Sea Sickness Sure Cure!

[donmoore]

I thought some like to know this. There is a fairly new anti-nausea drug out called Kytril that I think could really work for people with seasickness and especially divers with seasickness. It was developed for patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy, because they cannot tolerate drugs with strong side effects. It is considered so safe that they are now giving it to pregnant women with morning sickness. This is how I know about it because my wife just had a baby. Congratulations will be gladly accepted! Anything to help me feel better with the lack of sleep lately!

The only other anti-nausea drug that is commonly given to pregnant women is Phenergan which has been out a long time and is proven to be very safe, but has one major side effect -- sleepiness! The Navy commonly gives it to seasick sailors along with caffeine to offset the drowsiness, but as you know, caffeine is a big no no for freedivers wanting to keep their metabolism from speeding up and burning too much O2. Kytril doesn’t have this side effect!

If you look Kytril up it will have a long nasty list of possible side effects, like most drugs do for legal reasons. But if you ask a doctor knowledge with it they will tell you the possibility of the side effects is very remote.

The wife had a couple of pills left over and Sunday so we tried it on this freediver who has become seasick every time he has been offshore. Sometimes he gets sick just from the boat ride. Most people don’t get sick until the boat stops and starts rocking, but he is the worst I have seen and I have seen quite a few. He was fine the whole day and he dove to about 85% of his maximum depth, which was very good considering it was his first dive of the season and he was out of shape.

There is one major problem with the drug. The retail cost is $70 a pill. With our insurance it cost $10 a pill. $10 is well worth it to avoid getting sick when you consider what an offshore trip costs! I don’t have any first hand experience, but since the drug is so safe I would think most GP's wouldn’t have a problem prescribing it for someone bothered by seasickness. The patch is a prescription drug so doctors are used to prescribing for seasickness already, and I believe Kytril is way more effective than the patch or any overcounter motion sickness drug.

Stop throwing up, it ruins the trip for everyone else! :yack
don

 

[Adrian]

Don,
Congratulations to you and your wife for your baby!!! Boy or girl? Did he/she come with fins?

all the best,
Adrian

 

[donmoore]

Thanks Adrian.
It was a girl. Seems like that is the only kind I can produce!:hmm And the wife’s hormones are coming down, thank God!! But diving time is currently very limited. No fins yet, but our city is opening a new public heated year-round pool with a wading area just 1/2 miles from our house so she will get wet early.
don

 

[Jon]

Congrats Don!

We've got another one coming along in the next two weeks- a boy this time so I'll have a matched set.

I'll have to look into the Kytril stuff as I've been know to get a bit green if the waves are big- acutally big waves aren't my probelm, it's the lingering swellls we get out on the Great Lakes for days after a big storm blows through.

Too bad the things are so expeinsive. I would think that an anti-morning sickenss pill would be in demand, as the garbage can inside my wife's car can attest to :yack .

I guess if it were, yet another, "penis drug" you could get them 6 for a dollar and your HMO would cover the entire bill. rofl

Jon

 

[Wishbone]

Yep, my father who's an radiologist used to give me such medicine when I was a kid and he took me with him on spearfishing comps. He was a ref in boat and a doctor during those. It was called Pirimetin and I know it was developed by the russian army for soldiers suffering from radiation sickness. They used it in his hospital since his patients have the same symptoms after radiology. I don't know whether they use it now, but it should have been fairly safe since he was giving it to me.
That Kytril thing is 20 years newer and must be great...

And congrats to you both!

 

[donmoore]

Jon, congratulations on the new coming!

The oversea pharmacy going price for Kytril is $30 a pill of minimum of 10 pills. You can order without a prescription, but if you’re in the U.S. you run the chance of Customs seizing it. If you have health insurance, your local doctor is the safest bet.

Ivan, sure sorry to hear about your lung collapse, but at least your still with us!
don

 

[pat fish]

congratulations for you baby donmore!

Kytril with its active agent Granisetron is a blocker of the seratonin receptors and thus prevents sickness and nausea. as you mentioned it is mainly used in cytostatical therapy as an intervention to nausea. There seems to be very few side effects (like headaches) -hardly any sleepyness.

Rescue personel in helicopters over here use it by the way as prophylaxis against kinetosis for themselves, as it causes hardly any deterioration of capacity of reaction!

Indeed they are very expensive too but not as expensive as you mentioned- here in switzerland they cost chf 24.20 per pill (equals usd 20) and are sold by roche in units of two pills. People under chemotherapy seem to be dependent on a highly effective drug against nausea- voilà there you have the price...

Me I simply cannot afford it. I take Stugeron instead, with its agent Cinnarizin, a selective ca-antagonist. It may be taken in doses of only 12.5mg (1/2 pill) and then costs 20 cent. And even in this small dose it is highly effective against motion sickness. I take it with freediving just as well as scuba diving. Besides of the positive effect against motion sickness it also gives you a certain protection against strokes because it dilates the vessels in your cerebral system. This was an argument for me to use even over a prolonged period of time when I was doing some deeper air dives. And I hadn't any side effects at all then.

yours pat

 

[pat fish]

aah you're online too - congratulations for your baby once again !v :wave

 

[donmoore]

Pat, you sound very knowledgeable! What does “prophylaxis against kinetosis” mean for us non-medical people? Does Stugeron/Cinnarizin cause drowsiness? I’m going to have to look into that. I hate it when people get seasick on my boat. Its hard to enjoy yourself when some is blue and purple! It would be nice to have something on hand that didn’t cost me a fortune.
don

 

[donmoore]

blocker of the seratonin receptors

Doesn’t that have something to do with sense of well-being and depression? Would a person tend to get depressed or happy on this? Of course throwing up for hours has to be pretty depressing in itself. :yack
don

 

[pat fish]

1) kinetosis means motion sickness.

2) serotonin is a neuro transmitter which is not only very important for mental health (low serotonin levels cause depressions) but also acts in protective ways: a peek in serotonin (induced by poisonous substances) stimulates the serotonin-receptors and induces sickness and vomiting. A protection reaction for the body to get rid of poisons! As with all the other neuro transmitters (histamin, etc.) serotonins meaning is to maintain a balance in physiological processes. for example in treatment of depressions, so called SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) slow down the process of returning the serotonin to the end of the neuron it comes from (reuptake). Higher serotoinin level is the case. Only if it gets too high the side effects are sickness and vomiting (and many more). Voilà. Now if you produce naturally enough serotonin and block selectively the right receptors this shouldn't have any effect on the circle of serotonin itself but only on the specific receptors: you prevent from that (naturally protective as I mentioned) sickness induced by them.

3) Stugeron/Cinnarizin works totally different. It selectively blocks the Calcium-uptake and leads to a better perfusion of the inner ear thus preventing motion sickness. That means it works very specific (in contrary to kytril) on the place where the problem with motion sickness sets in: the inner ear.

4) Stugeron taken as 12.5mg or 25mg doesn't cause any drowsiness. I would recommend it also for divers. Many sailors use Stugeron these days as the medicine of 1st choice. And I really do not only recommend it because it is a Swiss Product...

hope that helps :hmm
yours pat

 

[Donna]

Congratulations Don....

I use stugeron as well - its a great sea sickness remedy, and its never made me feel sleepy so doesn't affect any diving. Although the pharmacist looked at me a bit oddly when I asked him for 3 boxes!! My better half and I were going on a weeks liveaboard to the Red Sea and we both get seasick.... the other thing that worked during one of the rougher crossings during that liveaboard was the juice of 2 freshly squeezed lemons! A member of the crew gave it to me when I was looking a little green - not sure why it made me feel better, but it did and it worked very quickly too...

Donna

 

[Wishbone]

Thanks Don,

Been grounded for two years already but sure working on the comeback...

 

[pat fish]

If someone starts throwing up, will it still work, if they can keep it down until it dissolves?

if somebody is already vomiting with motion sickness try to make him breath properly, face the horizon and so on.. you know. Then if the person can hold it you can try Stugeron. It works also if already beeing sick, because it affects Histamin-Receptors as well. But the main effect of this medicine is it's preventive effect on the vestibular organ (Calcium-Antagonist). And therefore one should take it in advance.

yours
pat