Usually, when someone comes looking for the best essential oils for nausea, they are suffering from morning sickness. So, let’s cut to the chase and say essential oils are only going to give you limited help if you are pregnant because it’s not safe to use essential oils on your skin until you are 16 weeks pregnant. However inhalation can be helpful, and since many of the best essential oils for nausea come from foods anyway, you should still find some useful stuff in this article. Of course, nausea can happen for a variety of other reasons including medications, anxiety, and migraines. As ever, we’ll list the oils first then delve a little deeper to see which oils might be able to help you best.
The Ten Best Essential Oils For Nausea
1. Chamomile Essential Oil
If you haven’t got a bottle of chamomile essential oil yet, now is probably the time to do so. Apart from being some of the best essential oils for nausea, chamomile oils are wonderful for digestive problems and for soothing the skin. They are also great for relaxing you and reducing itching and soreness.
There are three different types of chamomile oils. The most commonly used is Roman chamomile (Anthemis nobilis). There is also German chamomile (Chamomilla matricaria), also known as blue chamomile because its essential oil contains azulenes, potent anesthetic compounds that turn the essential oil blue. There’s also Moroccan chamomile or chamomile Maroc which again is digestive and will also help with nausea. (Strictly speaking, this one, Ormenis multicaulis, is not a chamomile, but we call it one because it acts in the same way.).
All the chamomiles are tremendous anti-nausea essential oils.
Consider using chamomile in a massage oil, cream, or lotion, however, simply inhaling it can be very steadying, especially if you are struggling with dizziness too.
If you are pregnant, you can’t use any essential oils for nausea but you can obviously enjoy the effects of chamomile by drinking chamomile tea.
2. Ginger Essential Oil
Essential oils do not have side effects. They only have many main effects.
Ginger is universally known for its effects on nausea. If you are pregnant, you have potentially tried eating ginger biscuits, which can be very helpful. However, ginger essential oil is also incredibly healing. So, if you are struggling with menopause and hot flashes or night sweats, stay away from ginger oil. Likewise, if you have diarrhea, ginger essential oil will make this worse.
On the other hand, if you are struggling with constipation and nausea, then ginger Isn’t going to be one of the best essential oils for nausea, in your case. It will be the very best oil.
Everything about ginger oil is speeding. So, it makes you think faster, think sharper, motivates you, but it also makes you more aggressive. Just watch your temper, if you choose ginger in your best essential oils for nausea because many people find they snap more and get more tetchy. It is a tremendous oil to choose if you have problems with cold. So, if you have rheumatism or arthritis, ginger oil will heat the system as well as reduce nausea.
3. Coriander Seed Essential Oil
There is not a tremendous amount to say about coriander essential oil. It is one of the best essential oils for nausea and for digestive problems generally. if you’re struggling with indigestion, heartburn, acid reflux, these all respond extremely well to coriander oil.
Oils taken from different parts of the plants have different jobs to do. In his book, Aromatree Salvatore Battaglia speaks of how essential oils extracted from seeds often have to do with the germination of new project ideas or new stages of life, for example.
Coriander seed essential oil is involved with not feeling like you are good enough, especially if somebody keeps telling you so.
It’s a great essential oil to make you feel a bit braver if you’re being bullied, or if you can’t quite finish a project if you’re procrastinating because you’re afraid of finishing it.
It’s amazing how often nausea can present itself as a way of avoiding doing something
4. Cardamom Essential Oil
Where coriander seed essential oil tells you to stop procrastinating, cardamom essential oil says sit still for a few minutes and look how far you’ve come.
Often we can just keep going and going, being frightened to sit still, until we wear ourselves into the ground.
This can often happen to people who are struggling with migraines for example. Cardamom asks you to appreciate just how well you’ve done so far. It’s a tremendous choice to use with oils like rose or orange, that we would use if your nausea has been caused by nervous tension.
5. Mandarin Essential Oil
Most of the best essential oils for nausea smell like they come from a curry which is not necessarily the greatest thing! Mandarin, however, is refreshing, uplifting and vibrant. Where chamomile will ask you to lie down and rest, mandarin essential oil says,” we can get on and do something now. Let’s get out of here”. It doesn’t want to be lying around convalescing, it wants to be outside having a great time, giggling and chattering.
It’s so wonderful for helping you get on with life.
This is a great essential oil to use if you are pregnant. You still cannot use it topically, however, inhaling mandarin essential oil is so refreshing. It makes you feel more confident about how things are going and generally happier about being pregnant, despite the fact that you feel like you want to throw up all the time.
6. Vetiver Essential Oil
This is top of all the essential oils for nausea and dizziness. Vetiver essential oil is incredibly grounding, making you feel like you are securely anchored, which is reassuring when the world feels like it’s spinning. It’s a tremendous oil if you’re suffering from vertigo, however, it is very good for helping you to concentrate and remember things too
7. Rose Essential Oil
Rose essential oil has been the subject of many clinical studies to help people feel calmer before they go into operations. If somebody is nervous before they go in, it can have very bad outcomes when they’re on the accurate operating table. Rose essential oil is very calming, making it less likely that they will have blood pressure spikes during the procedure. Research also shows that this lowered level and of anxiety reduces the feelings of nausea people experience when they come round from the anesthetic and it also shortens healing times
8. Orange Essential Oil
Like rose essential oil, Orange is also the subject of several studies. In particular, Orange has been studied for its effects on anxiety while people are waiting to go into the dentist. Orange essential oil is proven to reduce anxiety and help with the feelings of nausea that come from nervous distress.
Orange has an additional quality of making you feel very pretty. If you’re worried that people will judge you on your appearance when you are doing a presentation then orange has got you covered. Likewise, orange essential oil is fabulous to perk you up and calm nausea from first-date nerves.
9. Peppermint Essential Oil
Undoubtedly one of the best essentials for nausea is peppermint. It is refreshing, it has tremendous digestive properties, and it’s helpful to indigestion and heartburn. However, if you suffer from acid reflux then peppermint can make those symptoms worse. Peppermint makes the valves at the top of the esophagus stay open. So in ordinary cases, of general digestive problems, then peppermint remains the best of the best essential oils for nausea, however, avoid using peppermint essential oil for nausea if you suffer from acid reflux.
In these situations, it would be perfectly acceptable to simply inhale the lovely refreshing aroma of peppermint though.
In all cases, avoid using peppermint essential oil before going to bed.
It is so invigorating, it will stop you from sleeping.
10. Spearmint Essential Oil
Like peppermint, spearmint essential oil is tremendous for all digestive conditions, however, it is much gentler and less stimulating. It’s one of the best essential oils for nausea in kids.
What Essential Oil Helps with Nausea From?
Nerves
There are no magical secrets here. However, where our first instincts might be to try and work out the best essential oils for nausea, an aromatherapist would say try and treat the source of the problem instead. Otherwise, the body just finds another way to speak its mind. You might end up with another, worse condition to deal with.
Calming yourself is a much better plan. For short-term nerves, consider lavender or chamomile. For more deep-set problems, rose, geranium, or vetiver essential oils might be better.
Migraine
The best essential oils for nausea and headache are chamomile and peppermint. Mandarin is lovely if you need a bit of refreshment though. You may find more help on our specific page for migraines.
PMS
It might be that one of the best essential oils that help with nausea from PMS might not be on the list. Research shows the Lemon balm extracts tackle all aspects of menstrual disturbance from period pains to how lethargic and sick you feel. The research applies to lemon balm tea and alcoholic extract, but Melissa essential oil has been traditionally used for periods for generations.
Stomach Bug
The best essential oils for nausea if your stomach is upset are cardamom, coriander, chamomile, and peppermint.
What Essential Oil is Good for Nausea from Morning Sickness?
As stated, it is not advisable to use essential oils topically (on the skin) if you are in the first few weeks of pregnancy. To be clear, this is not because we know something bad could happen to you or your baby. it would be unethical to do the experiments to find out what happens at all. We suspect that babies' livers might process essential oils differently to the way adults do. So, as aromatherapists, we choose not to take the chance.
Actually, though, it would be ill-advised even to inhale some essential oils too. Oils like rose, ylang ylang, and clary sage have powerful actions on the womb, which could be dangerous to babies so we choose some very safe ones and stick to those.
The chamomiles, mandarin, ginger, or mint are the best essential oils for nausea if you are pregnant. Simply sit down and inhale slowly for five minutes. If you are on the hop, a little drop on a tissue to take with you can be very useful.
You could safely use these oils topically after the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
If the symptoms last longer than a few weeks, please tell your midwife or physician who can give you an anti-emetic medication that would be safer to use than essential oils at this point. .
Essential Oil Blend for Nausea
- 20ml Aqueous Cream (Available from the pharmacist)
- 2 drops Roman Chamomile essential oil (Anthemis nobilis)
- 2 drops Peppermint essential oil (Mentha piperita)
- 1 drop Vetiver essential oil (Vetiveria zizanioides)
Method of use: Rub onto wherever feels comfortable. Essential oils absorb through the skin into the bloodstream and travel to the places that need them most. We like to apply those the inside of the wrist where there is good blood supply. But you might find applying the best essential oils for nausea on your chest or stomach feels more soothing. Apply as often as needed.
Safety: Not suitable for use in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy.
Conclusion
The best essential oils for nausea mainly come from foods so if this is a regular problem for you consider building things like chamomile tea into your everyday living as well as using the oils to feel much better.
