There is only one thing that can truly bring my day to a halt. It’s not lack of coffee, traffic, or a case of the Mondays. No, the one thing that absolutely stops my world is a stomach ache. I don’t have the best of relationships with my digestive track so for me a bit of nausea (usually related to something I’ve eaten) is fairly common. As a result I’ve come up with a little arsenal of home remedies for my stomach issues. After all, life is awesome. I don’t want to miss out because of tummy upset. I’m not a doctor or a scientist, but here are some of the best home remedies for an upset stomach that I’ve found and road-tested.
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1. Lie down, specifically on your right side. To be perfectly honest I don’t know why this works, but my mother always told me to lie on my right side of I was sick to my stomach. My best guess comes from what I learned about the anatomy of the stomach in college: the stomach empties on the right so lying on that side would ease some of the pressure that comes with nausea. What I do know for certain is that if I happen to be home or in a place where I can rest when nausea strikes lying down on my right side is my first option in easing my issue. It works very consistently. I have also tried this in a semi-sitting up position with positive results.
2. Carbonated water, iced, with lemon. I’m going to chalk the effectiveness of this remedy up to the fact that carbonation often helps with burping and burping often helps me feel better when I have a sick stomach. The carbonation is also reported to help with digestion in general, so if the tummy ache is related to eating too much or eating something that simply doesn’t agree with you the carbonation will help there as well. As for the ice and the lemon? That’s just refreshing. Who doesn’t want to feel refreshed when they feel sick?
3. Cola. True story time: I had the absolute worst nausea of my life during my first semester of graduate school. It was caused by a variety of things including poor eating habits, stress, exhaustion and a four day migraine. I found myself in the grocery store around the corner from my house around midnight loading my cart with some soda water, saltines, and Excedrin when I stumbled across an odd little bottle in the medicine section. It was cola syrup. I thought someone had misplaced it but looking at the bottle it said that it was a remedy for stomach ache. Just spoon it over ice and sip. I bought a bottle. I spooned it over ice. I sipped. It totally soothed my stomach. Helped with heartburn, too.
4. Peppermint. This is the remedy that I turn to the most and the one that works for me when nothing else will and I credit my grandmother for introducing me to it as a baby. When I had an upset stomach, she’d give me just a little peppermint. There isn’t any particular science that I could find as to why this works (and a friend of mine who is a nurse told me that in her experience peppermint could make vomiting easier) but peppermint has always helped me. From general tummy upset to full-on stomach flu, a simple peppermint candy or an Altoid can settle things down to either fully resolved or bearable. I always have something peppermint in my purse or car.
Those are my best upset stomach remedies. What do you use when your stomach is feeling less than happy? Let me know in comments!
The Hudsucker 
I’m a chronic stomach pain sufferer too, so here’s a few of my tricks:
1. Mint always works well for me, but ginger is another good herb to calm the stomach. Most grocery stores carry a type of ginger tea and, even better, Gravol makes an all-natural ginger version. I guess that’s part of what makes ginger ale so great too!
2. Another option is drink electrolytes instead of water. I find drinking straight up water makes my heartburn worse, so I usually reach for some kind of electrolyte beverage instead. Gatorade works (though the low sugar kind is better because the sugar can upset your stomach even more), but most grocery stores now carry electrolyte powders that can be mixed in to water and they generally taste good (e.g. orange flavor) and do the trick!
3. Heat always helps. I find putting a hot water bottle or heating pad on my stomach can help settle it. It usually doesn’t help as much for nausea, but for gas and cramping, it does wonders.