Have you ever been in an amusement park ride and felt so sick that you swore you`d never go again? How about being in an airplane, ship or automobile and feeling like you could vomit any second?
This condition is generally called motion sickness. When riding on a boat or ship, it is commonly referred to as sea sickness – but it is the same thing.
What causes motion sickness?
The symptoms of motion sickness appear when the central nervous system receives conflicting messages from the sensory systems: the inner ear, eyes, skin pressure receptors, and the muscle and joint sensory receptors. For example, if you are on a ship, your internal ear feels the movement of the waves, but your eyes don’t see it. The brain tries to make these two separate feelings agree and gets “confused.”
Motion is sensed by the brain through different pathways of the nervous system including the inner ear, the eyes, and the tissues of the body surface. When the body is moved intentionally, for example when walking, the input from all of the pathways are coordinated by our brain.
As an example, if someone is sat in a car (not looking out of a window), their inner ears sense movement up and down, left and right, but their eyes see a static view, as if they are not moving at all. It is hypothesized that the conflict among the inputs is responsible for motion sickness.
While there are pills that aid with motion sickness, there are also natural things to do/eat when feeling motion sick. The following remedies may help reduce the effects: looking at the horizon, keeping eyes closed and napping, chewing gum, getting fresh air, and hewing ginger.
Interesting facts you didn`t know about motion sickness
- Over-the-counter medications can make you more likely to get motion sickness or contribute to the symptoms of motion sickness.
- Just thinking about motion sickness can cause it.
- Motion sickness is more than just nausea, it includes cold sweats, pale skin, fatigue, yawning, headache and mood changes
- A cure could be as simple as changing activities such as watching a film or knitting in the car (if you are a passenger, of course).
- Women, in general, are more likely to experience motion sickness than men, due to hormonal changes
- Drinking club soda relly helps some people combat motion sickness, and for others only it only makes it worse
