Why do people commonly feel like they may vomit when they’re injured?
In: Biology
When you are injured the body makes dealing with the injury high priority, using it’s resources to take care of the injury, this means it must deprioritize other processes in the body, like digestion. The process of digestion actually takes a lot energy, vitamins and minerals to complete, so the body will often get rid of the food in your stomach so it no longer has to put resources towards digesting it and can now focus on the current injury.
Being injured can trigger the “fight or flight” response. This is called a sympathetic response. It makes everything you need to run away from danger work better. Your heart beats faster, your lungs breath better, your muscles get more energy.
Your body doesn’t like that, and then will sometimes trigger what’s called a vasovagal effect. This is why people pass out when they see blood, for example. It’s the parasympathetic response, and it’s kind of the opposite. That system controls all the parts of your body that don’t need to be working so hard when you’re in danger. One of the biggest is your gut/stomach.
So, your body essentially gets scared and ramps everything up, then realizes it was too much, and tries to bring it back down. But, it overshoots, makes your stomach work all of a sudden, and then you feel bad/nauseous.
Latest Answers