Part 40 - Travel Sickness
This is a popular time of year for travellers to set off to see the world, so this month I’m not telling you about long term health and fitness, but instead I’m focusing on something which doesn’t pose any dangers or benefits, other than allowing you to appreciate your time away a little more! Yes, the subject is travel sickness, so here’s a little info to help you to stop it ruining your trip.
Story Highlights
- What Causes Travel Sickness
- How To Avoid It
- Over The Counter
- Believe It or Not
What Causes Travel Sickness
Nobody likes mixed signals and when it comes to travel sickness that’s exactly the problem. When you’re inside a moving vehicle and the ride is far from smooth, the interior of the vehicle moves with your body. Hence the eyes perceive no movement at all. The body however has a second motion sensor in the inner ear which operates a bit like bowls of water, sloshing around with every bump.
So the brain is lead to believe that you are both moving and not moving at the same time. Such confusion implies that you’re hallucinating, which implies poisoning, causing your body to react and protect itself by making you nauseated. Vomiting after all would help to rid your body of poison.
That’s half of the story. The other half is psychological. If you feel a bit sick for whatever reason and you think about it, it gets worse. Add on the thought of another four hours, bumping around on that coach and well, the future ain’t bright but the results may well be orange.
What’s worse, any nausea is worsened by unpleasant smells like petrol or diesel fumes, and if you bought a bag of sweeties for the journey and ate them all in one go, then that’s just the icing on the cake. Altogether it’s quite a nasty concoction!
How To Avoid It
Given what we’ve learnt so far, it appears that all we need to do in order to counter travel sickness is avoid the causes as much as possible and think happy thoughts. But when are things ever that easy?
To avoid the mixed signals received by the brain, the best advice is to focus on the outdoors. Don’t take your eyes off the scenery and then the relative motion will be perceived by your eyes as well as your ears ‐ so the confusion is gone. The horizon is a good focus point, as is the direction of travel. Both maximise your visual perception of movement.
If this isn’t enough or it simply isn’t possible, (like when you’re travelling in the dark or on a plane where the outside changes very little) then closing your eyes will eliminate their input altogether. Better yet, have a nap and then you won’t even think about the potential of getting ill!
Also it’s great, but again not always possible, to get some fresh air and eat light, healthy food ‐ which will reduce the poisoned feeling induced by movement.
Over The Counter
For your psychological security there are many remedies readily available, most of which should be taken before the offending journey. These often work by masking the signals from the inner ear and so their side effects may include a temporary dizziness, a loss of balance and drowsiness. Make sure you always read the label and be careful to specify motion sickness to your pharmacist, because there are many anti‐nausea treatments around, that simply don’t help with travel sickness.
On the more natural end of the spectrum, ginger root is known to soothe feelings of nausea and it doesn’t have any such side effects. Suck on it or sip some ginger tea and you will feel the difference.
Believe It or Not
Although I’m not a firm believer in ‘alternative medicine’ I do think I should offer one final treatment ‐ acupressure. Applying pressure to the point on the inner forearm, three finger widths up from the bend in the wrist, has apparently been proven to reduce or even prevent motion sickness. This option is always there if you need it!
So now you know why we can end up feeling queasy on long trips and how you can minimise what may spoil an otherwise exciting and inspirational journey. For those of you buying tickets now or even heading to the airport, I wish you a safe and healthy time away!
‐ David Haw
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