Motion sickness

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by jdecris

There are plenty of failures - in "medicine" and "alternative medicine" alike - and dangerously and tragically so.
...
And that is - importantly - without being ridiculed or trashed by someone else who has had different experiences or thinks differently.

You missed the point. "Alternative medicine" that actually works is often the age-old foundation of modern medical practices (e.g. using maggots to clean a wound of necrotic tissue), using leeches (leeches secrete peptides and proteins that work to prevent blood clots), or plants (eg. Comfrey has a long history of use as a topical agent for treating wounds, skin ulcers, thrombophlebitis, bruises, and sprains and strains).

However there is a giant body of "alternative medicine" that is absolutely utterly and equivocally bunkum - see the "supplements" shelf at any grocery store. Most of this is benign, at worst it won't injure you (except possibly financially) but it won't help things either. But some things WILL injure you, not in the least because some people will rely on the bunkum instead of seeking proper science-based medical attention. A friend of mine almost lost his hearing because he kept pouring "essential oils" into his ears instead of seeing a doctor. He's an example of older folks/non-technical who don't really understand how their browser and search engine work together to create an echo chamber that only serves you material that it thinks you want to hear - which ends up creating crazy conspiracy theories like qanon or leading people to treat actual medical problems with hand-wavey nonense, essential oils, or crystals.

As I mentioned in another post, the placebo effect is a well known and documented scientific phenomena, and there's no shame in exploiting it for minor ailments like motion sickness (something I'm fortunate to have never experienced), but be careful of 1) using the placebo effect on a broken arm or smallpox, 2) researching your chosen cure to the point where the placebo effect is broken.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by Far Horizon

Belief always helps but isn’t mandatory, equally true is that if you believe something won’t work, it generally doesn’t. If you are open to the possibility of something happening, you remove the impediment that stops it from happening.

I hope you see the irony in your opinion.

Don’t trash someone else’s experience quickly or lightly, think about what you’re saying about their experience, the validity of what they have lived through. Judgment is not appropriate and certainly doesn’t add anything of quality to the debate.

Regards
David

You missed the point. I said exactly what you said. To wit, just because there's no scientific factual basis for some curative property, the mind can convince itself that it actually did work - as long as you don't look behind the curtain.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by dannc

Thank you.

I THINK my wife has tried the non electrical bands years ago but they did not work for her. I will ask her to make sure she has tried them.

If the Motion Ease does not work, we will look at the link your provided. Right now, knock on wood, on our recent day sails, she has not been seasick. Staying in the cockpit, limiting time below and staying at the helm has helped her greatly. One interesting result has been her sitting facing the beam helps her not get nauseous. That is very odd to me but it seems to work for her. Go Figure.

My wifey has fed the fish twice in rough weather. The first time was on a trawler off the coast of Ireland where we were going down wind in short steep 6-8 foot waves and 30-35 knot winds. We had been on the boat for a week or so with no problems. The second time was in our ASA classes where we had short, steep waves, of maybe 4 feet in 25ish knot winds while we were sailing upwind. That boat was flying off the waves, we where healed over, and hauling a....s. I was really surprised how fast the 32 foot boat could go. The wifey was fine.... Until she went down below to go the to the head.

She fed the fishes after being tossed FROM the head. We really should have heaved too. NOW, we heave too she as to go to the head.

But, there was more to it than the motion, I think, in both cases, there was a common food element....

She likes shrimp and shrimp is one of the few sea foods she will eat. We had eaten at the same restaurant for 2-3 nights and she had shrimp each night before she got sick. The morning she go sick, she woke up with a swollen face, lips, throat and tongue. It sure looked like an anaphylactic reaction to me. However, her reaction had obviously happened over night and she quickly recovered so we went sailing. She has never had a reaction to food like this so it was a bit odd to say the least.

One of the things we eat is nuts and dried fruit. The fruit and nuts providing energy and potassium which one needs if one is sweating. The dried fruit we were eating both times my wife got sick was dried mangoes...

After this trip, she was land sick for weeks and months, aka Mal de Débarquement Syndrome (MdDS).

Long story short, her digging into MdDS to solve her problem got down to diet. She has to stay away from histamines, i.e., eat a low histamine diet. Once she did that, her MdDS went away. Took a few months but at least it went way.

What are high histamine foods? It is some processed food, or food that has aged like sour kraut, but it also includes nuts and dried fruit. Both times my wife fed the fishes was after eating nuts and dried fruit. She no longer eat nuts or dried fruit. Shrimp, shell fish in general, is high in histamines. The shrimp she ate the night before she got sick WAS a different type of shrimp than the previous nights. Sooo, the different shrimp could have had more histamines that the previous shrimp, or she just ate too much danged shrimp. In either case, she does not eat shrimp anymore.

For pain relief we have been using TENS units for years. I wonder if a TENS unit would work? Not really valid for long term usage while sailing because of the wires but it was be easy for us to try....

Later,
Dan

DanNC,


FWIW my wife found NO benefit to the passive bands.

She found GREAT benefit to the ones that provide a mild shock.

About $195 difference in price.

[Martkimwat]

If your guests are not too concerned about what they look like for the first few days, I've heard these 'beer googles' work very well by giving your a visual horizon when down below. I usually suffer from seasickness for the first week or so of each season till I`'m acclimatised, but only get it when I go below. So long as I am on deck and can see the horizon I'm fine. I've never been physically sick just feel real queasy.

https://www.healthline.com/health/gl...otion-sickness

[captivacapt]

Seems to work if you acclimate your body slowly to the rolling. Even merchant sailors get seasick after a long shore leave, then immediately head into the fray. Of course, alot of that might be what they did while being ashore. LOL

[Sherpa17]

Originally Posted by CarlF

What dose CBD of do you use? How often?

Anyone else using CBD for seasickness? I'd be glad to ditch my Sturgeon as it still makes me feel a bit "off" - although less than the other types of pills

I've been using two 25mg capsules daily for a couple of years. My PCP keeps an eye on it. The only side effect is orthopedic pain if I forget to take it.

[jdecris]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

You missed the point. I said exactly what you said. To wit, just because there's no scientific factual basis for some curative property, the mind can convince itself that it actually did work - as long as you don't look behind the curtain.

Missed the point?

How about... just because there is no "scientific factual basis", doesn't mean it's the placebo effect, and somehow therefore some gobbledygook "behind the curtain".

Science has taught us a tremendous amount, and changed our lives in many ways. At the same time, there is an infinite amount of phenomena out there that has yet to be explained by science. And it may very well be a long time before it is, if at all.

Of course there's no shortage of BS out there - unscientific or not. Welcome to the human condition.

But lumping anything that has yet to be explained by science all together in one group, labeling it all the "placebo effect", and dismissing it - is not realistic either. And ridiculing because it is unknown or rubs you the wrong way is even less productive.

[AKA-None]

I mostly get motion sickness after I’m on the boat for a long time then back on shore. Don’t ask me why but the lack of rolly motion has me walking like a drunken sailor.

[Sailboatuser]

We have tried a lot of things while cruising with 2 kids for 4 years. Here is a simple thing we ended up using after long stays and before passages.


1. Anchor the boat in more exposed area (within reason) a day before the passage so it starts moving in the waves.

2. Taking 10mg Phenergan in the evening
3. Taking 5mg of Phenergan in the morning before the passage (we tended to start sailing in the morning) and another 5mg few hours later if the sea is rough.



Usually that was enough to survive the first day of passage without problems and then it becomes easy.

[Amaleo]

Simply looking at the horizon tends to reduce motion sickness. It is a matter of letting the eyes be in synch with the inner ear: For the same reason driving or just sitting in the front seat of a car on a winding mountain road is better than sitting in the back seat for those who get car sick.

[CaptJimFrei]

Originally Posted by downwinder

I have a friend with a weird theory. He says sleeping on a boat the night before a charter actually helps with motion sickness reasoning being the mind/ear gets adjusted to the sea. Have a charter with one guest being prone to sea sickness. Not sure whether I should recommend that. Thoughts?

The absolute cure for sea sickness is to place your left (not your right) hand on an oak (a pine or palm will do in a pinch) tree 3.8 ft above the base of the tree, and hold it there for 90 seconds. If you're still feeling queazy, move the hand up 1.4 feet for another 90 seconds.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by CaptJimFrei

The absolute cure for sea sickness is to place your left (not your right) hand on an oak (a pine or palm will do in a pinch) tree 3.8 ft above the base of the tree, and hold it there for 90 seconds. If you're still feeling queazy, move the hand up 1.4 feet for another 90 seconds.