Can Essential Oils Help Nausea and Vomiting?

I recently led an Ashtanga Yoga Retreat in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador. Having traveled abroad and to South America often in the past, I felt well prepared for this trip, and excited at the prospect of spending a whole week with some of my most dedicated yoga students.

Little did I know that the trip there would result in a migraine due to sleep deprivation and sudden high altitude change, topped by motion sickness from the final 1.5 hour drive up into the mountains. Embarrassingly, I had to ask the driver TWICE to pull over on the tiny winding roads so I could puke up the entirely non-existent contents of my stomach on the side of the road!

Arrive at said resort, likely looking as green as the beautiful mountain trees, and I’m handed a cup of fresh ginger tea. Within minutes, the nausea resolves, and I’m ready to down a meal.

There are many causes of nausea and vomiting: anxiety, bacterial infections, chemotherapy, ear infections, medications, motion sickness, obstruction, pain, parasitic infections, pneumonia, pregnancy, stress, viral infections, and more. In many of these cases, such as viral or bacterial infection, vomiting is a protective reflex to rid the body of the infecting or inflicting agent.

When we treat nausea and vomiting with medications, herbs, or essential oils, it is important to understand that we are more often treating the symptoms and not the cause. For example, when your or your child develops a vomiting illness and you treat this with Zofran (generic ondansetron), the ondansetron settles the vomiting reflex but it does not treat the virus, bacteria, or the toxin from food poisoning that is causing vomiting in the first place. But, by treating the nausea and vomiting, we can help prevent a child from becoming dehydrated and requiring a trip to the ER.

It is important to consider the cause of the illness before treating it. Most of the time, in young children, vomiting is due to a viral illness. But there are exceptions, such as bacterial infections due to contaminated food, exposure to a bacterial gastrointestinal (GI) illness, or more serious infections, such as pneumonia or meningitis.

Ginger is the first thing I think of when it comes to nausea. Being one who suffers often from motion sickness and having had morning sickness throughout the first half of my pregnancy, ginger is my go-to. But what is the evidence to back up the use of this plant’s essential oil for nausea and/or vomiting?

Ginger has traditionally been used to treat indigestion, nausea, and vomiting. Ginger and its metabolites (smaller components that are formed by breakdown within the GI tract) accumulate in the GI tract, presumably leading to its effects.(1)

The extract of ginger has been shown to accelerate gastric emptying and stimulate stomach contractions via the presence of gingerols and shogaols and their effect on receptors in the GI tract. 2,3,4

There are minimal to no clinical studies on the use of essential oils in children to treat nausea and vomiting. There are, however, several controlled studies (mostly for chemotherapy, medication-induced, post-operative, and pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting) in adults that suggest ginger is generally effective as an antiemetic (anti-nausea/vomiting). 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14

There is one study on the effects of ginger in chemotherapy-induced nausea/vomiting in children.15

Overall, ginger appears to have some solid molecular and clinical research to back up the claim of its being an effective anti-nausea/vomiting agent. However, as mentioned above, most of this research has been done on adult patients. Therefore, use of this essential oil for the common childhood ailment of nausea/vomiting for a GI viral infection would be an extrapolated application of use. That being said, because ginger has an excellent safety profile in children, diffusing or using this oil topically could possibly benefit your child.

Two other oils have some limited research to support their effectiveness as antiemetics--peppermint and lemon.

Peppermint has historically been used as an anti-nausea agent. An article published in 2012 in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine concluded that inhaling peppermint or ginger essential oils reduced the severity of nausea and vomiting and decreased the need for other anti-nausea treatment.16

However, a similar Cochrane Review of nine articles, also published in 2012, demonstrated no reliable effect of using peppermint oil to relieve nausea and vomiting.17

Please note: Much controversy about the use of Peppermint Oil exists within the Essential Oil community. I go into much more detail about this in my E-book, The Evidence-Based Guide to Essential Oils.

Lemon essential oil may have some use for the treatment of nausea and vomiting. A clinical study in 2014 showed that inhalation of lemon essential oil reduced the intensity of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy by about 30%.18

And, with regards to motion sickness: There is some conflicting evidence that ginger extract in powder or pure root form may reduce motion sickness (nausea, but not vomiting), but more definitive studies need to be done. 19,20,21

If you are wondering how I did on the way back out of the mountains of Ecuador…I tried peppermint oil but the sheer smell of it actually intensified my nausea. Oh how I LONGED for ginger on the way back. But…despite some serious nausea and an “almost” vomiting epidsode, I managed to make it without having to stop and puke on the side of the road :-)

Next week, I will discuss the Evidence for the use of Lavender to manage Depression in Children!

meet Laura.  woman.  mother.  physician.  yogini. teacher. writer.  lover of all things life. 

Download my E-Book, The Evidence-Based Guide to Essential Oiils: What Parents Need to Know to Safely Manage Common Childhood Ailments to learn more!

***Join me next week and in the weeks to come to learn more about alternative and integrative therapies for children and adults alike!

In general, medical doctors don’t know much about essential oils with regards to the actual existing research and evidence, and, in my honest experience, neither do most essential oils sales users! I’m going to be providing some well researched insights and hope you will join me on this journey to learn more about when, how, and IF to use essential oils!

Want more details NOW? Check out my E-book, The Evidence Based Guide to Essential Oils: What Parents Need to Know to Safely Manage Common Childhood Ailments. You can purchase it online now for 25% the retail price with the Promo Code FF919 at checkout!

References

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2 Wu KL, Rayner CK, Chuah SK, Changchien CS, Lu SN, Chiu YC, Chiu KW, Lee CM. Effects of ginger on gastric emptying and motility in healthy humans. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2008 May;20(5):436-40. [PubMed]

3 Giacosa A, Morazzoni P, Bombardelli E, Riva A, Bianchi Porro G, Rondanelli M. Can nausea and vomiting be treated with ginger extract? Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2015 Apr;19(7):1291-6. [PubMed]

4 Shariatpanahi ZV, Taleban FA, Mokhtari M, Shahbazi S.Ginger extract reduces delayed gastric emptying and nosocomial pneumonia in adult respiratory distress syndrome patients hospitalized in an intensive care unit. J Crit Care. 2010 Dec;25(4):647-50. [PubMed]

5 Obstet Aikins Murphy P. Alternative therapies for nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. Gynecol. 1998 Jan;91(1):149-55. [PubMed]

6 Ernst E, Pittler MH. Efficacy of ginger for nausea and vomiting: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials. Br J Anaesth. 2000 Mar;84(3):367-71.[PubMed]

7 Boone SA, Shields KM. Treating pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting with ginger. Ann Pharmacother. 2005 Oct;39(10):1710-3. [PubMed]

8 Bryer E. A literature review of the effectiveness of ginger in alleviating mild-to-moderate nausea and vomiting of pregnancy. J Midwifery Womens Health. 2005 Jan-Feb;50(1):e1-3.[PubMed]

9 Chaiyakunapruk N, Kitikannakorn N, Nathisuwan S, Leeprakobboon K, Leelasettagool C. The efficacy of ginger for the prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting: a meta-analysis. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2006 Jan;194(1):95-9.[PubMed]

10 Marx W, Ried K, McCarthy AL, Vitetta L, Sali A, McKavanagh D, Isenring L. Ginger-Mechanism of action in chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting: A review. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2017 Jan 2;57(1):141-146.[PubMed]

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12 Sanaati F, Najafi S, Kashaninia Z, Sadeghi M. Effect of Ginger and Chamomile on Nausea and Vomiting Caused by Chemotherapy in Iranian Women with Breast Cancer. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2016;17(8):4125-9. [PubMed]

13 Hunt R, Dienemann J, Norton HJ, Hartley W, Hudgens A, Stern T, Divine G. Aromatherapy as treatment for postoperative nausea: a randomized trial. Anesth Analg. 2013 Sep;117(3):597-604. [PubMed]

14 Lete I, Allué J. The Effectiveness of Ginger in the Prevention of Nausea and Vomiting during Pregnancy and Chemotherapy. Integr Med Insights. 2016;11:11–17. [PubMed]

15 Dupuis LL, Nathan PC. Options for the prevention and management of acute chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in children. Paediatr Drugs. 2003;5(9):597-613. [PubMed]

16 Lua PL, Zakaria NS. A brief review of current scientific evidence involving aromatherapy use for nausea and vomiting. J Altern Complement Med. 2012 Jun;18(6):534-40. [PubMed]

17 Hines S, Steels E, Chang A, Gibbons K. Aromatherapy for treatment of postoperative nausea and vomiting. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012 Apr 18;(4):CD007598. [PubMed]

18 Yavari KP, Safajou F, Shahnazi M, Nazemiyeh H. The effect of lemon inhalation aromatherapy on nausea and vomiting of pregnancy: A double-blinded, randomized, controlled clinical trial. Iran. Red Crescent Med. J. 2014;16 [PMC free article] [PubMed]

19 Lien HC, Sun WM, Chen YH, Kim H, Hasler W, Owyang C. Effects of ginger on motion sickness and gastric slow-wave dysrhythmias induced by circular vection. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2003 Mar;284(3):G481-9. [Article Link]

20 Brainard A, Gresham C. Prevention and treatment of motion sickness. Am Fam Physician. 2014 Jul 1;90(1):41-6. [Article Link]

21 Stewart JJ, Wood MJ, Wood CD, Mims ME. Effects of ginger on motion sickness susceptibility and gastric function. Pharmacology. 1991;42(2):111-20. [PubMed]