Vomiting, retching, nausea and restlessness in the stomach

Vomiting and retching are movements of the stomach aimed at expelling something in the stomach through the mouth. The urge to vomit is a movement of the expelling force, which is not accompanied by the movement of the expelled substance, while with vomiting the movement of the expelled substance is combined with the movement emanating from the expelling force. And nausea is a condition of the stomach that seems to require these movements and gives rise to a certain tendency in it to such movements, either long-term or short-term, depending on what the matter requires; such states are in all respects the opposite of the urge to eat. “Curse of the soul” is the name given to constant nausea, and sometimes loss of appetite is also called this. Vomiting can be acute, causing anxiety to the stomach, as with Haida and as happens to someone who has taken an emetic medicine,   and it can also be calm, as, for example, with gastric stomachs. If there is a urge to vomit, it means that something has arisen that forces the mouth of the stomach to vomit something in the nearest way. The reason for this may be the quality of the food, which acts on the stomach in the same way as matter acts, irritating the stomach itself or an organ associated with it, for example, the brain, when it suffers a blow, or matter in the form of juice, absorbed or poured into the stomach and spoiling the food.

The matter is either yellow gall, or it is liquid, malignant, decaying moisture, as happens in pregnant women, or the moisture is non-malignant, but relaxes and loosens the mouth of the stomach in the absence of a malignant cause; it can also be thick, sticky moisture, or abundant, burdensome moisture, and although there is no other reason, the patient suffers from this. If such moisture is, for example, blood or sweet mucus, then one can hope that it will nourish the body and will also nourish the stomach, for blood always nourishes the stomach, and natural sweet mucus also turns into blood and gives nourishment to the stomach. However, mucus does not nourish the stomach in any case and regardless of how it gets into it. On the contrary, it only nourishes the stomach when it enters it gradually from vessels that change the nature of the blood to the nature of the stomach and liken the blood to the stomach, and these are the vessels mentioned in anatomy. All this takes place unless there is a reason due to which the stomach does not receive any nutrition at all and the vessels do not bring to it a sufficient amount of substances that the stomach would accept and digest, turning into blood. It also often happens that the liver pours into the stomach, but not through the vessels that conduct blood, but through the vessels in which chyle passes, good natural blood, not abundant and not burdensome; it feeds the stomach, which absorbs it and transforms it through the action of its substance into something similar to itself. The one who thinks that blood does not nourish the stomach is mistaken and expresses such a judgment decisively and unconditionally.

There are people who have recurring attacks of bile spillage; vomiting is good for them. Sometimes vomiting causes a burning sensation in the esophagus and throat and even an ulcer. Nausea is sometimes a sign of crisis, and sometimes it is a bad sign, for example, in pestilent fevers; if nausea becomes more frequent in those who are recovering, this portends a return of the disease. Vomiting can also be a crisis, useful for acute fevers and liver tumors that form on its concave side; Sometimes vomiting occurs due to rising fevers. If hot tumors form in the stomach or other internal organs, they cause vomiting, because these organs strive to expel food and are irritated by the slightest touch of the slightest amount of nutrients, or medicine, or juice, or an organ filled with food. Nausea sometimes continues for a long time and does not turn into vomiting. The reason for this is the strength of the holding force or the weakness of the quality of the substance that causes nausea, or the paucity of its quantity.

It even happens that if you eat during nausea, it makes vomiting easier, even if vomiting is caused by itself. Sometimes a person who has a weak stomach wants to induce vomiting, but cannot vomit, since his stomach is empty and there is little irritating juice there, absorbed or not absorbed. If instead of such a stomach and its mouth there had been a stronger stomach, the soul of this person would not have experienced nausea from such an amount of juice and the patient would not have suffered because of it. However, due to the weakness of the stomach, the patient suffers from this juice, but the weakness of the stomach and the small amount of matter do not make it possible to expel it. When the patient eats, he is able to spew out this juice for two reasons. One of them is that the irritation from the juice is often insignificant, so it does not cause movement of the stomach and does not prompt vomiting, because the juice is at the bottom of the stomach. When the patient is fed, the food causes the juice to rise and increases its quantity. The second reason is that a significant amount of food helps the stomach to break down and spew out bad juice. Sometimes the heat and dryness that arises at the mouth of the stomach “turns the soul” and induces nausea, and it has the same effect with its hot quality as the juice located next door has with its hot quality.

There is great benefit in the moderate use of vomiting, but its constant stimulation is one of the actions that weakens the strength of the stomach and makes the stomach a place of accumulation of excess. Vomiting during crises is life-saving. Often, a person possessed by a fever suddenly experiences spasms, fits, or something similar to seizures, he vomits a substance the color of verdigris or indigo and gets rid of the disease. Sometimes, through vomiting, he also gets rid of hibernation due to congestion that occurs with fever and other diseases. Vomiting often relieves painful hiccups. Whoever resorts to vomiting in moderation protects his kidneys and treats damage to them, as well as damage to the legs. It cures the opening of blood vessels of veins and arteries. It is good to resort to vomiting twice a month. The best time for it is the time after the bath and after a person has eaten, having been in the bath, and filled up; we have already spoken exhaustively about this subject in Book One.

Whenever a weak stomach takes food, a person experiences nausea and a “turning of the soul.” If the stomach becomes a little weaker, it cannot retain what it takes in and expels the food either up or down. Weakness of the stomach sometimes occurs from various disorders of nature, and you know that among the causes of some types of disorders of nature there are those that also cause the dispersion of pneuma; These are, for example, frequent relaxations and especially relaxations with blood. You know that among the causes that weaken the stomach are severe pain, worries, fasting, severe hunger; They also cause vomiting, as they cause weakness in the stomach. A sore stomach also predisposes to vomiting, because it quickly vomits and expels food. A person who constantly suffers from indigestion and eats without feeling true, real hunger, first, when he eats, experiences a very strong, unbearable burning sensation, and then it comes to the point that he vomits every time he eats. The worst vomiting is bloody vomiting, except in the case that we will mention later, when it is a sign of the strength of nature; followed by vomiting of black bile. The reason for such malignancy is that both of these substances do not originate in the stomach, but rush into it from a distant place and from other organs. Such vomiting indicates damage to these organs and the complicity of the stomach, which is affected by their weakness. Bloody vomiting especially indicates the movement of blood beyond the normal limits, and when the blood movement goes beyond the normal limits, it portends death.

Vomiting pure juice is malignant. Vomiting of yellow bile indicates excessive warmth, and vomiting of mucus indicates excessive, pure, pure coldness. With multi-colored vomit, the most malignant is black vomit, and verdigris and leek-colored vomit is also malignant, because it is a sign of the accumulation of bad juices. Among the bad combinations of painful phenomena is the case when the mouth of the stomach feels “turning over” and nausea, and the nature is locked. Then anti-vomiting drugs increase constipation, and anti-vomiting drugs increase vomiting, unless the nausea is caused by liquid or bile juice. This condition is treated with the juice of plum, tamarind or similar substances, and this helps against both disorders simultaneously. There are people who are always hungry, and when they are full of food, they vomit it or it slips out at the bottom. Then their appetite returns and it becomes habitual, and such people live healthy lives, as if such a thing was natural for them. After all, there is a bird that hunts for locusts and constantly devours them and spews them out, and all its life cannot get enough while it finds locusts; There are other animals with this quality. Some people, when they eat something, think that they will vomit the food if they move, and if they get angry or start talking or experience a spiritual movement, they will also vomit what they have eaten. The reason for this is something you already know.

The most benign vomiting is of mixed composition - medium in terms of thickness and liquid and consisting of normal juices, such as mucus or bile. As for leek-colored vomit in various diseases, this is a bad sign. Green, blackish vomit and vomit that looks blue or indigo in most cases indicates a cooling of warmth and a loss of strength. These two types of vomit are different from leek or verdigris-colored vomit, although here, the cause is sometimes also the burning of juices. However, vomit of burnt juices, if it has not become black and dull due to the coldness of the juices and the dying of the natural strength, is of a bright and pure color, similar to the color of a leek. Yellow vomit and vomit the color of leek and verdigris often occurs in people whose liver is very hot; in patients with a hot tumor in the liver, sometimes vomiting of bile begins, then vomiting the color of leek, then the color of verdigris; In this case, there are also hiccups and nausea. As for black vomiting, if such vomiting does not arise from a tumor of the spleen or at the end of a four-day fever, it is malignant. Fetid vomiting is also malignant, and either of these two varieties is especially bad during pestilent fevers. If on the fourth day of any illness you feel nauseated, then let the patient vomit: this is useful.