Travel sickness or motion sickness is a condition when people feel sick while they are on board. This can happen with any vehicle and mostly when you need to travel a far. Buses come with a constant jerking which is less in terms of cars, but then again the suffocation a long drive can make you feel can get similar to the bus trip.
If you have flight sickness, it really gets difficult when you need to travel frequently from one state to another or one country to another. In this article, we will tell you all that you need to know about travel sickness and how to avoid the vomiting feeling while on board.
Symptoms of travel sickness
Although we are concentrating on reducing the possibility of vomiting while you travel, but there are some more health issues that can happen to you apart from vomiting. If you think you have travel sickness, you will be prone to symptoms like:
- Sickly feeling
- Dizziness
- Headaches
- Excess sweat
- Pale look
- Increased breathing
- Drowsiness
- Urge to vomit
Your symptoms get better when your motion stop and you reach your destination, and this is definitely the final call of being travel sick. Sometimes these problems are not just travel related, which is why asking a GP would surely help.
Causes of travel sickness
Nobody really knows why some people tend to feel travel sick. However, researches have shown that shaking and tilting while you travel makes your brain feel confused. The vestibular system situated inside your ears, keeps a tab on the movements of your head and eyes.
This makes you grab the change which follows while you are on the go. The conflict between your senses is related to travel sickness. Everyone tends to get travel sick, but the weaker people are struck by it all the more. People who have more tendencies to be travel sick are:
- Children of any age from 2 to 12
- Pregnant women
- Women on their menstrual
- People who have migraine
- People who tend to get sick often
Preventive measures for travel sickness
Apart from the treatment section we have listed below, there is a little more to do to prevent the travelling sickness:
- The position you are seated in can make a difference in getting travel sick. Sitting on the front seat of the car makes you less prone to vomiting and dizziness, compared to sitting behind. Sitting in the middle of a bus is much better than sitting towards the front or at the back, as you’re in the balanced level and you are less prone to the sickness. When you are on a plane, try to get to the wing of the plane.
- When you are on board, try to look straight to the horizon.
- Keep your head as still as possible.
- Don’t read books and try to listen to music instead.
- Don’t smoke while you travel.
- Don’t drink before or while you travel.
- Try to distract yourself from shaking your body too much and simply relax as your journey unfolds.
Avoiding travel sickness and sensation of vomiting
Make sure that you follow the above preventive measures as they are the starting aid to the process. After this, take some time out for looking into how you can treat the condition with proper medications and ingredients:
Medicines
There are some medicines which should be prescribed by the doctors. We have listed them down, but you need to verify before you consume them. These are ideally to be taken before consumption and the chemists would also guide you with the dosage and benefits. Always make sure that you have read the information leaflet and ask your GP if you have any further question on this matter.
- Hyoscine hydrobromide: This is a type of medicine prevents travel sicknesses. This doesn’t let your nerve signals get blocked or confused. These are available at your chemists. It is usually consumed 30 minutes before your trip starts. The effect lasts good enough for a 6 hour trip. People who have severe travel issues would be prescribed to use the skin patch.
- This is to be stuck behind your ears 5-6 hours before the trip starts. This prevents sickness for up to 3 days. These are prescribed to 10 years old and above. This medication is usually followed with some side effects like drowsiness, dizziness and blurred vision.
- Antihistamines: This is another medicine which can reduce travel sickness. This is to be consumed two hours before you travel. Promethazine is a common medicine for this and is usually added with drowsiness as a side effect.
Acupressure
Some people feel that wearing bands which exert pressure on their hands, at the acupressure point of P6, can reduce travel sickness. Some people suggest that pregnant women are helped with acupressure during their morning sicknesses. Although, there isn’t concrete research and evidence for this.
Home remedy
Ginger is a home remedy which can be a quick hack for your avoid vomiting feeling and travel sickness. If you can buy yourself some ginger capsules or find alternatives ways to consume good amount it, it can help you kill the urge to vomit and reduce travel sickness. Ginger powder capsules are quite a hack!
