In case you hadn’t already heard, acupressure is one of the safest, most effective ways to find nausea relief. Whether the cause of your nausea is sensitivity to smells, morning sickness, chemotherapy, radiation treatments, or something else entirely, acupressure is safe and effective. Anyone can learn and apply acupressure techniques for nausea.
If you haven’t tried acupressure for relieving nausea, you should. The easiest acupressure point to learn for those who are new to acupressure is located on the inside of your wrist. To relieve nausea, locate the point by measuring two fingers’ distance from the place where your wrist and hand meet. This point is called the inner gate or P6 point. Apply light pressure to the P6 point with your index finger or thumb. You will generally feel relief within 30 seconds (though it can take longer).
Making an Effective Nausea Treatment Even More Effective
If you don’t do anything other than applying pressure to the P6 point, you will generally experience relief from nausea, regardless of what’s causing it. Here are some options to help make acupressure even more effective:
- Use aromatherapy in conjunction with acupressure.
- Focus your attention on the pressure point instead of the nausea symptoms.
- Breathe slowly and deeply while you are applying pressure.
- Use acupressure when you first begin to notice nausea symptoms instead of waiting until they are severe.
- Increase your fluid intake by sipping clear fluids.
- Use an acupressure wrist band, which keeps constant pressure on the P6 point, for recurring nausea.
Acupressure Plays Well with Other Nausea Treatments
Treating nausea should not be an either/or proposition. When you’re feeling nauseous, the important thing isn’t which treatment(s) help, but that you start feeling better. Applying acupressure doesn’t stop you from using any other form of treatment which you find effective.
Go ahead and use herbal teas, aromatherapy, or even nausea medications while you are trying acupressure. You should use whatever combination of treatments works best to relieve your nausea, as long as they are safe.
Because acupressure is noninvasive and doesn’t involve using medication, there’s no need to worry about side effects or negative interactions with other treatments. Acupressure has been performed safely for thousands of years in Eastern cultures. While its practice is relatively new in western cultures, the majority of healthcare professionals agree that, at the very least, there is no harm in using acupressure to treat nausea.