Indigestion is one of the most common health conditions and can affect anyone any day. You may suffer from indigestion, upset stomach, loose stools, and dyspepsia due to overeating, food poisoning, or eating excessively oily, junk foods.
Home remedies for upset stomach and diarrhea are very effective. The condition is usually not serious and can be managed very easily and successfully, even without visiting a health center.
All you need to do is modify your eating habits and diet slightly and get some help from easily available ingredients on your kitchen shelves. Here are some very good home remedies you can try very successfully to improve an upset stomach. But before moving ahead, let’s take a look at some common symptoms of an upset stomach:
- Bloating
- Excessive bowel gas
- Frequent farting
- Belching and sour breathing
- Frequent watery stool with a very foul smell
- Nausea
- Heartburn
- Hiccupping
- Coughing
We are discussing some very popular natural and home remedies for indigestion. Let’s find out more about them.
1. Drink Enough Water
When you pass loose stools frequently, you may suffer from dehydration and start suffering from weakness. Nutrients from foods and beverages should be absorbed properly by your body for proper growth. And when you are dehydrated, digestion, and hence absorption of nutrients gets completely derailed.
According to the standard recommendation from the Health and Medicine Division (HMD),
Men should drink about 3.7 l water per day, and women should have 2.7 l water per day.
- Your body gets around 20% of the required water from the foods and beverages you take. But you have to drink a minimum of 8 cups of water every day to keep your body healthy. Whenever you suffer from an upset stomach, increase your water intake slightly to avoid diarrhea symptoms getting worse.
2. Avoid Lying Down for a Long Time
When you lie down, your body gets into a horizontal position, and there is an increased likelihood of stomach acids traveling back towards the esophagus and causing excessive heartburn.
So, don’t lie down for long hours, even if you don’t feel better due to weakness. And if you feel better while lying down, get proper support from pillows to keep your head, neck, and upper chest at the recommended 30-degree angle.
3. Chew Fresh Mint Leaves
Menthol is the chief component in mint, which doesn’t only improve your breath and smell from the mouth, it also
- Prevents diarrhea and vomiting
- Relieves stomach ache
- Reduces muscles pain and spasm in the intestines
Mint has been one of the traditional treatments for diarrhea and indigestion. You can consume raw as well as cooked mint leaves. Tea with cardamom and mint leaves is a very good taste enhances and mood booster and will improve your digestion for sure!
If you can’t find fresh mint leaves, packed mint juices and mint powder are easily available in most grocery stores. You can even suck some mint candies to feel better when you are down with an upset stomach.
4. Bring BRAT to Your Diet For A Few Days:
People with diarrhea find the BRAT diet very healthy and useful for them. BRAT stands for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast. All these foods are great sources of starch and are good to make your stools firmer. BRAT diet can ease diarrhea symptoms by decreasing the number of stools.
These foods are very soft and are without any irritants. Therefore, they heal your intestine tissues that are irritated from constant stools and vomiting. The BRAT diet is very good at quickly restoring potassium and magnesium you have lost through constant diarrhea.
5. Avoid Alcohol and Smoking – As Much as Possible
Both alcohol and smoking are harmful, even for a very healthy and fit person. And can be very hurtful for those suffering from diarrhea and upset stomach. Continuous smoking can trigger diarrhea and vomiting by irritating your intestine. On the other hand, alcohol is a mild toxic and is very difficult to digest. Hence, it can severely affect the stomach lining as well as the liver.
We recommend you to quit alcohol and smoking as soon as possible. And if you have diarrhea, do yourself a favor by quitting them and to recover quickly.
6. Add Lemon Juice and Baking Soda in Water
You can get relief from many diarrhea symptoms by adding a few drops of lemon juice with a pinch of baking soda to one glass of water.
The water-baking soda-lemon mixture makes carbonic acid, which is known for reducing bowel gas and easing indigestion. The mixture can also improve the movement of the intestine and secretion of digestive juices from the liver. The acidic nature of lemon can improve your body’s ability to digest fats and neutralize bile acids and reduce acidity and heartburn.
Add one tbsp fresh lemon juice and a pinch of baking soda to 8 ounces of freshwater and repeatedly consume throughout the day.
7. Bring Cinnamon to the Equation
Cinnamon is a great source of various antioxidants and can improve digestion. Also, cinnamon heals the irritation of the digestive tract lining. Camphor, cinnamaldehyde, Linalool, and Eugenol are prominent antioxidants and make cinnamon one of the most effective home remedies for upset stomach and diarrhea.
Add one tbsp good-quality cinnamon powder or an inch of cinnamon stick to your meals. Alternatively, prepare a healthy cinnamon tea by adding it to boiling water. Take cinnamon, either way, numerous times a day to improve the condition.
8. Add Cloves to Your Beverages
Clove contains various substances that are known for improving numerous stomach symptoms. Cloves can reduce stomach aches and cramping and can also improve digestion. What more? It can be very effective against nausea and vomiting.
- Add one tbsp of powdered cloves with one tbsp honey to a boiling water cup, drink slowly twice a day to improve the symptoms.
9. Figs Are Good for Indigestion Too
Certain substances in figs work as laxatives and can ease constipation, diarrhea, and other upset stomach symptoms.
- Eat fig fruit numerous times a day to get rid of diarrhea. Alternatively, make a cup of tea by brewing one or two tbsp of fig leaves.
10. Drink Aloe Vera Juice
There are various digestive benefits of cumin seeds, including:
- They reduce excessive bowel gas
- Heal inflammation of the intestine
- Work as antimicrobial
- Reduce excess stomach acids and indigestion
If you have an upset stomach, try adding one or two tbsp of powdered cumin seeds to your recipes. Alternatively, make a cup of tea with one or tbsp of cumin seeds.
You can also try chewing a couple of pinches of raw cumin seeds to relieve heartburn.
11. Drink Aloe Vera Juice
There is a long history of using aloe vera juice for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). And various preparations of aloe vera are used to treat upset stomach symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, loose, watery stools, heartburn, etc.
Aloe vera can help you by:
- Reducing intestinal inflammation
- Encouraging better bowel movements
- Removing toxins from digestive juices
- Maintaining a balance of digestive bacteria
- Improving digestion of protein
Drinking aloe vera is also linked with improving several symptoms of gastrointestinal reflux disease (GERD), including
- Regurgitation of acids and food
- Belching and flatulence
- Heartburn
- Nausea and vomiting
12. Enjoy Basil Tea – Quite Regularly
Basil contains various digestive substances like camphor, methyl cinnamate, linalool, thymol, etc. and can effectively improve various diarrhea symptoms like excessive stomach acidity, stomach ache, cramping, regurgitation of food, nausea, and vomiting, etc.
People with stomach trouble should add one to two tbsp of dried basil leaves to their meals until the symptoms are eased. You can make a cup of basil tea by brewing one tbsp of fresh or dried leaves in boil water for even better results.
13. Ginger is Much More Than a Taste Enhancer
Yes, ginger is one of those natural remedies that come in handy for almost all types of health problems, and you can’t ignore it when you have stomach troubles.
Gingerols and shogaols are the main chemicals in ginger and are especially effective in stomach contractions. They can also improve bowel movement and hence, ease the symptoms of diarrhea.
If you are annoyed with an upset stomach, try adding a few slices of ginger to your diet. Or have ginger tea regularly throughout the day to improve the complications.
14. Start Your Day with Coconut Water
Coconut water is a very good source of magnesium and potassium – both of which effectively reduce stomach pain, cramps, muscle spasms, and several other symptoms of an upset stomach. Coconut water becomes even more effective when you suffer from dehydration as it is low in acidity, sugar, and calories.
- Enjoy two glasses of refreshing coconut water early in the day to give some relief to your digestive system.
15. Apple Cider Vinegar – Can You Keep It Away from Your Kitchen?
Most probably, no! Because apple cider vinegar comes to your aid in a lot of health problems. And, it can be effective in treating an upset stomach as well! ACV contains several acids and can decrease starch digestion, helping starch keep healthy gut bacteria alive and work on the digestive tract.
- Add one tbsp apple cider vinegar with one tbsp honey to a glass of water and enjoy.
Prevention and Conventional Treatment
Although diarrhea is not a serious problem, it can be, if not given, proper and timely attention. Sometimes, severe diarrhea can even become fatal. So, you can’t always take it very lightly. Here are some important tips for the prevention and treatment of diarrhea:
- rotavirus vaccine to children
The following are some key measures for the treatment of diarrhea
- Oral rehydration salts (ORS) solutions: A mixture recommended by the World Health Organization to restore the body’s hydration. It is very affordable, easily available, and considered one of the most effective diarrhea treatments, especially when characterized by excessive dehydration and weakness. ORS is easily absorbed by small intestine walls and compensates for the loss of electrolytes and fluids through stools and vomits.
- : Diet plays a very important role in improving diarrhea symptoms, especially caused due to a lack of nutrition. So, improving nutrition intake through diet is recommended.
- Zinc supplements can improve the condition by reducing the episodes and duration of diarrhea by 25% and volume of stools by 30%
- Oily foods can make the condition worse. You should avoid them completely for a few weeks and even for months if you suffer from recurrent diarrhea.
- Get Proper Medical Assistance: If you suffer from an upset stomach quite regularly, and home remedies are not as effective, you should not waste your time, and consult a licensed medical practitioner. Maybe, there is something very wrong with your immune or digestive system. Maybe, you are very vulnerable to infections due to foods and unhygienic conditions. You might need proper, prolonged medical supervision to find the exact cause(s) of recurrent diarrhea. So, get in touch with your doctor to properly treat diarrhea if it remains for a few weeks or comes back quite regularly.
As we said earlier, diarrhea is not very serious and can be managed with some dietary adjustments and home remedies. These are some very effective home remedies for upset stomach you can try without any hesitation. If the symptoms don’t improve after a few days, we recommend consulting a licensed medical practitioner. Loss of body fluid is one of the major complications of diarrhea, and if not controlled on time, can become life-threatening. Always maintain personal as well as food hygiene. Ensure getting a healthy, balanced, and nutritious diet. Avoid regular intake of street foods. These very simple things are quite effective to keep diarrhea at bay.
NOTE: Diarrhea in children, especially infants, is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. If an infant or child in your family suffers from diarrhea, we recommend talking to a doctor immediately.
References:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322047#Twenty-one-home-remedies
https://www.healthline.com/health/digestive-health/aloe-vera-juice-for-ibs#benefits
https://www.healthline.com/health/digestive-health/natural-upset-stomach-remedies#peppermint
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diarrhoeal-disease