Dear Laurie, I understand your concern for your friend. You are informing that the vomiting is mainly triggered when he moves his head or position. This symptom is very peculiar of positional vertigo. It can happen due to some disturbances in the inner ear. Our inner ear is filled with semicircular canals and these canals contain fluids. These canals are very sensitive. So when the person moves head, the fluid inside these canals moves. What happens in Positional Vertigo patients is that sometimes some small pieces of calcium crystals that are normally present in the other areas of the ear move in the canals and give confusing messages to brain regarding the position of the body. The brain reacts to these messages by dizziness and vomiting. The condition can be diagnosed by a very simple test by doctor. It is called Dix Hallpike Maneuver. The doctor will hold your boyfriend s head in a certain position while asking him to rapidly lie down on a table on his back. He might look at abnormal eye movements and can also ask if his head is spinning while doing some movements. If vertigo is diagnosed, he might have to take sedatives and antihistamines prescribed by the physician. In case, the test does not show positive for vertigo, he might have to go for some other tests like blood test, x-ray, CT Scan etc to rule out the cause. So in any case, visiting a physician for physical examination will be a good decision in this condition. Black color of vomiting might be due his last meal of meat. I hope this information helps. Thank you for choosing HealthCareMagic. I hope your boyfriend feels better soon. Best, Dr. Viraj Shah