This is One Thing, a column with tips on how to live.
Nausea sucks. It’s painful and all-consuming, and there’s almost nothing to be done once it hits. Little things can help—get some fresh air, sip a ginger ale, nibble on crackers—but nausea is on its own timeline. It sticks around until it’s ready to leave.
Perhaps that’s why I’ve held on so tightly to a bit of wisdom that my mom gave me when I was a kid plagued by stomachaches. It was something I could do that maybe, maybe would help bring an end to the pain. And it didn’t require much effort. The trick, my mom told me, was to simply lie down on my left side.
The way I imagined it as a kid was that the hole in my stomach that led to my intestines was on the left side, so lying positioned that way would help it drain faster and make it stop hurting sooner. (Turns out this is not what is happening, but it’s what I believed at the time.) I’d lie on my side and envision the painful stuff inside me swirling out of my stomach. These days, whether it be the flu, a hangover, or stop-and-go traffic, I still find myself lying on my left side, urging the nausea away. It helps—a bit!
I’ve only recently begun to wonder if the trick is more than just a piece of mom wisdom. Turns out the whole concept of resting on your left side stems from the tradition of ayurveda, a system of medicine that originated in India more than 3,000 years ago. More recently, scientists have studied how body position can affect digestion, focusing on acid reflux. The evidence suggests that lying on the left side indeed reduces heartburn. For instance, in a small study from 2000, those who lay on their left side experienced fewer and shorter reflux episodes in the four hours after eating a fatty meal than did those who lay on their right side.
Why does it matter which side you’re on? There are a couple of possible reasons for this. For starters, your stomach is on the left side of your body. When you lie on that side, your stomach is positioned at a lower height than your esophagus, which might make it more difficult for stomach acid to rise up into the esophagus. Another possible mechanism: Lying on the left causes muscles in the esophagus to contract and prevent leaking of acid from the stomach, while lying on the right causes those muscles to relax.
There’s not much to go on when it comes to the best body position for regular nausea, though. Something called the ileocecal valve, located between the small intensive and large intestine, may be involved, according to Jef L’Ecuyer, a registered dietician. The valve is actually on the right side. But flipping to the left side can keep this valve free and unblocked and allow gravity to do its thing and move waste through your body, perhaps helping keep nausea at bay. (This explanation appears in a few places, anyway. It’s hard to find a study that backs it up.)
OK, I have a small confession: As far as I can recall, my mom actually told me to lie on my RIGHT side, not the left. It wasn’t until I started researching this piece that I realized I’ve been doing the exact wrong thing for all these years! It goes to show how powerful the mind is. And it makes sense that when it comes to getting through nausea, which requires a whole lot of mind over matter, I’ve needed even a small shred of hope to cling to.
Perhaps the most important thing here is having some kind of soothing ritual when you’re nauseated. Still, better to stack the deck when you can. I’ll be lying on my left side from now on.
