Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Pregnant Nausea

Question:
Can you recommend me Herbs or Homeopatic medicines for Nausea and Headache symptoms for a pregnant woman.

Answer:
Do be VERY careful when using herbs with pregnant women. Some of them (black cohosh comes to mind, sure there are probably at least a couple others) have traditionally been used to induce abortions. I was given a book by a nurse-herbalist about 5 years ago that (much to my shock) gave actual recipes for such herbal abortions. [I put it away in a box in my basement as I thought it interesting enough not to chuck it, but a bit too far-out to keep on my shelf of other med/health care texts.] It was rather disturbing & advocated do-it-yourself at-home procedures that apparently lead to the expulsion of the fetus over the course of several *days*. In other words, check out whatever a pregnant woman wants to take before simply popping it into her mouth. There could be serious consequences, just as with any other meds. Peppermint tea, sipped slowly, often helps. Avoiding strong smells also helps. The nausea is normal, if bothersome. Jasmin tea comes to mind, but please check if it's safe to use when pregnant. Check with someone very knowledgeable when it comes to herbs. Whatever you considering taking, check it out with your Doctor first, some herbs are harmful to pregnant women even though they are natural. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) has been used for medicinal purposes since antiquity. In particular, it has been an important plant for the traditional Chinese and Indian pharmacopoeia. One of its indications has always been the treatment of nausea and vomiting. The aromatic, spasmolytic caminative and absorbent properties of ginger suggest that it has direct effects on the gastrointestinal tract. German and European monographs of ginger as available and both list nausea/vomiting as indications. Recently, the US pharmacopoeia has approved ginger and powdered ginger monographs for inclusion in the National Formulary. The notion that ginger may be effective for nausea and vomiting is supported by several lines of evidence. Animal experiments suggest that ginger has antiemetic activity when nausea is induced by cisplatin or cyclophosphamide. Studies in healthy human volunteers suggest that ginger reduces experimentally induced nausea. Futhermore, non-randomized, non-placebo-controlled studies suggest an antiemetic effect in human patients. Systematic literature searches were performed to identify all RCTs [Randomized Controlled Trials] on ginger for nausea and vomiting. ... Only double-blind, placebo-controlled RCTs of ginger monopreparations for nausea and vomiting were included. Grøntved and colleagues studied 80 Danish cadets, allocated randomly to receive either one dose of ginger powder 1 g or placebo. Symptoms of seasickness were evaluated during the subsequent 4 h. Volunteers who received ginger powder suffered less seasickness compared with those received placebo. The difference between ginger powder and placebo was statistically significant (P