Ginger pills for motion sickness

[robint]

robint, please share the brand of the ginger pills which remedied your seasickness!

they are the ones sold at our local dive shop.
Sailor's Secret, Premium Ginger Sailors Secret - Buy Now!

I have also bought some at Walgreen's in a larger bottle.

 

[claudine]

Thanks Robint! The only non-drowsy ones I found in my local pharmacy requires consumption every 2 hours *gulp* not sure if I'll have enough time to pop pills every 2 hours! hehehe might have to ask my friends to buy your remedy from the States back for me!

 

[robint]

Thanks Robint! The only non-drowsy ones I found in my local pharmacy requires consumption every 2 hours *gulp* not sure if I'll have enough time to pop pills every 2 hours! hehehe might have to ask my friends to buy your remedy from the States back for me!

non-drowsy??? Ginger tablets should be just that, ginger. Nothing in them will make you drowsy. If the pills say anything about drowsy or non-drowsy, then they are adding in something to the ginger. I wouldn't buy those!

 

[claudine]

Opps sorry I must have not been clear about the description. Yes, I bought the ginger pills containing ginger root. When I asked the pharmacist for non-drowsy motion sickness pills, they directed me to ginger pills as they informed me that all other medications for such purpose will cause drowsiness

 

[tridacna]

Hi debandrickellis,

I suspect you'll find the following informative:

Tame the Technicolor Yodel: Managing Mal de Mer
Doc Vikingo's Sea Sickness Remedies

Regards,

DocVIkingo

Doc,

Can you quote the article/paper showing the efficacy of ginger please? Every one I found has an inconsequential sample size or has been subsidised by "persons of ginger interest - ie manufacturers)". Just curious.

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi tridacna,

Here's the reseach piece mentioned in my article:

"Acta Otolaryngol. 1988 Jan-Feb;105(1-2):45-9.

Ginger root against seasickness. A controlled trial on the open sea.

Grøntved A, Brask T, Kambskard J, Hentzer E.

Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Svendborg Hospital, Denmark.

In a double-blind randomized placebo trial, the effect of the powdered rhizome of ginger (Zingiber officinale) was tested on seasickness. Eighty naval cadets, unaccustomed to sailing in heavy seas reported during voyages on the high seas, symptoms of seasickness every hour for 4 consecutive hours after ingestion of 1 g of the drug or placebo. Ginger root reduced the tendency to vomiting and cold sweating significantly better than placebo did (p less than 0.05). With regard to vomiting, a modified Protection Index (PI) = 72% was calculated. Remarkably fewer symptoms of nausea and vertigo were reported after ginger root ingestion For all symptom categories, PI = 38% was calculated."

Also see:

1. "Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2003 Mar;284(3):G481-9.

"Effects of ginger on motion sickness and gastric slow-wave dysrhythmias induced by circular vection.

Lien HC, Sun WM, Chen YH, Kim H, Hasler W, Owyang C.

Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology Taichung Veterans General Hospital, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Ginger has long been used as an alternative medication to prevent motion sickness. The mechanism of its action, however, is unknown. We hypothesize that ginger ameliorates the nausea associated with motion sickness by preventing the development of gastric dysrhythmias and the elevation of plasma vasopressin. Thirteen volunteers with a history of motion sickness underwent circular vection, during which nausea (scored 0-3, i.e., none to severe), electrogastrographic recordings, and plasma vasopressin levels were assessed with or without ginger pretreatment in a crossover-design, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled study. Circular vection induced a maximal nausea score of 2.5 +/- 0.2 and increased tachygastric activity and plasma vasopressin. Pretreatment with ginger (1,000 and 2,000 mg) reduced the nausea, tachygastria, and plasma vasopressin. Ginger also prolonged the latency before nausea onset and shortened the recovery time after vection cessation. Intravenous vasopressin infusion at 0.1 and 0.2 U/min induced nausea and increased bradygastric activity; ginger pretreatment (2,000 mg) affected neither. Ginger effectively reduces nausea, tachygastric activity, and vasopressin release induced by circular vection. In this manner, ginger may act as a novel agent in the prevention and treatment of motion sickness."

2. University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) Alternative Medicine ratings for ginger
Motion Sickness : University of Michigan Health System

But, you are correct--ginger's antimotion sickness properties have yet to be consistently demonstrated across all studies.

Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[Kevrumbo]

Use real ginger and save it as a condiment for sushi.

You're probably going to be just as successful using self-hypnosis as a sea sickness remedy --maybe even having better results with practice & discipline. Here's how to do it:

Look not only at the Horizon, but also at the railing of the boat in the foreground --and see how it all moves relative to each other as the boat makes way through the swells. Memorize that movement and close your eyes, feel the boat's rhythm moving through the swells, and "see" that railing/horizon movement in your mind's eye. Anticipate where that railing/horizon orientation will be when you open your eyes . . .and finally open your eyes to see it and confirm it. Convince your mind and inner ear that you are in dynamic motion based on your sense of balance, tactile/kinesthetic feedback, and coordinating/synchronizing it all with the movement pattern of the railing/horizon which you just memorized. . .

That's the visualization technique you gotta practice, and unfortunately it's difficult to do if you're concentrating on something else like setting up your gear, reading a book, watching a video, worrying about running out of ginger pills/dramamine/bonine etc. But once you get good at it, you can hold the malaise to a reasonable level (a "four" for instance on a scale from 1 to 10, with "ten" again being projectile vomiting, extreme nausea, hugging the rail and begging for someone to shoot you) --even in the roughest seas. (In my thirty hour passage to Cocos Island, I was cognitively exhausted performing the technique over an extended period, and just fell asleep naturally. . .)

 

[saturn27]

I get sea sick very easily. I even got sick doing a shore dive - it was a long surface swim in rough water though. I have used dramamine, and it worked for me with the only side effect being a dry mouth.

I just got back from a 3 day 2 night liveaboard, and I didn't want to have to take pills every few hours, so I tried the scopolamine patch. It worked beautifully!! It didn't cause me any drowsiness, and I drank a lot of water to try to prevent the dry mouth feeling, and it seemed to work. I felt absolutely normal the whole time.

I did read a couple of horror stories online about the patch and possible side effects, so I tried it out before we went. The directions say to not get any in your eye, so I just made sure to wash my hands if I accidentally rubbed the patch while it was on me.