About travel sickness
Travel sickness, or motion sickness can occur as a result of repetitive small movements, which can mean the brain is sent mixed messages. The eyes are sending a certain message about the position of the body, but the inner ear balance mechanisms are sending another. This often brings on symptoms of nausea (sometimes vomiting) and sweating.
Travel sickness can also be caused by smells (such as food or petrol) and anxiety or trying to focus on a nearby object (reading a book or a map). More children than adults suffer from this.
Western Medical View
Your brain relies on the inner ear, the eyes and muscles to pinpoint where you are. When you are in a moving car, your eyes tell the brain that the body is still (when your eyes focus on a stationary map) while your inner ear tells the brain that you are moving. The brain receives this conflicting information, which makes you dizzy or nauseous – travel sickness. Some people may experience vomiting, yawning, face turning pale or red, rapid breathing, sweating, or headaches.
Chinese Medical View
Acupuncture has been proved – through controlled trials – to be an effective treatment for nausea and vomiting, which are the common symptoms of travel sickness*.
When you are in a moving vehicle, Qi (the essential energy) and essence (the primal energies acquired at birth) in your body become imbalanced due to the unusual movements. This causes the stomach Qi to flow reversely. The stomach Qi which is supposed to descend now goes upward. The liver and spleen also fall deficient. As a result, you may feel nausea and travel sickness.
According to Chinese medical theory ear acupuncture can usually be recommended before travelling to help prevent travel sickness. Massaging the acupuncture points on your hands when you have the travel sickness symptoms in a moving vehicle is recommended in CM theory. Such treatments can help the Stomach, Liver and Spleen return to function normally and thus dismiss the symptoms.
Acupressure can also help and can be applied using a wristband or by pressing your finger against the middle of the inner wrist about three finger widths above the crease where the wrist joins the hand, according to CM theory
Lifestyle Advice
Avoid heavy meals and alcohol before travelling. Keep still with eyes closed. Also there are ginger or peppermint remedies. Ginger can be taken as a biscuit, tea or in crystallised form, peppermint taken as a sweet or in tea.
For personalised advice on diet and lifestyle, please ask the doctor during your consultation. Please be reminded that we offer free online health advice.
+ *CLINICAL TRIALS
Vickers AJ. Can acupuncture have specific effects on health? A systematic review of acupuncture antiemesis trials. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1996, 89(6): 303-311
Dundee JW et al. Traditional Chinese acupuncture: a potentially useful antiemetic? British Medical Journal, 1986, 293:383-384.
Dundee JW et al. Acupuncture to prevent cisplatin-associated vomiting. Lancet, 1987, 1:1083.
Ghaly RG et al. A comparison of manual needling with electrical stimulation and commonly used antiemetics. Anaesthesia, 1987, 45:1108-1110.
Weightman WM et al. Traditional Chinese acupuncture as an antiemetic. British Medical Journal, 1987, 295(6610):1379-1380.
Dundee JW et al. Acupuncture prophylaxis of cancer chemotherapy-induced sickness. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1989, 82:268-271.
Barsoum G et al. Postoperative nausea is relieved by acupressure. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1990, 83(2):86-89.
Ho RT et al. Electro-acupuncture and postoperative emesis. Anaesthesia, 1990, 45:327-329.
Ho CM et al. Effect of PC 6 acupressure on prevention of nausea and vomiting after epidural morphine for post-cesarean section pain relief. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica, 1996, 40(3):372-375.
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Liu SX et al. Magnetotherapy of neiguan in preventing vomiting induced by cisplatin. International Journal of Clinical Acupuncture, 1997, 8(1):39-41.
Al-Sadi M et al. Acupuncture in the prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting. Anaesthesia, 1997, 52(7):658-661.
Stein DJ et al. Acupressure versus intravenous metoclopramide to prevent nausea and vomiting during spinal anesthesia for cesarean section. Anesthesia and Analgesia, 1997, 84(2):342-345.
Schlager A et al. Laser stimulation of acupuncture point P6 reduces postoperative vomiting in children undergoing strabismus surgery. British Journal of Anaesthesia, 1998, 8(4):529-532.
Chu YC et al. Effect of BL10 (tianzhu), BL11 (dazhu) and GB34 (yanglingquan) acuplaster for prevention of vomiting after strabismus surgery in children. Acta Anaesthesiologica Sinica, 1998, 36(1):11-16.
Alkaissi A et al. Effect and placebo effect of acupressure (P6) on nausea and vomiting after outpatient gynaecological surgery. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica, 1999, 43(3):270-274.
Shenkman Z et al. Acupressure-acupuncture antiemetic prophylaxis in children undergoing tonsillectomy. Anesthesiology, 1999, 90(5):1311-1316.
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