How do sea sickness tablets work?

If you have ever been on a cruise or a fishing trip only to be sidelined by nausea, you know how debilitating motion sickness can be. Understanding how sea sickness tablets work can help you choose the right preparation to ensure your next adventure stays on track. This guide explores the mechanisms behind motion sickness and the various treatment options available, from natural remedies to custom compounded solutions.

Table of Contents

1. What Causes Sea Sickness?
2. How Do Sea Sickness Tablets Work?
3. Types of Medications Available
4. Understanding Side Effects
5. Tips for Effective Use
6. References
7. Video Transcript

What Causes Sea Sickness?

Sea sickness, or motion sickness, occurs due to a sensory mismatch within the body. Your brain receives conflicting messages from your eyes and your inner ear (specifically the vestibular system). While your eyes might see the stable interior of a cabin, your inner ear senses the constant rolling motion of the waves. This neurological conflict triggers the symptoms we associate with sea sickness, including dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.

How Do Sea Sickness Tablets Work?

Most sea sickness medications function by calming down the signals sent to the brain. By interfering with the transmission of the mismatched signals between the eyes and the inner ear, these medicines reduce the brain’s confusion. Many effective treatments utilize anticholinergic properties or antihistamines to dampen the nerve blockades that trigger the vomiting center in the brain. When these pathways are suppressed, the physical sensation of nausea is significantly reduced.

Types of Medications Available

There are three primary categories of treatments used to manage motion sickness:

• Natural remedies. Ingredients like ginger are widely available at vitamin stores and naturopaths. Ginger is thought to work locally in the digestive tract to settle the stomach.
• Over the Counter (OTC). Common pharmacy brands like Kwells or Travel Calm are accessible without a prescription and typically contain single active ingredients to prevent nausea.
• Compounded medications. Compounding pharmacies can create specialized combinations, often featuring a three ingredient formula. These work on multiple physiological pathways simultaneously to provide a more comprehensive defense against severe sea sickness.

Understanding Side Effects

Like all medications, sea sickness tablets can cause side effects. The most common include:

• Drowsiness: Many antihistamines used for motion sickness have a sedative effect. While this helps calm the nervous system, it may not be ideal if you want to stay alert during your trip.
• Dry Mouth: Certain active ingredients are known to dry up bodily secretions, leading to a noticeable thirst or dry sensation in the mouth.

Tips for Effective Use

To get the most out of your medication and ensure a pleasant trip, consider the following:

• Test before you go: It is highly recommended to test your medication at home before your actual trip to see how your body reacts to potential drowsiness.
• Stay hydrated: Because many of these tablets cause dry mouth, keep plenty of fresh water on hand.
• Prevention is key: Most motion sickness medications work best when taken 30 to 60 minutes before you step onto the boat, rather than waiting until you already feel ill.

By reducing the frequency of the conflicting signals sent to the brain, these treatments allow you to enjoy the ocean without the frustration of nausea.

References

Australia, H. (2019, December 19). Motion sickness. Www.healthdirect.gov.au. https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/motion-sickness

Transcript

Hi there. Today I have got a really good question of how do sea sickness tablets work? If you have ever been on a cruise or a fishing trip and you do suffer from sea sickness, you will know how debilitating and frustrating it can be. So we will talk a little bit about what medications, natural, compounded and commercial are available and how they work inside the body. So just to give you a bit of a high level oversight, there is an area inside your inner ear that can be the source of the motion issue. And when your brain receives a conflicting message between your eyes and this vestibular area in your inner ear, that is when the nausea, vomiting, and motion sickness symptoms occur. So the mismatch is where the problem comes from, which is generally where these medicines can take effect. So how they help, they really help by calming down the signal and the transmission of that signal from the area that causes the mismatch between your eyes and inner ear. And sometimes those medicines can cause things like drowsiness. Obviously, drowsiness will help calm that transmission of that incorrect signal down. But sometimes the drowsiness is not what you want on a sea sickness trip. So we just recommend that you test out these products before actually going on your day trip or on your cruise so you do not have any problems. There are other products such as antihistamines that can do things like settle the nausea or vomiting that is occurring as well. So what you tend to find is when you have got a product like a compounded medicine that has got two or three ingredients in it, those ingredients can work on three separate pathways to give you a hopefully a better outcome than just being sea sick by yourself on the ocean. The medicines are available from a few sources, so you can get some natural medicines like ginger from naturopaths or vitamin stores. You can also get some other over the counter items like Kwells or Travel Calm from your local pharmacy and talk to your pharmacist about those. And then the third type that I mentioned earlier are the compounded ones, which are generally a three ingredient combination. And you can get these from compounding pharmacies. They make them up specifically for you, and they can work in an effective way if taken correctly. And of course, if they are well suited for you to use. So it is important to know that all medicines have side effects. Sea sickness tablets are no different. So often one of the side effects we are often told by patients that are using them is a drying up of the mouth, and that is mainly because of one of the active ingredients in these products. So be careful of that. Drink plenty of water, stay hydrated. And like I said earlier, the other side effect can often be a bit of drowsiness associated with an antihistamine that might be in the combination. So in short, these products do work by helping your body reduce the frequency of those transmissions, which confuses the brain. And hopefully by doing that, you are going to feel much better out in the ocean. You are going to have a much better day. And hopefully your trip goes according to plan. Thanks for listening.