If you feel uneasy and sick while travelling by road, railways, water or air, you might be suffering from ‘motion sickness’. It can be a debilitating experience that can ruin your travel day. You could arrive at your destination completely exhausted and fatigued due to the side effects of motion sickness. This article can help you out in diagnosing and dealing with the malady.

Symptoms

A feeling of uneasiness followed by nausea and vomiting while travelling are the most common symptoms of motion sickness. It can also cause cold sweat, headache and body pain. You might feel extremely sleepy and your skin can get pale. You can also feel dizziness or malaise due to the disorder in your brain. Lots of yawning and irritation as soon as your journey starts can be the first sign of motion sickness.

Causes

Motion sickness occurs when conflicting signals are sent to the brain by other parts of the body that detect motion. One part of the sensing system, like eyes and sensory nerves indicate that the body is moving, whereas other parts like the inner ear do not sense a motion. This leads to a conflict in the brain and results in motion sickness.

The brain may detect such a situation as effect of a poison, which leads to vomiting as a natural reaction to get rid of the poison. Due to mixed signals, the brain cannot function properly and you feel dizzy, get headache and nausea.

Remedies

There are numerous medications that may be used for motion sickness treatment. These are useful when taken before the onset of symptoms.

• Hyoscine: It is the most common medication used to treat motion sickness. It blocks some of the nerve signals to the brain and hence you feel sleepy and drowsy.
• Antihistaminic: These alternative medicines are also used to treat symptoms of allergy and nausea. It needs to be taken two hours before the journey.