Motion Sickness

[Fondueset]

I've seen a few mentions of this on here - and also in Eric's article on diving in Florida he mentioned someone taking ginger before a boat trip to avoid motion sickness.

I used to have extremely bad motion sickness - I'd be ill for close to 3 full days after a four hour flight - vomiting mostly just the first day - but headache and queasy for the rest of the time. Even a 1 hour flight was problemtatic. I found that taking ginger before the flight was not particularly helpful - but keeping a piece of raw ginger with me and chewing bits of it throughout the flight completely elminated the problem. Any time I felt any least discomfort I would chew a small piece. For me it was quite revolutionary.

[Ben Gowland]

I get bad motion sickness. I took some ginger whilst in Ibiza in 2001 and eating it made me fel nausea!

Ironic, eh?

[ash]

Hi Ben

I can see how eating ginger would make you feel nauseous (especially the pickled version) but ginger does seem to work well for seasickness.

I take a big bottle of ginger beer with me on the boat and I have a sip occasionally. It's made a huge difference to my dive trips, most of the time I don't need an anti-seasickness tablet and when I do, I only use about half as much as I used to.

BTW - the ginger beer has to be brewed with real ginger root, the artificially flavored stuff does nothing! Bundaberg Traditional Ginger Beer is the nicest IMHO if you can get it. Also, I have been told that ginger beer is apparently a bit of a diuretic, so I make sure that I drink a lot of water as well.

Ash

[DeepThought]

I found that conscious breathing through the nose helps.
Also swallowing (that's why chewing gum, and aparently Ginger might work).

But most of all - looking at the fixed horizon. Motion sickness is usally caused from your eyes telingl your brain one thing - you're not moving, because you're looking at the boat that moves with you, and the stuff in your inner ear telling your brain that you are moving. Then that old nausea reflex kicks in.
By looking at the horizon, your eyes and inner ear would start giving your brain the same information. In theory atleast.
Standing also helps, because it reduces the sawy your ears are feeling, and you also start to compensate for the boat's movement.

Not sure what you can do in airplanes though.

Freediving in choppy sea with less than 3meter visivility, I probably had my worst sea-sickness. The cure was obvious, DIVE. it always stoped while I was down there, and started again when I was on the surface.

There was a nice article on DB main page re. sea-sickness yet. Mostly relevant for scubbies, but might still have some general tips. Try looking for it.

Good luck.

Worst case - fish chumming.

[Donna]

On a liveaboard in Northern Red Sea, some of the crossings we made were really rough and I was feeling really yuck!!

I think I must've looked really yuck as well because one of the crew members came over with a cup whch contained freshly squeeezed lemon juice. I looked at him as if he was mad but he said it would make me better. Anyway, I thought it would either settle me down or make me sick, either way I'd feel better! And it worked, within 5 minutes of drinking it, my tummy was fine and remained fine..... Not sure how it worked, maybe it was in my mind - I was just glad I didn't feel the need to feed the fish anymore

Donna

[Fondueset]

I would chew very small bits - of course having some water as well from time to time. Really pretty amazing - diff between three days of misery and hoppin off the plane feeling great.
The breathing stuff works for me to just keep it down - but didn't help in the long run. I don't seem to have this problem on boats.

[cdavis]

My wife gets sea sick very easily and we have tried all sorts of stuff. All the "medicines", including the patch, work but have substantial negative side effects. Ginger works some, but we never tried it fresh. Sea bands work by preasure on the wrist preasure point, again it works for her some. The best thing we have found is the electronic "Relief Band", which also works on the wrist preasure point. It is expensive, but extremely effective and no side effects. For us, a major improvement.

Connor

[efattah]

Where do you get the relief band, and the electronic relief band, and what are their brand names?


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

[Jersey Jim]

Eric, I have seen the electronic wrist bands in the local Eckerd Drug stores for around $80 US. I never tried them but ginger root powder capsules work the best for me. Better than Bonine or dramamine. I like the fact that it is all natural and doesn't make me feel like I'm drugged. I also eat ginger snaps. Nabisco has a ginger snap cookie that is very strong. Even hot on the tongue. Although when a wave splashes salt water down my snorkel and I swallow it, eventually it comes up.

I really like idea of the lemon juice remedy. I wonder just how long it lasted for. Was it necessary to take another dose later?

Jim

[Fondueset]

I know people who've used these - electronic and just pressure. I've also used pressure on those points to limited effect, but I have heard the bands work quite well.

The ginger thing, in my case, seems to depend on actually chewing it - and letting it burn a bit - when swallowed it creates a sense of warmth in the stomach that takes the motion sickness away - but you have to stay with it.

[Donna]

I only took one 'dose' of the lemon juice and I was fine. Having said that, it was given to me about 30 mins into a 2 hour crossing and then we moored into calm water so I'm not sure how long the remedy would have lasted before needing another dose.

Donna

[cdavis]

Eric,

Both are available through Boat US and West Marine, each must have an internet site if no stores are available in your area. The Relief Band is the brand and also, I think, the Sea Band. The price Jim quoted is about right, but occasionally they go on sale for a little less. The relief band comes in two varieties, throw away and replaceable battery. We bought the first (cheaper) to try it and bought the second type for one of my sons. Both are still working. This is year three for the first band. We don't use them that many days per year.

Connor

[DeepThought]

Here's the article I was talking about, it has ginger the reliefband and some other stuff as well, (inlcuding URL's and brand names).

http://www.deeperblue.net/article.php/462/12/0

Apparently ginger lowers down the electrical activity in the stomach.

[island_sands]

fresh ginger root works great... used to give to all my guests on rough days...

[naiad]

Originally posted by efattah
Where do you get the relief band, and the electronic relief band, and what are their brand names?


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

There are some relief bands called Aquastraps. They have worked very well for many people. There are many places which sell them - just do an Internet search.

Lucia