When looking for similarities between dry heaves and nausea, it is important to point out that nausea is what takes place after nausea and vomiting. They are essentially the repetitive and involuntary urge to throw up but is not accompanied by vomit. Since nausea stimulates the area of the brain that is responsible for vomiting, even after the individual has vomited, the brains vomiting center may still be active. As a result, the abdominal muscular contractions will continue to take place without expelling any gastric contents. One of the main differences between nausea and dry heaves is the fact that, while nausea is characterized by the expulsion of vomit from the system, dry heaves will only result in the expulsion of mucus at best. Dry heaves can be caused by a number of factors including nausea and vomiting. Medical conditions such as food poisoning can also lead to dry heaves while anxiety is known to trigger physiological reactions such as sudden body movement, dry mouth syndrome and dry heaves. It is very common for women going through a pregnancy to often vomit and then have dry heaves when they brush their teeth. They would also experience dry heaves when their senses pick up certain aromas or taste certain foods. Dry heaves could also be a prominent symptom of an underlying medical condition such as acid reflux syndrome – which causes vomiting and dry heaves most often in the morning.
The key to preventing and treating dry heaves is to maintain certain fluid and nutrition levels in the body. Since vomiting causes the loss of both of these necessities, keeping your body hydrated at all times goes a long way into ensuring that you recover fast from an episode. Since your body has just recovered from a serious problem, it is important that you take very small sips of the liquid at first, increasing your intake as you go on. One of the most effective treatments would be to start with water and then graduate to a weak tea or apple juice. As your system begins to adapt to this you can reacclimatize your body to a teaspoon of cola syrup and then 2 tablespoons of flat cola. Nutrition is also a key element of the recovery process and switching from water to a clear soup is likely to meet this requirement. Try increasing you intake of saltine crackers or a dry piece of toast or even a cup of milk with cookies to make sure that your system has some food in it.