6 Tips to Managing Motion Sickness
While the rest of the ship was gathered along the rails looking out at the sunset, I was curled up on the bed awaiting the inevitable. The moment where butterflies turned to somersaults and my head began to feel like a steel drum player.
However, if you’re like me and you have every intention of tasting the food on distant shores and snapping photos that could never do your vacation justice, it’s time to find a solution!
In an effort to help us all enjoy our next cruise a little more, I turned myself in a to a science experiment. With so many different cruise motion sickness remedies popping up on Pinterest, I wondered do any of them really work and why? I used these on m
y recent cruise, which was one of the roughest many seasoned passengers had experienced, and felt better than I have on any other!
Avoid Heavy Meals I know, I know, it’s vacation, but if feeling good is more important than a nice meal, you’ll stick to this guideline. Digestion effects all kinds of things, so avoid foods that can cause stomach issues in general: high fatty, new to you foods, large meals, greasy foods.
Green Apples Speaking of digestion, another key is to find ways to help support your stomach. Green apples not only have fiber, but pectin and sugar which neutralize stomach acid!
Ginger Not only can you sip on ginger ale, but bring along some ginger chews or scoop up any of the delicious food you might find seasoned with ginger. While this won’t alleviate all symptoms, it has been shown to aid digestion which will in turn help to settle a nauseous stomach.
Bonine Sold over the counter at most drug stores, this has been one of the most effective tools for me. You can get a prescription scopolamine patch from your doctor, but I personally never felt that work as well and when it comes to medicine even a little ibuprofen can put me to sleep.
Thus I say do a little testing and come prepared with both options. Everyone is a little different and one medicine may do wonders for you! I liked that the Bonine helped me sleep soundly through the night when the ship is often moving the most and yet the chewable tablets allowed me to take just half a pill at various times during the day so I wasn’t always groggy.
Acupressure Bracelets The one’s found in the grocery store are ugly, let’s just be honest. Which is why I was thrilled to find these super cute beads that just look like bracelets. The pressure point located on your wrist (roughly three fingers down from the bend) is said to help balance the flow of energy through the body.
Fear Control Turns out some people believe that our sickness is related to a lack of control. Did you know when people first began flying those little barf bags were used constantly! Now that people feel more comfortable with the idea of it they are used less and less.
In fact, just the fear of getting sick can send us down the wrong path. This is where yoga can come in to play! Learning to control your breathing and mind have been shown to help reduce motion sickness in many people.
None of these are a panacea, but combined they seem to make a significant dent in any of the motion sickness feelings you might have. Even if some of it is mental, I will take any relief that comes my way!