Vomiting, throwing up and puking are just some of the terms used to indicate a powerful ejection of stomach contents out through your mouth. How this occurs is a reversal of peristalsis. In other words, the involuntary waves of muscle contractions in the walls of your stomach and esophagus that naturally propel food down through your digestive system forcefully contract in the opposite direction.
A vomiting episode is uncontrollable and usually involves several distinct surges of contractions. And because the last couple heaves usually discharge mostly stomach acid and very little foodstuff, you’ll likely feel a painful burning sensation as a result. Nausea describes the queasy feeling just before a violent ouster of undigested food.
So what causes you to violently throw up? There are many causes of a puking outcome. The following is a break down of various health related reasons vomiting occurs.
Gastritis is a common cause for the vomit function to be triggered. Ingesting infectious pathogens is often the source for instigating stomach inflammation. Throwing up helps expel infection producing germs associated with food poisoning and viral gastroenteritis, such as:
Parasite infections generally result in diarrhea, but puking is possible. And an ulcer can give rise to upchucking as well.
There are other sources of stomach irritants, like alcohol and drugs (anesthetic, chemotherapy). For some, NSAIDs (aspirin, ibuprofen) can irritate their stomach lining enough for them to vomit them back up. And esophagitis can prompt a puke response also.
Brain Signals
Your brain controls involuntary function, so under certain circumstances it sends the signal to throw up even though there’s nothing harmful to expel. Health conditions that can ignite this type of signal from your brain include:
- pain
- vertigo
- dizziness
- brain tumor
- labyrinthitis
- dehydration
- severe sunburn
- heat exhaustion
- motion sickness
- brain hemorrhage
- Meniere’s disease
- migraine headache
- electrolyte imbalance
- benign postural vertigo
- head injury, concussion
- brain infection ~ meningitis, encephalitis
A signal to puke can result from stimulus such as obnoxious smells, bad taste and extreme emotions (fear, observing horrific event).
Associative Health Conditions
Various health conditions, that may or may not involve a digestive problem, can sometimes induce vomiting, for example:
- sepsis
- angina
- hepatitis
- pregnancy
- pancreatitis
- appendicitis
- gastroparesis
- bowel obstruction
- gallbladder disorder
- inflammatory bowel disease
- lung infection ~ pneumonia, bronchitis
- kidney problems ~ stones, infection, failure
Bulimia is an eating disorder marked by self-induced vomiting. And the reason you might puke following a night of drinking a copious amount of alcohol is acetaldehyde caused nausea.
An antiemetic is sometimes prescribed to help stop excessive vomiting .
