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What Causes Queasiness?

Queasiness is not so much a medical term as a feeling that has a number of corresponding medical causes. More frequently known in as nausea, queasiness can effect anyone at any time for a great number of reasons. It can be an indicator of permanent digestive maladies or simply a temporary issue. Frequently, nausea is a single symptom of a larger issue. Understanding what can cause nausea can go a long way in knowing how to react to it.

  1. Definition

    • Any sense of mild pain, instability or discomfort in the stomach, particularly those sensations of unease that feel likely to lead to vomiting, can be considered nausea or queasiness. Vomiting, or emesis as it is known in medical circles, is an effect of nausea that frequently occurs when the body attempts to expel the cause of nausea or queasiness.

    History

    • Nausea was once considered to be an effect of poorly balanced "humours," along with most maladies within the human body. The four humours were black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm. An imbalance in any of these substances could produce a diverse range of effects, from illness to melancholy. Expulsion of bile or phlegm was often seen as a function of the liver attempting to reestablish balance. Thus, vomiting and coughing up were considered to be indicators of a drastic imbalance. The effects of this theory were to ascribe a variety of emotional and psychological conditions to nausea in addition to physical illness. To be nauseous was to have something wrong in your life, whether it be sickness, witchcraft or depression.

    Movement Causes

    • One of the most common causes of nausea is that resulting from balance issues. When the equilibrium in the ear conflicts with what the sufferer is seeing with his eyes, the body begins to feel ill. Temporary in nature, movement can cause a number of nauseous conditions, including motion sickness, seasickness and car sickness.

    Disease Causes

    • More dangerous problems within the body can also contribute to nausea. Illnesses, everything from disease to cancer, often has nausea as a side-effect. Diseases that can induce nausea include cancer, concussions, flu, advanced AIDS, diabetes, hepatitis and gastroenteritis.

    Ingestion Causes

    • While nausea caused by movement or disease are often not directly related to the stomach, nausea can also develop as a result of ingesting certain chemicals. When the body senses something dangerous has been ingested, the mind will induce nausea and vomiting in an attempt to expel the foreign contaminant. This can include medication, particularly when taken on an empty stomach. Nausea is a frequent side effect of cancer medications. Nausea can also occur through the consumption of narcotics or food poisoning.

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