (lightheadedness), not quite normal, like the first months of pregnancy. Did you know that bears, big terrible bears, salivate and have really runny noses when they are stressed?
Our Yellow Lab does not normally drool, but when she is seen to be drooling excessively, we take her outside at once. It's good to have a warning that the dog's got an upset stomach. Makes sense that this would happen in other species. My own warning is a taste of sulfur in my mouth. I am very allergic to sulfur, so if my body is actually manufacturing it from something that I ate, it is a sure thing that I will have to rid myself of this substance.
I earmarked this problem years ago.
I call it "weak spit".
When you feel it coming on and you do not want to puke you had better spit it out.
Swallow, and you WILL hurl.
I don't vomit often. I can't remember the last time. Maybe 10 years ago. Really the only time I vomited often was in my party years (1970's). Too much drinking I guess. I loved going to concerts in Dallas but I hated to see the puke in the bathrooms and walkways of the convention centers. Those were the puke days. I remember getting sick in 1989 on a DC-9 after eating tainted food before boarding. I hurled all over the rear exit door because both lavatories were occupied. That was embarrasing.
Way to go MSNBC, more garbage. Another subject nobody really cares about and which if they did they could have Googled it in no time. You guys are really desperate for content.
So why bother to comment? Go read somewhere else. Perhaps other people did want to read and cool you don't get to choose for everyone. You must be desperate to make rude comments.
Weird, I never noticed this effect when nauseated or ready to to hurl. People actually drool beforehand?
Yup, we really do. Blowin' lunch ain't fun. MSNBC could use that as a headline!
I don't get actually drool (like running down my chin or anything) but my mouth does produce more saliva before I am about to be sick, I get nauseated very easily... so when I start producing lots of saliva though, I know it is the real deal and to look for a washroom :)
The term I learned was "watering teeth" as in, "when your teeth start to water, grab the basin." From my own experience, this is a pretty good indicator- saves me from unneccessary and uncomfortable commode-hugging.
I have had gastric problems for almost 30 years (gastroenteritis?) from sonething I caught while in the U.S.M.C. and stationed on the island of Okinawa. Sudden, excessive salivation comes with it - becoming nauseous when there are gas pains in the intestines unable to be relieved because of a bowel blockage. This pain and salivation continue for maybe 5 minutes until I am able to pass that blockage - usually by the mechanical rolling of my fingers on the belly-button area to help push the blockage out. Then all that gas comes out and then a rush of fluid exits. All the while, I have, for 30 years, swallowed that saliva. I have never thrown up.
Reader's Digest reported that a vet in Australia? had discovered a solution to this problem, but the medical establishment (as usual) would not believe him. So, he infected himself and then cured himself and they finally listened. Scientific American magazine published (circa 1985) an article on the same thing. I took both articles to my doctor and said: This is my problem. I want this treatment. He did so and I have gone 20 years 98% cured. Pepto Bismol is an over-the-counter medicine that dramatically helps alleviate the symptoms but without a cure. That takes a series of antibiotics.
To add to the "proper word" debate. Is it sick to my stomach or sick at my stomach? Or should we just all say "my stomach is upset". Or is that even proper? I have heard it all. In healthcare, so trust me, I have heard it all.....
I've been doing the "spit" thing since I was a kid. I thought everyone did. Who wants to swallow salt water? Sometimes it doesn't work, but most times it does.
It is interesting reading this article, because I have always, always had the exact opposite reaction: An incredibly dry mouth, with absolutely no saliva production before getting sick.
Whenever I feel the inevitable barf is coming, the first thing I do is grab an antiacid like generic Rolaids (Walmart or CVS brands). It nuetralizes the acid in the stomach and make the whole ordeal better without all that acid burning your throat and nose. Oh, yes, and hold your nose.. it keeps it from coming through there. There ya go ...happier hurling.. :-)
I've been on every anti-emetic known to man (including stuff they give to chemo patients), and nothing works better than peppermint oil capsules. You can buy them at health food stores.