Many of us are suffering from Car sickness (mostly the females). I am one of them and feels its a curse. If you get car sick, you most likely dread every single extended road trip. Car sickness is just one kind of motion sickness (or kinetosis) that some experience when they're riding in an automobile. Dizziness, fatigue and nausea might make the trip miserable.
The 11th Founding Anniversary is just after few days. Here are some ways to enjoy the ride, sickness-free. Hope these will help to enjoy any long journey or a pleasure trip.
Understand why car sickness happens. All motion sickness results from your body sensing a discrepancy between what you see (in this case, the inside of a car, which tells your brain that you're sitting still) and what you feel (your body's vestibular system, which senses balance from your inner ear, tells your brain that you're moving). The conflict between what you see and what you feel triggers the production of a neurotransmitter, likely mistaken by your body as a signal of hallucinogenic poisoning, so your body tries to rid itself of whatever is causing the disorienting condition.
Look out the front window. Watching the passing scenery can confirm your balance system's detection of motion and help resolve the mismatch that causes car sickness. Focus on a non-moving object in the distance, such as the horizon. Don't do anything that involves focusing on a fixed spot, such as reading or playing a card game. Don't turn around or look from side to side much.
Sit in the front. Drivers rarely get car sickness as they are always focused on the road. Sitting in the passenger's seat up front is the next best thing. Not only will you have more window space to look through, but in some cars, the ride tends to be less bumpy in the front. If driving is not possible or desirable, visualize driving or pretend you are driving. This can often prevent or alleviate nausea.
Close your eyes. Sleep if you can. If your eyes are closed, you don't see anything, and that removes the cause of motion sickness. In addition, sleeping can take your mind off of your car sickness.
Open the window. Many people find that smelling fresh, cool air helps make them feel better, although the reason behind this isn't clear. If it is not possible to open the window, lean towards the bottom of the window and breathe. There should be leaks of air. Some people find that certain smells can make them feel worse (such as car air fresheners, perfumes, smoke, and food). Remove the source of the smell if possible, or keep fresh air coming in. If neither is possible, spray a soothing smell like lavender or mint to cover up the other smells.
Take breaks. Go outside to stretch your legs. Sit on a bench or under a tree and take some deep breaths in through your mouth, breathing deeply from your stomach to help relax. This is especially important during journeys that involve a long distance of curvy roads. Not only does stopping frequently help alleviate car sickness, but it is also good for the driver to take a break.
Take steps to prevent nausea. Since nausea is the most debilitating symptom of car sickness, it's always good to take precautionary measures. Ginger root is a classic remedy because of its widely recognized antiemetic (nausea-preventing) effects. Keep in mind, however, that many medications which are normally effective against nausea might not work against nausea caused by motion sickness.
• Eat a few ginger biscuits (cookies) before you go, during the journey, and after you arrive.
• Other good things to try eating are ginger candies (chewable), ginger coated in sugar (if you don't mind the heat of ginger) or ginger mints.
• If you are traveling a long distance, you could also consider taking ginger tea in a thermos. Peppermint tea is another good alternative. Cold drinks could include ginger ale
• Fresh mint (Pudina pata) can also cure or alleviate nausea. Buy it in the produce section of the supermarket. It doesn't have the drowsiness side-effect of over-the-counter nausea medicine. Start by eating 2 leaves and feel free to eat more if you need it.
• Keep a peppermint candy (or just about any long lasting hard candy) in your mouth. This method will work very well even after feelings of nausea have begun. Do not chew the candy because feelings of nausea may return fairly quickly after the candy is gone. For those whose nausea is worsened by the smell or taste of peppermint, lemon drops may prove helpful.
• Listening to music can help keep your mind off the sickness.
Practice acupressure. If you feel that you might be getting car sick, apply gentle pressure on your forearm (between the two tendons) about 3cm (about an inch) or so back from the wrist joint. You can also purchase a wrist band that will do this for you.[2] This should temporarily delay or alleviate nausea until you can take a break from the trip. You can also purchase accu-pressure bands at a local pharmacy.
Use medication that prevents car sickness. There are over-the-counter and prescription drugs that are effective against car sickness. Most of them contain dimenhydrinate,[3] meclizine[4] or scopolamine.[5] Some popular brands are Dramamine and Bonine/Antivert. Look into the side effects before using any of these drugs and ask your doctor just in case. Some of these are available as patches and can be particularly helpful. Antihistamines can prevent nausea caused by motion sickness by dulling the inner ear's motion sensors. This medication is able to block the part of the brain that controls nausea and needs to be taken before motion sickness occurs. Antihistamines can make you feel sleepy and affect your ability to operate machinery.
There are many "folk remedies" which seem to work for some people, but can't be explained and haven't been proven. If all else fails, it might be worth giving them a shot:
• Try smelling newspaper. Since reading the paper will probably make you sick, just have it close to you in the car. If you don't always have a newspaper handy, many art supply stores sell pads of newsprint (which smells the same) that you may put in the car.
• Eat achar/pickle (or anything sour) before and during a trip could prevent feeling sick.
• Wrap a rubber band around your wrist. You can also purchase motion sickness wrist bands; some contain medications, some do not. In theory, the tightness of the rubber band will provide a distraction from the nausea.
• Chew gum. (This helps a lot of people get rid of nausea)
• Eat saltines or other slightly salty snacks.
• Placing a plaster over the belly button.
• Keeping your head in continuous contact with the seat or window.
• Listen to music (with earphones), use MP3 player or a kind of. This is helpful to manipulate inner ear to brain information which usually causes nausea. Your favorite music will manipulate the information become something amuse, so that car sickness can be avoided. And you know what, it works.
• Don't shake your head.
• Don't eat a heavy meal right before your trip. Some find that eating chocolate in the morning before taking the trip can make car sickness worse as well.
• Try to open the window to let fresh air in.
• Breathe in and out heavily to get more oxygen circulating.
• Help prevent car sickness in children by giving them a raised seat where they have a clear view of the outdoors, and play games that encourage them to look outwards. Don't let them watch movies in the car, as it can trigger car sickness.
• A heavy fog will severely limit your view range and can hasten the sick feeling. If that's the case, close your eyes and try to sleep.
• If you find map-reading makes you sick, ask the driver to pull over to check a map.
• You can't vomit if there's nothing in your stomach, right? So don't eat a lot the day of the car ride. Stick to light simple stuff, like a or 2 pieces of toast in the morning. After meals it also helps to eat a small pack of saltine crackers. It helps settle your stomach, which means that there's less a chance of you puking.
• Don't talk about motion sickness, or even look at someone else who's experiencing it.
• Don't avoid eating completely. This can lead to you vomiting stomach acid, which isn't the nicest thing and definitely isn't the healthiest thing.
• Always carry bicarbonate of soda in the car somewhere. If you do vomit on the car upholstery, rub the bicarbonate into it straight away to remove the smell and to assist cleaning when you can get to it later.
• If you have stomach problems such as GERDs or acid reflux, sucking a peppermint may give you heartburn, as it is a acid trigger. Check with your doctor first.
• Even if you take all of these precautions, you might still get car sick. Have single use emesis bags, which have a one way valve. Empty clean ice cream buckets with the lid work well, too. Make sure it doesn't have a strange smell to it before throwing it in the car. The lid nicely keeps everything in.
• Consult your doctor before using any medications for motion/car sickness.
Things You'll Need
• Fresh Mint (Pudina pata)
• Ginger candies, biscuits (cookies), ginger pieces, ginger mints
• Lemon or Lemon leaves
• Ginger or peppermint tea in a container
• Polythene bags
• Calming air freshener (lavender, mint) - make sure it is as pure as possible.
• Newspaper or newsprint
• Pillow and blanket
• Water
• Music
• Books that others read to you
• Games that you can play while keeping your eyes on the road
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