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Kinetose
Eyes and balance organ report different things — looking at the horizon brings them together again.
Also known as: kinetosis · seasickness · car sickness
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Motion sickness arises when the brain receives conflicting signals: the balance organ in the inner ear senses movement, while the eyes — for instance looking at a book or phone in a car — report stillness. From this conflict come the typical symptoms: nausea, dizziness, pallor, cold sweat, sometimes vomiting. It is unpleasant but harmless and fades quickly once the journey ends. Children are affected more often than adults. With a few simple measures — looking ahead into the distance, sitting at the front, fresh air — much can be eased, and preventive remedies are available if needed.
Look ahead to the horizon, don’t read or stare at a phone.
At the front of the car/on deck, calm breathing, fresh air help.
If needed there are remedies (with advice); some rely on ginger.
Closing the eyes, resting or light distraction eases the nausea.
Look forward and into the distance, sit at the front, open a window slightly, do not read, eat small dry portions; ginger half an hour before the journey.
One to two grams of fresh ginger spread over the day — as thin slices, as tea or chewed.
Scopolamine as a patch and dimenhydrinate act on the vomiting centre and the balance organ — they must be taken thirty to sixty minutes before the journey, because they barely reach nausea that has already started. Both cause drowsiness; the patch works for up to three days. Ginger has been tested against nausea in several smaller studies and does not cause drowsiness. Looking at the horizon works because it brings eye and balance organ back into agreement.
The complaints arise when eye and balance organ report different movement. Most sensitive are children between two and twelve; it lessens in adulthood. The drugs must be taken thirty to sixty minutes before the journey; the scopolamine patch four hours before, and it works for up to three days. After about two to three days at sea the balance organ adapts — and after returning it takes the same time to change back.
The inner ear senses motion, the eyes see stillness.
Nausea, dizziness, pallor, cold sweat, possibly vomiting.
Improves on its own after the journey.
Children react more than adults.
An empty stomach and a dried-out body both strengthen the nausea. Small sips spread over the journey are better than large amounts at once.
Completely empty, many feel sick faster; with a heavy, fatty meal too. A rusk, bread or rice an hour before is the middle way.
For ginger in travel sickness and in pregnancy there are small studies with favourable results. It is well tolerated; under blood thinning the amount is discussed.
The best-studied plant remedy for it: 1–2 g about 30 minutes before travelling. It acts on the stomach, not on the balance organ — so not on the dizziness itself.
In pregnancy B6 is well studied against nausea — 10–25 mg three times a day. For travel sickness outside pregnancy the data are thin.
Just before the nausea sets in this hormone rises steeply — in some people tenfold. It is one of the most reliable forerunners and one of the reasons the pallor comes before the sickness.
Women are more sensitive than men, and in pregnancy it increases further. That is one of the few points where travel sickness and pregnancy nausea overlap.
Studied at 1–2 g ginger powder about 30 minutes before travel. Several studies found an effect on nausea, comparable with mild remedies; it does not act on the dizziness itself.
Set off neither on a full nor an empty stomach. A small low-fat meal 1–2 hours before and no alcohol the evening before is the usual approach.
Looking at the horizon and calm breathing settle the conflict between eye and balance.
A sweet or a drop of oil on the wrist to smell — the benefit lies mostly in the distraction and the cooling. Ginger is the remedy with the data here.
The best-studied acupressure point there is; the band presses exactly there.
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