Best cure for sea-sickness?

[billskip]

hi
never been seasick myself but can imagine its a "wish i was dead"feeling at the time..I keep stugeron on board..With crew I get them to helm ..never known a driver to be motion sick..but what has allways worked ..lay flat face down and cover head and try sleep..

What I do suffer from is landsick..when i go ashore i have to hang on to things to stop them moving..

 

[HaraldS]

here are some more observations I made regarding sea sickness:

I seem to get sea sick if I get into rough weather, in the first days, back from office and maybe jet-lagged. Some days of cruising and I seem fine and could even take apart a clogged up toilet on a dancing ship. The later is what I think is close to worst case.

Too much partying also has no good effect and from my own experience I would recommend not to head into a rough sea with a substantial hang over.

My wife seems to be similarly stable. With the kids we found that they suffered badly when they were younger and it continues to improve. So there may be an age factor, and I remember getting quite badly seasick on my parents boat when I was a kid.

With the kids (now 17 and 22) we kept experimenting with differnt treatments:

Both say that listening to fairly load music with headsets from a walkman, helps quite a bit.
We tried both types of the wrist things: The passive ones which are an elastic band with a hard nipple that puts pressure on a specific spot, were found to have no effect on them. The active one, called relief-band send out small electro shocks that are supposed to jam the communications beween the inner ear and the brain, worked 100% for one and absolutely not for the other.
We tried the sun glasses with artificial horizon, the consensus was that they don't work and at best you get an head ake.
On longer passages, sleeping for several hours seems to help most and they have always been fine from the second day on.
We have used very little medication on our boat, but friends in the states tell me they get a 100% relief using something called scopoderm (not sure about the spelling). It used to come as little patches that you stick underneath your ear, the medication is absorbed through the skin. For a while they have been pulled by the drug autority because the dosis couldn't be controlled well enough, but they are back on the market now with some changes. In the interim they brought out another packaging form where you squezze a bit of the stuff on your wrist and you control the dosis depending on how you feel. That one is my friend's favorite. It has to be kept in a fridge I'm told and then lasts for at least a year.
Seems to be powerful stuff, but haven't seen it anywhere in Europe, so there might be some side effects.

 

[SNAPS]

After a number of years in RN. I found that the cure suggested by a small boat corporal of marines whom I used to work with, was very effective.
ie. flaky bakes and cheese washed down with plain water. (for those who are not in the know, flaky bakes are Jacobs cream crackers - I suppose any kind of plain crackers would do)


JACKTAR

 

[vyv_cox]

I agree about the jet lag. The only time I have come near to seasickness was sailing immediately I returned from Malaysia.

Scopoderm was widely available in UK up to about 6 years ago, but supplies worldwide were cut when the factory making the stuff, in Venezela, burnt down. I tried to buy some in USA for friends but none was available there either. Factory was rebuilt but initial quality was variable. This seems to have been overcome now. I haven't tried it lately, but a Google search may well find you a USA supplier by mail order. Several friends found this the only means of ensuring that they did not suffer, and some gave up sailing altogether when supplies were unavailable.

Incidentally, my wife swears by Boots travel sickness pills - don't give the drowsiness of Stugeron but fully effective.

 

[Guest]

Hello Giles,
"Sit them under a tree" is the most effective, but seriously STUGERON works wonders for most people, but make sure to take as directed. ie: 2 tablets the night before and 2 immediately before sailing for a normal adult. Some people do get very sleepy though so test first if you are the skipper. Available from most chemists. (There is nothing I know of that will work immediately if you wait for the onset)
Regards, John

 

[Guest]

Scopolamine slow release patches (Scopaderm TTS) are now available in the UK. They are manufactured by Novartis and cost approx £5 for two patches. This sounds expensive but each patch lasts 72 hours.
I have used them for both my wife and my son and they are absolutely brilliant. They are certainly more side effect free than other forms of scopolamine. The down side is that are not very effective for treatment only prevention.

Best wishes

Steve

Steve Greenhough
"Frank" Liverpool Yacht Club

 

[Guest]

Have a look in Archived Features on the ybw homepage. There's a few tips there to help your mal de mer.

A word of warning: all this sitting under trees could leave you moored to piles - particularly on damp days.

 

[Guest]

Scopaderm is available in the UK. It works very well on both me and my wife. I've got two lots of it in the last 4 months or so. But you can only get it on prescription, so you have to talk to your doctor.

 

[Chris_Robb]

Re: deep breathing

I used to get very seasick. The skipper of a boat I was sailing on said just breath deeply when you get the initial feeling - It works, I've not been sick since

 

[Buck]

Re: Best cure for sea-sickness? LAND

Land

 

[Guest]

If you find yourself actually throwing up start eating Ginger Snap biscuits as these taste the same going down as being sick so then you won't be sure whether you're being sick or not.

 

[cynthia]

Is this why Ellen was so grieved to give her ginger biscuits to Neptune? Use Stugeron myself, but am prepared to sacrifice all to follow our new sporting hero (paricularly as she's from Derbyshire!)