Why Do Humans Vomit So Much? 🤮

In an effort to protect us from getting killed by something we’ve ingested, our brain’s vomit control center processes a lot of information from several different places … and sometimes is a little overly cautious.

LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Emesis: The act of vomiting
- Vomiting: The oral eviction of gastrointestinal contents due to contractions in the gut and stomach.
- Nausea: A diffuse sensation of uneasiness and discomfort often felt as the need to vomit.
- Vomiting Center: An area in the brain’s medulla oblongata that initiates and controls emesis.
- Chemoreceptor Trigger Zone: An area in the area postrema of the medulla oblongata that is sensitive to certain toxic chemicals in the blood.
- Nucleus Tractus Solitarius: A region in the medulla oblongata that receives input from the cardiovascular, respiratory and GI systems.
- Vagus Nerve: A cranial nerve that regulates internal organ functions, including vomiting.
- Vestibular System: A Sensory system that provides our brain with information about motion, head position, and spatial positioning for balance.

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CREDITS
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David Goldenberg | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Arcadi Garcia i Rius | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Arcadi Garcia i Rius
David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes • Alex Reich
Henry Reich • Peter Reich • Ever Salazar
Alexander Vidal • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida

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REFERENCES
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[z-beeblebrox]

Man, the engineers who built that system did a lot of "it's not a bug it's a feature" self-explaining, didn't they

[shedinjask]

surprised you didnt mention sympathetic vomiting! its an interesting adaptation. if people around you are vomiting, it's a sign that they may have just been poisoned. and if youre around people who were just poisoned, theres a chance you all just ate the same thing, and your vomit control center makes you vomit too just in case.

[chrisholdread]

Surprised you didn't mention migraines which are a big trigger of the vagus nerve. 99% of my puking is caused by that

[Nylak-Otter]

I recently got an internal zoonotic parasite that tried to kill me. My body was so upset, I nearly experienced kidney failure after six weeks of nonstop vomiting. Finally went to the hospital and got detailed blood/stool tests and found out what was wrong, and was prescribed a 3k dewormer.

Turned out the vomiting itself did nothing to eliminate the parasite, and almost killed me just for fun.

[ComicalRealm]

Worst part about vomiting? The after taste

[remicaron]

I can count the times I’ve vomited on two hands in my life. So I think some people are way more sensitive to this then others. Unless I have a severe flu which happens every 10+ years there isn’t any vomit 🤮 coming out of me.

[Kay-kowu]

One additional question, why do we sometimes feel nauseous when we have eaten too little?

[jrr]

It's interesting how the vomit emoji is green, when most real vomit I've seen is brownish yellow color.

[Louis-xmtu]

Ive bearly thrown up in my life and ive got this HUGE phobia of vomiting, talking about it helps alot and relieves some anxiety. This phobia torments me everyday with a loop of nausia and panic attacks.

[masch]

As an emetophobic that was so hard to watch, but necessary to try get over my fear

[harmonicaveronica]

I extremely unhelpfully vomited a bunch when I got dehydrated, which is the opposite of what I needed because it a) dehydrated me more and b) prevented me from ingesting (and therefore replenishing) water. Turns out if you don't drink enough water it drops your blood pressure, which means your brain doesn't get enough blood, which apparently can cause some nasty vertigo. The doctor gave me meds to stop the dizziness (didn't work) and the vomiting (did work, but didn't stop the feeling of nausea), then sent me home with the instruction to drink water. That is probably the worst I have ever felt in my entire life. Sometimes I think about how if I hadn't gotten myself to a doctor, or if I'd lived before modern medicine, I would've probably died. 0/10 would not recommend dehydration

[bori]

I have a phobia of vomiting and have only done it 3 times, 2 because of food poisoning, and 1 because my first time trying an edible had a high amount of THC (120)

[Glockenspheal]

As someone who fears puking so so much (and thus, getting nausea because of that fear) this video is quite informative.

Also, don't worry, I've improved on this sense and I don't fear it as much, specially since it offers quick relief on way worse situations, and it's normal.

[robramsey]

I have not vomited for maybe 13 years and the only thing that has caused me to vomit in my adult life is excessive alcohol. Anything which upsets my stomach just gives me the squirts.

[svenmnnn]

I have only vomited after drinking way too much. Honestly never from eating something rotten or poisonous.

[loganwolv]

The worst part about it is that you gotta wait quite a bit before you start vomiting when it's caused by food poisoning at least.

[tsuribachi]

0:17 on one hand, I'm concerned. on the other hand, lol.

[AWATales]

The reference to the crayon Homer had in his brain 0:44 is so clever!

[CodeZeeZ]

The good thing is, as with most thing we can train the nausea system to be more robust, like a sailor who can sail in almost any weather and not get sea sick.

[mich]

Great video guys, the puking pencil was a lovely touch too