Travel Sickness: What to Do?

Who does not know it, the sinking feeling in the stomach during winding car and bus rides or turbulence in the airplane. It manifests itself as dizziness, nausea or even vomiting. Many who travel by car, bus, plane or ship suffer from motion sickness.

What is the cause?

The reason is the action of different acceleration forces that do not correspond to the optical perception. In this case, the human brain cannot coordinate the different stimulus signals from the eye and the organ of equilibrium.

Prevention tips:

  • Always look in the direction of travel, while fixing a point.
  • Do not read while driving, not even road maps
  • Relaxation: the greater the inner turmoil, the faster motion sickness can set in. Therefore, try to stay as relaxed as possible. In appropriate courses you can learn various relaxation techniques that can help you in this case.
  • Clothing: The clothes should be comfortable and should not constrict in any case.
  • Nutrition: since an empty stomach is much more susceptible to motion sickness, you should not start your trip with an empty stomach. It is better there to eat a small, light meal that is not heavy in the stomach.
  • Sleep: Go rested on a long trip. If you are already tired before the start of the trip, you can get motion sickness faster.

Help from the pharmacy

Your pharmacy has medications available to help you with travel sickness.

  • Antihistamines: these medicines help with allergies and also work for travel sickness. They are available over the counter. Preparations with the active ingredient dimenhydrinate help very well, but should be taken half an hour to an hour before the start of the trip. Their effect lasts for 3-6 hours. Caution: these antihistamines can make you tired, so drivers should avoid them.
  • Gingercapsules: The extract of ginger is also effective against travel sickness. This does not make tired, unlike the antihistamines.
  • Scopolamine: patches with the active ingredient scopolamine are particularly suitable for trips that last several days. They must be prescribed by a doctor.

General tips for the first-aid kit

  • Take your medications that you need to take in continuous use in sufficient quantities.
  • Travel pharmacy and medicines always take in your hand luggage!
  • Travel pharmacy store as cool as possible and avoid direct sunlight.
  • Medicines always keep safe for children.
  • Before the start of the trip, check the first-aid kit for expired medications.