How to Safely Make Yourself Throw Up

What helps bad nausea, vomiting, and dry heaves?

Table of Contents

• How to Do It, and Why
• Dealing With Nausea
• Nausea Treatment

Vomiting (throwing up) is a reflex that allows your body to release ingested poisons and toxins.¹ It can occur in response to acute or chronic conditions. Vomiting can also be self-induced.²

Symptoms of nausea and dry heaves, which often precede throwing up, can disrupt your quality of life. When they lead to chronic vomiting, you can have a higher risk of severe health problems. Knowing how to deal with these symptoms can help you reduce your risk of nausea, vomiting, and the health problems they can cause.

This article explains ways to make yourself throw up and whether it is wise to do so. It also describes ways to deal with chronic nausea and dry heaves.

Accidental Poisonings

Instead of self-induced vomiting, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Capital Poison Center advise that you contact Poison Control at 800-222-1222 or use the WebPOISONCONTROL online tool for proper instructions on how to handle a specific situation regarding accidental poisoning.³

How to (and Why) Make Yourself Throw Up

Throwing up or vomiting can be triggered by a virus, germs, or other toxins, such as alcohol, in your body. These substances can cause the muscles in your stomach and intestines to push food up and out your mouth instead of down and out your intestines.

The process involves stimulating your gag reflex, also known as the pharyngeal reflex. This involuntary reflex causes a contraction at the back of your throat. Its purpose is to prevent choking by interfering with contents entering your throat that are not part of the normal course of swallowing.⁴

While there are health risks involved, you can trigger this reflex by physically stimulating a trigger point for the gag reflex. This involves touching the back of your pharyngeal wall, your tonsils, or the base of your tongue with a clean finger, toothbrush, spoon, or other blunt object.

You can also initiate your gag reflex with a mental trigger or stimuli that affect your taste, smell, sight, or sound and cause an emotional reaction that results in vomiting.⁵

Viral gastroenteritis, sometimes referred to as the stomach flu, is a common cause of vomiting.¹ If you have the urge to throw up while feeling ill, it’s best to allow your body to react normally rather than inducing vomiting.

Vomiting always carries the risk of problems such as dehydration, aspiration pneumonia (food or liquid inhaled into your lungs as it is expelled), or a tear in your esophagus (the food tube that connects the back of your throat with your stomach).¹

Though ipecac syrup was previously used to empty a person’s stomach after accidental poisoning, it is no longer advised.⁶ Self-induced vomiting of certain poisonous substances risks additional injury and may complicate treatment. You should never induce vomiting unless a healthcare provider or poison control expert advises you to do this.⁶

For accidental poisoning, contact Poison Control (800-222-1222) or use the WebPOISONCONTROL online tool for proper instructions on how to handle a specific situation rather than use self-induced vomiting.³

Complications of Induced Vomiting

Induced vomiting is common in eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and purging disorder as a way to prevent weight gain or support weight loss. It is also linked with several health complications, including a higher risk of death.⁷

Medical complications of self-induced vomiting include:²

• Swelling of your parotid gland (a salivary gland located near your mouth and ear)
• Oral bleeding from the use of spoons or other instruments to trigger vomiting
• Tooth decay from the acid in vomit softens your tooth enamel
• Acid reflux into your esophagus
• Constipation and bloating
• Sore throat and hoarse voice from exposure of your voice box and throat to acid
• Involuntary vomiting caused by loosening of the gastroesophageal sphincter (a valve that normally prevents food and stomach acid from being regurgitated back into your esophagus)
• Tearing of your esophagus with bleeding

How to Deal With Nausea Coming in Waves

Nausea is the uneasy sensation that occurs when you feel like you are going to vomit. It is a symptom, not a disease.

Acute nausea can occur as a symptom of an acute condition like the flu or gastroenteritis. However, chronic nausea comes and goes in waves for several days or more. It often occurs after a triggering factor, such as eating, then improves and returns after the next triggering incident. Nausea that comes in waves can be concerning and affect your quality of life.⁸

Dealing with nausea that comes in waves depends on the cause of the nausea. It can involve diseases of your abdomen and pelvic organs or conditions that affect your brain or spinal fluid. Common causes of chronic nausea include:⁸

• Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD): A condition that involves the leaking of stomach contents upward⁹
• Peptic ulcer disease: A disorder in which acid and digestive enzymes damage the lining of your stomach or small intestine¹⁰
• Gastroparesis: A condition that involves problems with nerves or muscles in the stomach that cause slow stomach emptying or digestion¹¹
• Non-ulcer dyspepsia: A problem that involves discomfort in your upper stomach unrelated to an ulcer¹²
• Bowel obstruction: A condition that occurs when a section of your small or large intestine is partially or completely blocked¹³
• Dysautonomia: Problems with the area of your brain that controls automatic functions like heart rate and blood pressure¹⁴
• Migraine headache: A complex condition that involves a severe headache with other symptoms like nausea and light sensitivity¹⁵
• Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS): An abnormal change in heart rate when you change your posture from sitting or lying down to standing¹⁶
• Certain medications, such as chemotherapy drugs¹⁷
• Balance disorders: disorders that make you feel unsteady or dizzy¹⁸
• Eating disorders: Mental health conditions that involve abnormal patterns of thinking and behavior related to food, weight, and body shape¹⁹
• Morning sickness (hyperemesis gravidarum) associated with the first four months of pregnancy but can last throughout²⁰

Finding the cause of your chronic nausea by getting an accurate diagnosis and treating the underlying condition can help improve your symptoms.

Until your underlying condition is managed, the following treatments may help you deal with nausea that comes in waves:²¹²²

• Drink beverages to soothe your stomach, such as chamomile tea or ginger ale.
• Drink clear liquids to avoid dehydration.
• Avoid caffeinated drinks such as coffee and colas that can upset your stomach.
• Consume a bland diet that includes foods such as bananas, rice, and saltine crackers.
• Avoid spicy, fried, and processed foods that can upset your stomach.
• Eat several small meals rather than three large meals daily to allow your stomach to digest foods gradually.
• Take over-the-counter (OTC) medications, such as antacids, pink bismuth, and motion sickness medication.
• Take antinausea and/or antianxiety medication as prescribed.

Medical treatments to restore hydration and nutrients due to an inability to drink and eat normally include:²¹

• Medical nutrition therapy: Working with a healthcare professional such as a dietitian to find foods and eating patterns that will help
• Oral rehydration therapy: Drinking beverages that provide correct replenishment of lost fluids and minerals
• Total parenteral nutrition: Nutrition provided via catheter into the bloodstream
• Tube feeding: Nutrition provided via a tube inserted through the nose, mouth, or abdomen

Support for Eating Disorders

Persistent self-induced vomiting to lose weight or compensate for binge eating is often a sign of an eating disorder. The following organizations provide information and resources to help you stop this behavior and avoid the damages that this practice can cause:

• National Eating Disorders Association
• Recovery Record
• Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders

Nausea and Dry Heaves: What Helps

Nausea, dry heaves (retching), and vomiting typically occur as three interrelated events. The process usually starts with nausea. Dry heaves follow and involve spasmodic respiratory movements without expelling any liquid or substance.²³

During dry heaves, your glottis (the space between your vocal cords) closes to protect your airway from being filled with food and digestive liquids. Dry heaves can lead to vomiting, but vomiting is not always inevitable.²³

Chronic nausea and dry heaves with or without vomiting may be symptoms of a more serious condition that requires treatment. You may achieve relief from nausea and dry heaves that occur from acute conditions such as gastroparesis or food poisoning with the following strategies:²¹²⁴

• Consume real ginger, a known remedy for nausea, by chewing on raw ginger, eating ginger snaps, or drinking ginger ale or ginger tea.
• Use acupressure, applying manual pressure at specific points on your body that tell your brain to relieve nausea-relieving hormones. You can accomplish this by visiting a specialist in acupressure or wearing acupressure bracelets.
• Try aromatherapy, using scents such as lavender, lemon, and peppermint, known to trick nausea centers in your brain and calm an upset stomach.
• Get some fresh air or change your environment to help shift your attention away from your symptoms.
• Suck on peppermint candy to alleviate any bad taste in your mouth that can trigger nausea.
• Limit your diet to small meals of easy-to-digest bland foods, avoiding spicy, fried, and processed food until symptoms pass.
• Drink clear liquids to remain hydrated.
• Consult your healthcare provider about temporarily using anti-nausea medication, which can help improve symptoms 97% of the time.

When to Call 911

Call 911 if you have nausea, dry heaves, and/or vomiting that may be related to poisoning or involves blood or dark, coffee-colored material in your vomit.²⁵

Contact a healthcare provider if your nausea and dry heaves involve:²⁵

• Vomiting for longer than 24 hours
• Inability to retain fluids without vomiting for 12 hours or more
• Headache or stiff neck
• Lack of urination for eight hours or more
• Severe stomach or abdominal pain
• Vomiting that occurs three or more times in one day

Summary

While you can trigger the reflexes needed to make yourself throw up, it is rarely advised. Vomiting, whether self-induced or involuntary, always carries the risk of food entering your lungs (aspiration) or obstructing your windpipe in the process.

Experts advise against making yourself throw up in favor of letting your body expel germs and toxins through vomiting that occurs on its own.

While induced vomiting was advised in the past, it is no longer a treatment for accidental poisoning. Contact Poison Control (800-222-1222) or the WebPOISONCONTROL for advice instead.

Contact your healthcare provider if you have chronic nausea and/or vomiting. These symptoms may indicate a severe condition that requires treatment to relieve symptoms. Making yourself throw up to control your weight can be a sign of an eating disorder, which requires special physical and mental health care.