Why does the inner ear imbalance make you throw up?
Quite literally. How come when we feel "confused", we start getting the need to expel the contents from our stomach?
I get that we get sea-sick because of "mixed signals" coming in to our brain. But why do we feel nauseous? How come the centre of the problem becomes the stomach, and not some sort of heightened sense of needing to find balance?
Hope this question makes at leasr some sense. Thanks!
There's a part of your brain called the chemoreceptor trigger zone which triggers the vomiting reaction. Dizziness is one of the things which can activate this zone. It's thought that since dizziness is a common side effect of poisons, we've evolved to vomit whenever we're dizzy.
I was going to respond to the OP, but I only knew how an inner ear imbalance causes dizziness, not how said dizziness triggers the vomiting reflex. Thanks!
For those who want to know, there's fluid in your inner ear and receptors that can detect where the fluid is, as well as where it ends (it's surface). Your brain uses this system like a level to determine your head's orientation to the ground, and if something fucks with the fluid in a way the brain can't make sense of, you feel dizzy (the sensation of not knowing your orientation to the ground).
That might bring up a follow-up question
My guess was that some poisons affect the nerves related to balance, or decrease blood supply to the brain? I don't have anything more specific though
Many poisons (for example, alcohol) affect the nerves directly, i.e. the transport of the electric there. The first impact is that the brain (and the spinal cord of course) does not receive the sensoric info properly anymore. And then the body does not follow the brain's commands anymore.
So once the signals get mixed up, the dizziness sets in?
It's like your brain is trying to control your legs but the server is overloaded and the lag is terrible.
Sort of. I would even say, the perception of broken (toned down or very delayed) signals is the dizzyness.
Makes sense, thank you!
What I understood is that the body associates the confusion with poisoning. Hence throwing up
Thanks!
Thanks for asking this question, the answers were quite interesting
I think it has something to do with a built-in defense mechanism. When you feel dizzy like that, one of your body's reactions is "oh snap, I think I ate something bad. Get rid of it".
Dr here. It's been a long time since med school. I dunno, just have some stemetil ok?