Sea sickness on Mythbusters!

seanfoster

seanfoster

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I don't know if anyone saw Mythbusters on Saturday (Discovery Turbo on Sky), one of the presenters has a terrible problem with seasickness.

They set up a rig very similar to the one Nasa used to test pilots, apparently it can have the best of them hurling within 3 minutes!

They had 3 remedies on trial, ginger tablets, the relief band (the wristwatch type thing that gives off small electric shocks) and an over the counter remedy (don't know what it was).

The ginger tablets apparently worked well, the other remedy not so well and had side effects (drowsiness) and the wrist band did nothing!

I understand that sea sickness, and remedies, vary from person to person, but I would like to look into the ginger tablets, has anyone had experiences of them?
 
Never been seasick since I started carrying either crystline ginger or these days ginger nut biscuits not have any of my nervous crew!!
 
Lots of controversy here. As a medical researcher, I did a search through the literature on ginger as a seasickness remedy. More than half of the published studies failed to show a significant effect, and effects were marginal in all studies. I think that the advice is: try Stugeron at first but, if that doesn't work for you, Scopoderm patches may help. Most people find that the tendency fades away if they do lots of sailing in all weathers. For the few who are still sick frequently, the best solution is to take up golf.
 
You here all sorts of pros and cons on the ginger and for and against trials...not aware of any meta study..but it seems to work for me and other crews i ahve sailed and raced wit. The issue i have with drugs like Stug..are the unwanted side effects of drowsiness and worse still needing a pee. The later being the worse contemplation in the world for anybody who it particularly prone...what i say is whatever works for you..placebo or not!
 
dulcibella said:
I think that the advice is: try Stugeron at first but, if that doesn't work for you, Scopoderm patches may help. Most people find that the tendency fades away if they do lots of sailing in all weathers. For the few who are still sick frequently, the best solution is to take up golf.
Click to expand...

Both Stugeron and hyoscine as in Scopoderm are pretty effective but I understand that hyoscine use delays the tendency to improve with passing days and so, while a good product for short trips, as at D-day, would be less useful to people on longer voyages.
 
I cold never get into ginger nut biscuits so can't comment on their effectivness. plain chocolate does however work for me (or eating anything for that matter).
failing golf, sitting under a tree helps i'm told............
rgds
c
 
Never found Stugeron causing drowsiness, but my one experience of sea sickness was so appalling ( frightening even since I just "gave up" and seriously I wanted to die) that I now munch them like smarties.

Whether they effect is placebo or not doesnt matter as long as I dont repeat the nausea experience
 
I find taking the helm to completely cure me in a few minutes. Just looking at the horizon doesn't work but if I'm at the helm concentrating on holding a course I seem to 'forget' about the sea sickness and get over it.

I only seem to suffer whilst doing chartwork (or other reading) or whilst sat on the head!
 
hi all i tend to use relef band and have found them brilliant, one of our chidren was throwing up put the relef band on that i had borrowed stopped it straight away it seems to always work for me to
 
I once brought an girlfriend out on the boat and she was soon violently ill, I gave her two advill and told her that they were a very strong remedy,and that I had given her twice the recommended dosage,as I needed her to go forward to keep a sharp lookout for( non existent) dangerous rocks, that were in the area...she was fine in minutes...had a great time. Thanks Grandfather...he used the same story on my Grandmother for years and only told the story out of her hearing, after he was gone my Grandmother admitted that she had known about it for years, but that she liked to let him have his fun, that's the definition of a good marriage. Miss them both terribly,they're responsible for the sea in my blood, thanks for the reminder, Ed
 
As others have said, 'whatever works for you'....mostly problems seem to occur during the early parts of the (seaway) voyage.

Even the most experienced long-term cruisers say, if they have been laid up for some time, the early part of the next leg is the worst, until they can get used to the motion again.

For occasional use, recreational folk that suffer from this problem, prior to the voyage; don't eat fatty food or anything acidic, like tomatoes or orange juice.
Keep away from excessive alchohol consumption the night before, this seems to bring the 'party' boys undone, prior to fishing trips etc..

The feeling of apprehension prior to a voyage can also be a sometimes major contributor to this condition. Only time and experience, resulting in confidence, will assist when this is the case.
 
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we had a great thread on this some years ago, which involved discussing how to make cannabis biscuits! :D

and the effects of drowsiness can't be under estimated. I once had 2 of the three of us onboard had to go below to sleep, when they couldn't stay awake after changing brands when first brand ran out.
 
Far better than ginger or electric spinach cookies is the old recipe of sitting under a fruit-tree for 15-20 minutes!
I don't feel anything in any way resembling seasickness... ever... but I do get a terrible sleepiness in very lumpy sea for the first hour or two of a voyage- apparently this is a type of motionsickness. The best remedy I ever saw was Epinutin- the anti-epilepsis medication. One of my students' dad was a GP and he prescribed it for the chap, who suffered so badly he got seasick reading sailing magazines!
The meds had to be taken from 24 hours before going to sea, but for a guy who would vomit up suppositories, so prone was he to seasickness, the treatment was miraculous! He spent 28 days on a sailing course, and sailed over 600 miles without even a sweaty brow or long yawn thanks to the epilepsy meds!
 
A friend of mine gets seasick even when aboard in the marina. Always throws up when we go out to sea. Spent 2 months throwing up continuously on a voyage he once made from Antarctica back to the UK.

Then we gave him raw root ginger to chew on, while eating ginger biscuits and drinking ginger beer... he made it all the way to Looe from Plymouth without a problem.

He is now looking into buying a yacht to live on.
 
I generally have a pretty cast-iron stomach, I even took part in a study on motion sickness during my undergrad at Southampton - involved being shaken about in a box for half an hour - I was fine.

The only time I 've been seasick was when sailng with a filthy hangover...

old g/f used to swear by the homeopathic pills. So if all else fails, try some small balls of sugar, or maybe listen to 'Pure Morning', 'change your taste in men' and other hits by the band whose name escapes me.
 
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