On our first family road trip, I was excited to play navigator.
My head and guts were swimming.
Ill spare you the details of how this story ends, but its not pretty.
Motion sickness can be pure hell.
The science of motion sickness is actually pretty interesting.
Its brought on by a mismatch between what your brain and body experience.Dr.
This contradiction causes nausea, but why?Gizmodo explainsthat it may be a natural defense mechanism.
Once motion sickness has set in, theres no real way to cure it.
Thankfully, though, there are a number of ways to make it suck a little less.
Heres how to manage motion sickness when you travel.
Prepare for Your Trip
Before your trip, pay extra attention to your health.
Be mindful of what you eat and drink the night before.
Any small, low-fat meal should help.
Fat is very bad.
Fat, greasy meals bring about changes in the body that will contribute to the development of nausea.
Take along food for snacks to eat every couple of hours.
You want to avoid any heavy drinking, of course, and you may want to avoid alcohol altogether.
Drink plenty of water.
Dry crackers and carbonated sodas (such as ginger ale) help some people avoid nausea.
People who tend to have motion sickness may want to eat small, frequent meals.
Rest is also important.Netwellness explainsthat a lack of sleep can oftenmake motion sickness worse.
Sinus congestion can make motion sickness worse, too.
Before leaving for your trip, verify yoursinuses are cleared.
Sinus congestion can cause dizziness on its own, which can make your carsickness or airsickness even more unbearable.
In this manner, ginger may act as a novel agent in the prevention and treatment of motion sickness.
If ginger doesnt do the trick, you might try peppermint.
The University of Maryland recommends 1 enteric coated tablet two to three times daily as needed.
Of course, theres also conventional medicine.
A number of prescription and over-the-counter medications can help alleviate motion sickness or even prevent it altogether.
But it does still cause some drowsiness.
As someone who gets nauseous just talking about nausea, it was pretty amazing that I felt nothing.
But I did experience the blurred vision side effect.
You might also find it helps to sit near the front of the plane.
For road trips, you probably already know that it helps to be in the drivers seat.
Putting yourself behind the wheel will keep the queasiness at bay.
If you do find yourself in the back, again, it helps to focus on the horizon.
Maintain Your Equilibrium
Motion sickness is due to sensory conflict between your brain and body.
One way to do this is to anticipate the changing motion.
Scientific Americanfurther explains:
Consider the situation when one is reading in the back seat of a car.
But as the car goes over bumps, turns, or changes its velocity, your ears disagree.
This is why motion sickness is common in this situation.
If you have this sort of reaction it is usually helpful to stop reading and look out the window.
Dr. Chandrasekhar saysits a common misconception that closing your eyes helps with motion sickness.
This means not looking down and keeping your eyes open and fixed on the horizon.
Even if theres not a huge amount of evidence that proves they work, these might be worth trying.
Acupressure, for example, is a popular way to cope.
The idea is thatpressing on the insides of your wristscan alleviate symptoms.
One interesting study published in theJournal of Applied Psychologysuggested that verbal placebos can be effective in preventing seasickness.
But when youre feeling bad enough, a few words of encouragement might be worth a try.
There are also studies that suggestpleasant musicandpleasant odorscan help alleviate visually-induced motion sickness.
After all, you want to enjoy your vacation, not worry where to find the nearest barf bag.
