Motion sickness can really rock your boat plans. Unfortunately, many Americans battle with motion sickness. Especially during summer when people are enjoying cruises, sea sickness can hit hard. Today, we are sharing ways to avoid motion sickness, how to spot it, and how doctors recommend treating it.
What is motion sickness:
Motion sickness is a common problem for people in cars, planes, but especially boats. It is sometimes called car sickness, travel sickness, or most commonly sea sickness. With the summer break coming up for most kids, families usually take advantage and book cruises. Although there are medicines and vitamins that aid with motion sickness symptoms, physical reasons can really cause motion sickness.
Most often, pregnant women, children, and people taking certain medications are more susceptible to motion sickness. If you have never had motion sickness, there may be no way to expect it or even prevent it. But if you begin to feel queasy or cold sweats very rapidly and out of the blue, you may be experiencing motion sickness symptoms.
Eventually, motion sickness can cause nausea or dizziness. In turn, this may cause people to vomit if they are unable to nip it in the bud. Truly, any motion can cause motion sickness.
For some, motion sickness can be prompted by a simple carnival swing ride. According to Center of Disease Control, at some point in our lives, we will all experience motion sickness to an extent. More motion is required to onset it for some people, lucky enough.
Understanding the cause of motion sickness:
The inner ear is responsible for a person’s balance. Your inner ear provides a sense of spacial awareness. This is the sense of knowing where your body is relative to its environment.
Basically, the inner ear maintains equilibrium. The inner ears accomplishes equilibrium working as a team with your eyes. This teamwork is medically referred to as proprioception.
Proprioception is the the process by which your muscles, tendons, and nerves work together to sense your body’s movement. With Memorial Day coming up, many families will go on bikes, motorcycles, boats, and other rides.
Collectively, the vestibular system works with the inner ear, vision, and proprioception. When one of these smaller systems is out of whack, you experience dizziness. Alternatively, it is possible all of the parts of the vestibular system may not be not working in harmony.
Motion can cause these parts to stop working together correctly. They fall out of sync with one another. A great example for this upcoming summer season: If you are sitting at a lovely dinner on the cruise ship, you may begin to feel sickness.
This is due to your eyes not seeing the movement telling your brain to expect the movement of the cruise ship. It does not look like your body is moving to the vestibular system, more specifically your eyes. But your inner ear can still sense the movement and relay the message to your.
When all the moving parts are not working together, like in the cruise dinner example, this is when people feels motion sickness. The conflicting messages cause the symptoms to begin.
For road trips this summer, try taking the front seat if you do not plan to drive. Looking forward out the window towards approaching objects helps your vestibular system work to your benefit. Your inner ear and the rest of your body will know that you are moving. This is the best way to makes sure all messages to your brain sync.
Symptoms:
Patients have a whole range of symptoms they face when dealing with motion sickness symptoms. The severity is different from one patient to the next. They can be mild and increasingly become more severe.
Toddlers and infants rarely get car, plane, or sea sickness. Kids of ages two to twelve years old are more susceptible to motion sickness than small babies. Pregnant women along with people prone to migraines are more likely to experience motion sickness.
Symptoms include dizziness which leads to nausea and ultimately vomiting. More intense symptoms include cold seats, dilated pupils, and malaise. Lastly, headaches, yawning, and the overall general feeling of feeling unwell are also symptoms.
Next time, we plan to share ways doctors diagnose and treat travel sickness. If symptoms persist, there may be a possibilities the crystals in your ears are out of wack too. You may need to be examined for vertigo.
Thank you for stopping by and come back next time for Part Two. Have a safe and honorable Memorial Day!
Staff Writer
