Asthma Community

Additional information : If you have read my other post, you might suggest that this is also related to my Effexor. However - this particular thing has been going on for years before I began taking any kinds of anti-depressants/anti-anxiety meds.

Dear Jeha, I believe you, but I've never heard of this before. I just searched PubMed using the words sneeze and nausea and none of the 20 papers listed discussed the relationship which you describe. Perhaps your doctor could get your name associated with this phenomenon. Do you think that the feeling of nausea could actually be vertigo, due to pressure having built up in your middle ear, which is then relieved by a sneeze -- which generates a pressure difference between the nose and the ear, opening a blocked Eustacean tube?

I'm so glad you responded! I absolutely will mention to my doctor to include my name if possible. I never considered vertigo, but I will keep this in mind for the next time it happens.

Thanks for your time and attention!

Hi Jeha !!!!!

THIS SAME EXACT THING HAPPENS TO ME TOO !!!! No joke. It actually happens so much that I went on Google and typed in "morning/nausea/sneezing" and this Web MD blog was the first thing that came up.

Ok, this is why I think it happens to me. In the morning I eat a kashi breakfast bar which is only 190 calories and I also take a multi-vitamin that has 100% DV of Iron (among other things). Since I'm consuming so few calories to start my day and taking a loaded up vitamin I think that is what is making me nauseous. Have you ever heard of too much iron making you nauseous? I've read that several times in my women's health magazine. It goes away if I sneeze but the feeling also goes away if I eat something else. Are you getting nauseous and sneezing before or after you are eating something? Do you take a vitamin in the morning or some other pill ?

Anyway, hope this helps !!! I thought I was alone with this one !!!

THAT IS SO WEIRD. I LOGGED ON AND GOOGLED NAUSEA AND SNEEZING AND FOUND YOUR ARTICLE. I WAS PREGNANT AND EVERY MORNING WHEN I WOULD BE ILL, THEN I WOULD SNEEZE AND FEEL BETTER. BUT I AM OT PREGNANT NOW AND STILL, I THINK ITS SO WEIRD EVERYTIME I BECOME SICK TO MY STOMACH I SNEEZE. GLAD TO KNOW I AM NOT ALONE! ANDREA

OMG THAT IS WEIRD I JUST RESPONED TO THE OTHERS GIRLS ARTICLE AND I HAD SAID THAT THIS STARTED WHEN I WAS PREGNANT AND YES I WAS TAKING PRENATAL PILLS. AND IT HAPPENED TODAY AND I SWEAR I HAD JUST TAKEN A VITAMIN..WEIRD!

I always wake up with Nausea too and just when I think I am going to be sick, my mouth has filled with saliva, bam I sneeze and it stops!! So glad I am not alone. My doctor told me that morning nausea is very common and is caused by one of two things: 1) dehydradtion 2) hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). He reccomends drinking a large glass of milk right away as this will, a) relieve any dehydration, b) bring up low blood sugar, c) coat the stomach to reduce acid. His theory on why sneezing helps is that you have something called the Vagus Nerve in your neck which is connected to both your sinuses and to your intestinal tract - when you get nauseous the acid levels rise from you GI tract into your throat and the nerve reacts and causes a sneeze as a mechanism to help relieve the pressure from the acid - it also causes your throat to contract sending the acid back down into your GI tract. I find that if I follow my MDs directions about drinking a glass of milk the second I get up that I really am less plauged by early AM nausea.

I am SO glad I found this article. I have had this issue for years! Now that I am pregnant, the morning sickness is alleviated by sneezing which makes me wonder if it really is related to my pregnancy, because as you know morning sickness isn't really treatable, it hangs around forever!! I will most definitely try the glass of milk idea, it sounds very logical, healthy, and easy to do. Thanks a bunch!

I have this exact symptom which started originally when I had morning sickness in 2003. I actually went through a battery of tests. I ate a radioactive egg to see if it was a digestion issue. They did an endoscopy (sp?). No one could figure it out.

This condition continues to this day. I confess to actually resorting to herbal anti-nausea remedies after the first year, because it was making me insane. Then we moved two years ago and that option was not available anymore. Today, I just woke up feeling nauseous, and I ended up vomiting. This is not typical, usually I sneeze and voila everything is better. But, about once a month, it turns out to be vomiting instead of a sneeze. The worst thing is that I often think I will sneeze and end up vomiting instead.

Now, I use a sleep machine, and I have to wonder if air pressure and vertigo may be the issue after reading these comments. It certainly feels like it is a sinus/stomach interaction that originally seemed like a stomach problem. At any rate, you have given me new hope that maybe I can ask my doctor about my middle ear and vertigo.

This is amazing, I also experience this phenomenon. Except for me it usually happens in the evening and I'm most assuredly not pregnant since I'm a guy. Occasionally I'll start to get really nauseated in the evening and I'll usually go to the bathroom. Most of the time within a few minutes I'll sneeze and my nose will become a little congested. After that I feel fine. Very strange occurance. The two functions must be related or there wouldn't be so many people who experience it. The next step is trying to figure out exactly what the cause is. The theory the Doctor had is an interesting one. Although, I've never had vertigo that I'm aware of and if I did I would think it would be a common occurance. I'd really like to hear from more professionals about what might be causing this. My theory is that it's a chemical imbalance in the brain that causes an excess of histamine in the body which can cause nausea and also would cause the sneezing. Unfortunately this doesn't explain why the sneezing alleviates the nausea. Any more theories?

Hi Folks, My problem is very similar except that the nausea/sneeze combo can come on any time of day. Usually I just begin feeling badly, followed by serious nausea which can last a few minutes to 30 or more minutes. During that time I become totally unable to do anything. Occassionally it has been so bad that it has led to vomiting but usually my nose starts itching and a sneeze follows, relieving all symptoms immediately. The sneezes are often violent. It is not unusual for the symptoms to come on when I'm driving and I have often had to pull over and stop until I sneeze. Continuing to drive during the sneeze, since it is so strong, is dangerous especially in traffic. My doctor indicates it is a Vagal (Vagus Nerve) response, as was mentioned by another person. This makes perfect sense if you follow the process. It is apparently an uncontrollable response and I doubt that it has anything to do with supplements, or anything like that. Dehydration could be a factor, but I have found no relationship in my personal experience to that or any other specific factor. For me this has been going on for many, many years but is apparantly relatively rare. For me it is not related to pregnancy, estrogens etc., as I am male. It is obnoxious, but I've lived with it so many years that I guess I can continue. It would be great if there were a way to bring on the sneeze earlier to eleviate the symptoms and reduce the time of illness.

I have the exact OPPOSITE reaction to sneezing! It actually makes me nauseous for about 30 seconds or so after I sneeze! It's so bad that I actually dread the sneeze as soon as I feel it coming on! Ever since I had my second child, I have very frequent nauseous spells that really make me crazy. I can't figure out what it is- I've tried everything: more water, more protien. I hate it!

jeha311,

I too, have pretty much the exact same symptoms as you describe. For the last almost 20 years (I am 33 now) EVERY morning when I wake up, I feel terribly ill. It will vary in the severity, from just nausea to extreme pain, diarreha, and dry heaving. However, I feel the same sensation of a sneeze happening at the same time, like it is linked. I will sneeze, and INSTANTLY feel better! The other symptoms will continue if for some reason I do not sneeze. I do not MAKE myself sneeze either, it just overwhelmingly happens. I have asked doctors, friends, family, all look at me as if I am out of my mind, so I stopped asking. I am lactose intolerant, but have found no matter how I change my eating, sleeping, stress, it does not change the "Morning Pukes" as I have been calling them. There was only ONE instance that I can think of when I did NOT wake and have this happen, which is the day after I went to the Chiropractor. It was the first time. I went back a second time to speak to him about this, and was told that the intestinal tract can get out of alignment. ?? I know I have a siatica nerve issue, which supposedly also effects the nerves into the bowels and lower GI. I am trying my best to discover anything new about this, I have suffered too long, and want a normal belly again! Much luck to you, please keep posting! Thank you!

I am so surprised to see this post!

I too have the same problem. I am relieved to find out I am not alone.

I have a child and there is a possibility this nausea/sneeze thing started about the time of my pregnancy but I cannot be sure.

I feel incredibly nauseous, then I sneeze suddenly, and instantly the sick feeling goes away. It usually happens in the morning but sometimes later in the day as well. I'm not sure that it's related to acid, because it sometimes happens even after I've eaten. I like the idea of the vagus nerve-connection, but why did it only start recently?

Thank you for sharing this -- it's great to hear the responses. I'm going to share with my doctors as well, and see what they say.