Motion Sickness

Motion Sickness

Our word nausea comes from the Greek word naus, meaning "ship." Naus is also the root of our word nautical. What does nausea have to do with nautical? If you've ever had seasickness, you know. Those old Greek sailors battled seasickness as well as actual storms at sea and mythical sea monsters.

Seasickness is just one form of motion sickness, the nausea, dizziness and I'd-rather-be-dead feeling that many people experience on boats, cars, trains or planes.

Drugstores stock several different motion sickness remedies, most notably the antihistamine dimenhydrinate (Dramamine). Transderm Sco¯p, a patch that delivers the drug scopolamine through the skin, is a popular treatment, but it can cause side effects that prompt concerns about its safety. It has been known to cause hallucinations and convulsions in some people. And dimenhydrinate can also cause problems, making you drowsy and dopey.

Green Pharmacy for Motion Sickness

Fortunately, there's one herbal alternative that beats motion sickness drugs every time. I'm talking about ginger. It's not the only effective herbal remedy, but it's certainly the best that I'm aware of.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale). Some years ago out in Utah, herbal pharmacologist Daniel Mowrey, Ph.D., author of The Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine and Herbal Tonic Therapies, tested ginger head-to-head against dimenhydrinate. He rigged up a motorized chair guaranteed to cause nausea in anyone susceptible to motion sickness. The chair had a handle, allowing those seated in it to turn it off at will.

Dr. Mowrey recruited a bunch of people who got motion sickness. He gave half of them a standard dose of dimenhydrinate; the other half got one gram (about a half-teaspoon) of ginger. They all rode the chair and turned it off when they started feeling nauseated. Those taking the ginger lasted almost twice as long as those in the dimenhydrinate group.

Not long after Dr. Mowrey's study, other researchers recruited 80 naval cadets who were prone to seasickness and gave each of them one gram of powdered ginger. The researchers reported 38 percent less seasickness and 72 percent less vomiting among those cadets. Ever since those studies, every herbalist I know has trumpeted ginger for motion sickness.

Varro Tyler, Ph.D., dean and professor emeritus of pharmacognosy (natural product pharmacy) at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, endorses ginger: "To prevent motion sickness, swallow two capsules 30 minutes before departure and then one or two more as symptoms begin to occur, probably about every four hours."

I use ginger myself. It works. Sometimes I munch the ginger raw, but chances are that you'd prefer a few teaspoons in tea. You can also buy ginger capsules at health food stores. Or you can simply drink ginger ale, but if you do, make sure the label says that it's made with real ginger. A lot of ginger ale these days is artificially flavored.

Yet another ginger-filled remedy is my Stomach-Settler Tea: Chop up a two-inch section of ginger root and stir it in with dashes of camomile flowers, fennel, orange peel, peppermint and/or spearmint. Steep these with a few cups of water for 15 minutes. (You might also add a dash of cinnamon. Back in King Solomon's time, cinnamon tea was used to prevent nausea. Queen Peggy, Mrs. Duke, still uses it this way.)

If you have a juicer on hand, you might try juiceman Jay Kordich's Ginger Jolt--two apples, one pear and a one-inch section of ginger root. If all you have is a blender, try this Digestive Delight from naturopath Michael Murray, N.D.: one cup of fresh pineapple chunks, one or two kiwifruits, a one-inch section of ginger root and a few pinches of mint.

Raspberry (Rubus idaeus). Raspberry leaf tea is widely recommended for the nausea of morning sickness. Some herbalists also suggest it for motion sickness. I have no problem with that: Ginger and raspberry tea mix nicely.