Travel Sickness Nightmare
Do you suffer from Travel Sickness? Is it a nightmare for you? Is there a cure so that you will never suffer again?
Why do some people never suffer from it and others feel queasy when the word “travel” is mentioned?
There have been some breakthroughs in understanding travel sickness recently and these may help to understand what causes it and how to prevent it.
What Causes Travel Sickness?
First, a little explanation of something you probably already know: The brain works together with several organs in your body to create a communication system.
Chemical Emails
Your brain works with glands which produce hormones. Hormones are like chemical email systems. When you are feeling happy, your body is flooded with “Happiness” hormones and when you are feeling hungry your body sends “Hungry” hormones to the brain.
There is a constant exchange of messages like a busy email account.
My Brain Got the Wrong Email
Sometimes the wrong or a confusing message gets sent, just like those strange emails we sometimes get, we read them and then find they were meant for someone else.
Automatic Reactions
If the brain thinks your body has been poisoned it will send a message to your stomach. The message will be; ”Vomit”, get rid of the poison.
Confusing Emails
If you are sitting in a plane or in a car, the muscles in your body send messages to the brain saying: “We are not moving, we are motionless.”
Your ears, which have very sensitive balance mechanisms, tell the brain: “We are moving.”
These two conflicting messages are like two emails your brain receives, one saying “Yes!” and the other saying “No!”
Your Brain Confused
The effect of these two messages is that the brain thinks the body is being poisoned with something which creates these conflicting messages. The brain re-acts automatically and tells the stomach to empty itself. You feel sick.
How Has This Happened?
Our bodies have not caught up with the evolution in transport. We are constantly moving in vehicles in which we physically relax and do nothing. Our ears tell us we are moving. Our muscles tell us we are not moving.
A Cure?
Perhaps if we get up and move around as we are travelling, on a plane, for example, the messages will be less confusing.
In a car, wandering around is difficult. Perhaps try and look at the horizon. The horizon moves very little or almost not at all. This would send a message from your eyes that you are not moving.
Closing your eyes probably will not help much because your ears, which are balance sensitive, will take over and send “I am moving” messages.
Moving your muscles could help. Try clenching your leg muscles, relax them. Tighten your thigh muscle, relax them. Work all the way up your body to your neck muscles, tightening and relaxing them. This sends messages to the brain that your muscles are moving.
One way that many find helpful is a hypnosis cure. This can help the brain separate out the mixed messages. The brain understands that it is moving and motionless at the same time and that is OK.
As time goes by and we evolve into beings that travel extensively at high speed, our minds and bodies will adapt and evolve in a way to cope. Perhaps in a 100 years’ time there will be no travel sickness.
There are pills and patches but many have other side effects like drowsiness, so check out thoroughly before using.
One form of medication is certain antihistamines. These are usually taken by hay fever sufferers to reduce the symptoms of hay fever.
Grow Out of it
Some people suddenly find it does not affect them any longer. They have “Grown out of it.”
If you find that even the thought of an airport or train station makes you queasy, then hypnosis or distraction may well help.
Do not play computer games, read books or do anything with your eyes fixed on a moving object. That seems to make matters worse.
It is sad if travel sickness prevents you from travelling since it is becoming faster and cheaper to travel most places. So persist in searching for your cure. It is there if you look hard enough.
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