Do you often feel dizzy and nauseous when traveling in certain vehicles? Maybe you have motion sickness. This condition can occur when traveling by land, water, or air. So that motion sickness does not hinder your activities, know the causes and how to overcome them.
Motion sickness is a condition when a person feels uncomfortable while traveling, whether by car, bus, plane, train, or ship. Motion sickness can be experienced by everyone, both children, adults, pregnant women, and the elderly.
When you experience motion sickness, you will experience several symptoms, including dizziness, cold sweats, nausea and vomiting, stomach pain, and difficulty maintaining balance.
Causes of Motion sickness
The center for regulating balance and body position is in the inner ear and in the brain, specifically the cerebellum. When the body moves or is in a certain position, such as walking, sitting, lying down, standing, or turning, the body's nervous system will work and send signals to the brain and inner ear.
While traveling, the body's positioning and balance system also keeps working.
However, some people may be more sensitive and unable to process all the nerve signals they receive properly, so they will feel nauseous, dizzy, or unwell when traveling. This is what makes a person can experience motion sickness.
In addition to these causes, there are several factors that can increase a person's risk of experiencing motion sickness, namely:
- Reading a book or playing on a smartphone in a moving vehicle
- Having migraines
- Have a history of motion sickness or vertigo
- Experiencing hormonal changes, for example due to the use of birth control pills, menstruation, or pregnancy
- Have disorders of the inner ear
Here's How to Overcome Motion Sickness
Although not a dangerous condition, motion sickness can certainly interfere with the comfort of your trip. To overcome this, there are several ways you can do, namely:
1. Consume ginger or candy mint
Consuming ginger tea or water or candy mint is said to help prevent and relieve symptoms of nausea and vomiting caused by motion sickness. In addition, the taste and aroma of ginger or leaves mint thought to calm the body.
If you often experience motion sickness, try to prepare some ginger or candy mint to address this complaint.
2. Breathe in wind oil or aromatherapy
Aromatherapy or wind oil can also help reduce nausea and discomfort due to motion sickness. The aroma can be obtained from certain essential oils, such as eucalyptus, lavender, lemon, or spices, including fennel and cardamom. To be more comfortable, choose a scent that you like.
3. Close your eyes and take a break
The next way to deal with motion sickness is to close your eyes and breathe slowly. If you use a car, you can open the window and breathe fresh air for a few minutes.
Not only that, you are also advised to take a short break if possible when traveling long distances. When you get out of the car, you can use that time to walk around rest area while living the fresh air.
4. Change body position
Motion sickness can be more severe or flare up more easily when you sit facing your back or side. Therefore, try changing the sitting position to face forward. This might help reduce your motion sickness symptoms.
5. Take motion sickness medicine
If some of the methods above have been done, but the motion sickness you experience has not subsided, you can take motion sickness medicine, such as dimenhydrinate or scopolamine. In order to work optimally, motion sickness medicine must be taken before you travel, yes.
By knowing the causes and how to deal with motion sickness, now you can go through activities traveling without dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
So that you don't get motion sickness, there are some things you shouldn't do, such as reading a book or watching a movie in a vehicle or eating too much before traveling.
If you often experience motion sickness and the above methods don't work, you should consult a doctor for proper examination and treatment.