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Also called travel sickness, airsickness, seasickness, or carsickness
Motion sickness is the feeling of wanting to throw up (nausea) or throwing up (vomiting or being sick), when you are on a rocking boat, bumpy aeroplane ride or a long-distance car ride.
Anyone can get motion sickness, but it tends to be more common in children from 5 to 12 years old, women, and older adults.
The symptoms of motion sickness include a general feeling that you're ill such as:
These symptoms will usually go away soon after the motion stops. With continuous exposure to movement, the symptoms of motion sickness normally ease within 1 to 2 days.
Motion sickness is caused when the system responsible for maintaining balance (inner ear, eyes, and sensory nerves) becomes confused. This is because one part of your body senses that your are moving, but the other parts don't. For example, if you are in the cabin of a moving ship, your inner ear may sense the motion of waves, but your eyes don't see any movement. This confusion between the senses causes motion sickness.
Preventing motion sickness before it occurs is more effective than treating the symptoms after they have occurred. By learning to identify those situations that may lead to motion sickness, you may be able to implement a few strategies to prevent or minimise the symptoms.
TimingTipsBefore the journey
During the journey
Medications are most effective when taken to prevent motion sickness, before travelling or as soon as possible after symptoms begin. The options for preventing motion sickness include:
Hyoscine (also called scopolamine)
Hyoscine is available as a patch that you apply to the skin behind the ear. It should be applied at least 5 hours before the journey. It works by blocking certain signals to the brain that can cause nausea and vomiting. Common side effects of hyoscine include drowsiness, blurred vision and dizziness. Since hyoscine can cause drowsiness, avoid using it if you're planning to drive.
Antihistamines are less effective at treating motion sickness than hyoscine. They are usually taken 1 to 2 hours before your journey but tend to cause drowsiness or sleepiness and is not recommended if you need to stay alert such as if you are driving. Examples of antihistamines include:
Non-sedating antihistamines such as cetirizine and loratadine are not effective in preventing motion sickness.
Ginger is sometimes used to treat other types of nausea, such as morning sickness during pregnancy, so it is thought that ginger supplements (as tablets), or other ginger products including crystallised ginger, dry ginger ale (fizzy drink), ginger biscuits or ginger tea may help to prevent symptoms of motion sickness.
Although there's little scientific evidence to support the use of ginger to treat motion sickness, it has a long history of being used as a remedy for nausea and vomiting. Before taking ginger supplements, check with your GP that they won't affect any other medication you're taking.
Acupressure bands are stretchy, elastic bands worn around the wrists, which apply pressure to a particular point on the inside of your wrist. There is little scientific evidence to show that acupressure bands are an effective treatment for motion sickness They are not known to cause any adverse side effects.