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On the plane to Hawaii, on the train from Venice to Berlin, on the cruise of the Caribbean you’ve always wanted to take or on the open road, nausea has always been a plague of travellers with sensitive stomachs. Some people don’t get seasick, but if you put them on a touring bus, they turn green. No matter how you’re getting from point A to point B, nobody wants to suffer from nausea on the road.
I didn’t suffer from nausea when travelling as a child, but now I find that I can’t do anything but sit with my eyes closed on buses or trains, when what I really want to do is look out the window or read a book. Try one of these tried and tested methods to give your stomach a break so you can take pictures or enjoy the trek on horseback instead of worrying about getting sick on your tour guide’s shoes!
Gravol Or Dramamine
The first name in nausea is the little pink pill, Gravol, or it’s American counterpart, Dramamine. While some people find a difference between these pills meant to combat nausea, I don’t see a distinction. You should take Gravol or Dramamine before you begin to travel, but don’t take it too soon before you’re settled in your seat or you’ll discover the side effects that parents love!
Pros: Gravol works very quickly and it is quite effective in keeping the lunch you just had in your stomach instead of on the floor of the car.
Cons: Gravol doesn’t just quell that upset stomach feeling; it puts you to sleep! Out cold, in my case, less than thirty minutes after taking the recommended dose, which means that there will be no sightseeing or reading being done on this train trip. Also, nausea pills aren’t the greatest for short trips and I usually wake up with a groggy feeling.
Best Use: Transatlantic flights where you’ll be sitting in your seat for a good 6 to 8 hours, won’t have anything to look but a bad movie anyways and won’t have a flight connection planned until after the pills have worn off.
Retails For: Varies, but the no name brand (Dimenhydrinate tablets) retails for a lot less and packs the same punch.
Sea Bands
I was a skeptic: how could two elastic bands the size and shape of sweatbands help to cut down on nausea while travelling? Sea Bands apply pressure to points on the undersides of the wrists called Nei Kuan acupressure points. Applying pressure to this point eliminates symptoms of nausea. You should put them on at the start of a trip. The company claims that they will also be effective if you put them on when you begin to feel sick, but I haven’t tested that claim out personally.
Pros: I can read, write or use the computer while travelling, a feat that I couldn’t accomplish before I tried the Sea Bands. You can use these bands for other conditions that inflict nausea, including pregnancy, after surgery or after chemotherapy treatments. Sea Bands are good for adults and children alike and are easy to use.
Cons: The one-size-fits-all bands are quite tight for my wrists and so after a few hours, I need to take them off to let the blood flow back into my fingers! They are also not very fashionable, even though the Sea Bands come in a variety of colours.
Best Use: Short distances in busses, trains or on the water.
Retails For: About $10 to $14.99 for one set. Each person requires one full set for it to be effective.
ShaSha Co. Ginger Snaps
These bite size organic cookies claim they’re the “Traveller’s Friend” and I have to say they do help in the fight against travel sickness. Ginger is known to be good for helping calm stomachs and has been scientifically proven to help with travel sickness. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, “In one trial of 80 novice sailors (prone to motion sickness), those who took powdered ginger experienced a significant reduction in vomiting and cold sweating compared to those who took placebo.”
Pros: These cookies are bite-size and really yummy, so I eat them even when I’m not on a road trip. They really do help to settle an upset stomach, so they’re great for eating when you have a touch of the stomach flu.
Cons: Eating anything when you suffer from travel sickness is a bit of a risk; you never know when the next wave will send your cookies overboard!
Best Use: Keep them in the car for those emergencies, in carry-on bags as a soothing snack and give them to kids who don’t travel well.
Retails For: Around $5 per 300g bag of cookies.
Getting Over Travel Sickness
While travel sickness doesn’t affect all travellers, those of us who get seasick just thinking about a ferry trip to Prince Edward Island, should be happy to hear that there are ways to help calm upset stomachs so that we can get back to enjoying the view out the window!
Sources:
University of Maryland Medical Centre
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