Overview
Your gastrointestinal (GI) tract is the part of your body where you’re most likely to experience side effects of medications. This is because your GI tract is an important part of your immune system. It tries to keep harmful germs and toxins from getting absorbed into your system. And, at least at the start of therapy, it sometimes reacts to medications as if they were harmful. Therefore, it may try to get rid of them by causing nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea.
Fortunately, when nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea occur as side effects of treatment, they usually are fairly mild. They also tend to get better or go away completely after the first few days or weeks of treatment. However, this does not mean that you just need to live with these problems. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea can have serious impacts on your daily activities.
In addition, when nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea are severe or last a long time, they can lead to serious health problems. Thus, it’s always best to report these symptoms to your doctor, to determine if they are a side effect of treatment or a symptom of something more serious.