Most upset stomachs resolve on their own within 24 to 48 hours with simple home care. The core strategy is to rest your digestive system, stay hydrated, and avoid foods that make things worse. What you eat, drink, and do in the first few hours matters more than any single remedy.
Start With What You Drink
Dehydration is the biggest practical risk when your stomach is off, especially if you’re dealing with vomiting or diarrhea. Take small, frequent sips of water rather than gulping large amounts at once. Room-temperature or slightly warm water is easier on an irritated stomach than ice-cold drinks.
Clear broth is one of the best early options because it replaces both fluid and electrolytes like sodium. Diluted sports drinks work too if you don’t have broth on hand. Avoid alcohol, caffeinated drinks, and anything carbonated until your stomach settles. These can all increase stomach acid production or speed up digestion in ways that worsen cramping and nausea.
What to Eat (and What to Skip)
You’ve probably heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It’s a reasonable starting point for the first day or two if you have food poisoning, stomach flu, or traveler’s diarrhea, but there’s no need to restrict yourself to just those four foods. Brothy soups, oatmeal, boiled potatoes, crackers, and unsweetened dry cereals are all easy to digest and fine to eat from the start.
Once your stomach begins to settle, add back more nutritious foods gradually. Good next steps include cooked carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes without skin, avocado, skinless chicken or turkey, fish, and eggs. These are bland enough to be gentle on your gut but contain the protein and nutrients your body needs to recover.
Until you’re feeling fully better, steer clear of:
- Fried and fatty foods like French fries, donuts, and chips
- Dairy products including milk, cheese, butter, and ice cream
- Sugary foods such as candy, cakes, and cookies
- Acidic foods like citrus fruits, tomato sauces, and vinegar-based dressings
- Spicy foods of any kind
- High-fiber roughage including leafy greens, fruit and vegetable skins, popcorn, nuts, seeds, and beans
Ginger for Nausea
Ginger is one of the few natural remedies with solid evidence behind it. Its active compounds, gingerols and shogaols, work by blocking serotonin receptors in your gut that trigger the nausea signal. They also help your stomach empty more efficiently, which reduces that heavy, bloated feeling that often accompanies an upset stomach. Ginger acts on multiple nausea pathways at once, which is why it tends to work better than people expect from something you can buy at a grocery store.
The simplest way to use ginger is to steep fresh slices in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes and sip it as tea. Ginger chews, ginger candies, and capsules of dried ginger powder are also effective. Ginger ale is less reliable because most brands contain very little actual ginger and a lot of sugar, which can make stomach symptoms worse.
Peppermint for Cramps and Pain
If your main symptom is stomach cramps or a tight, uncomfortable feeling in your abdomen, peppermint can help. The menthol in peppermint relaxes the smooth muscle lining your digestive tract by blocking calcium channels in the gut wall. This eases spasms and reduces that clenching pain.
Peppermint tea is the easiest option for general stomach upset. Enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules are a stronger choice, particularly if you deal with recurring digestive discomfort. Clinical trials using capsules containing 187 to 225 mg of peppermint oil taken before meals found significant reductions in abdominal pain and discomfort compared to placebo. One word of caution: if your upset stomach involves acid reflux or heartburn, peppermint can make that worse because the same muscle-relaxing effect can loosen the valve between your stomach and esophagus.
Acupressure on the Inner Wrist
Pressing on a point called P6, located on the inside of your forearm about three finger-widths above your wrist crease, between the two tendons, can help relieve nausea. This is the same principle behind anti-nausea wristbands sold in pharmacies. Apply firm, steady pressure with your thumb for one to two minutes, then switch wrists. It won’t cure what’s causing your stomach upset, but many people find it takes the edge off nausea enough to keep fluids down.
Probiotics for Faster Recovery
If your upset stomach involves diarrhea, probiotics can shorten how long it lasts. The strain with the most evidence is Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (often labeled LGG on supplement packaging). A meta-analysis of seven trials involving 876 patients found that LGG reduced diarrhea duration by about one day on average. The effective dose is at least 10 billion colony-forming units per day, started as soon as symptoms begin, for five to seven days. Lower doses don’t appear to work as well; research shows efficacy scales in a direct, linear relationship with how much you take.
Not all probiotic strains are equally helpful. A head-to-head comparison of five different probiotic options found that only LGG and a multi-strain mixture (containing L. bulgaricus, S. thermophilus, L. acidophilus, and B. bifidum) significantly reduced the duration and severity of diarrhea. Check labels carefully, because many general probiotic supplements don’t contain these specific strains.
Other Simple Measures That Help
A heating pad or warm compress placed on your abdomen can relax tense stomach muscles and improve blood flow to the area, easing crampy pain. Keep the temperature comfortable, not hot, and use a cloth barrier between the pad and your skin.
Lying on your left side can help if you feel bloated or gassy, because it positions your stomach in a way that lets gas move through your intestines more easily. Avoid lying flat on your back if nausea is your main problem, since that can worsen acid reflux. Propping yourself up at a slight angle is better.
Avoid taking ibuprofen or aspirin on an empty or irritated stomach. These medications can increase stomach acid and irritate the stomach lining, making things worse. If you need pain relief, acetaminophen is generally easier on the digestive system.
When an Upset Stomach Needs Urgent Attention
Most stomach troubles pass without incident, but certain patterns signal something more serious. Head to an emergency room if your pain is so severe it interrupts your ability to function, if you’re vomiting and can’t keep any liquids down, or if you’re constipated with severe abdominal pain.
Pay attention to pain that starts near your belly button and migrates to your lower right side, especially if it worsens when you move, cough, or take deep breaths and gets noticeably worse over a matter of hours. This pattern, often accompanied by fever and loss of appetite, is the classic presentation of appendicitis. Upper abdominal pain that worsens after eating and comes with nausea, fever, and a rapid pulse can indicate pancreatitis. A sudden, intense cramp in your lower abdomen that hits maximum intensity almost immediately, similar to a severe runner’s cramp, may be a kidney stone.
Also seek care if you notice blood in your stool or vomit, if you develop a high fever alongside stomach symptoms, or if your symptoms closely resemble a previous episode that required medical treatment but feel different or more severe this time.