Motion Sickness

Overview of Motion Sickness

It is also term as a travel sickness. It is also referred to as Sea sickness when travelling by a boat or ship. This condition develops when the central nervous system receives conflicting messages from the sensory systems, i.e.- inner ear, eyes and skin pressure receptors.

For example – when you are sitting inside a car without looking out the window, then the inner ear sense up, down, left and right movement while the eyes have a static view.[1]

Demography

The prevalence of motion sickness among Tibetans and Northeast Indians (28%) was slightly higher than Northwest Indians (26%).

Generally speaking, females (27.3%) were more susceptible than males (16.8%). Among different groups, the highest incidence of susceptibility to motion sickness (SMS) was recorded in schizophrenic patients (30%), while the lowest in rowers (zero percent).

The roadway buses and trucks proved more effective passive transportation types that caused sickness. The voluntary stabilization of the head and neck movements and gaze control proved very effective natural measures adopted by 38% subjects to avoid or limit motion sickness. [2][1]

Indian epidemiology then other

Causes of Motion Sickness

The pathogenesis of motion sickness is not clearly understood, but it is thought to be related to conflict between the vestibular, visual, and other proprioceptive system.

Rotatory, vertical and Low frequency motions Produces more symptoms than linear, Horizontal and High frequency motion.[3]

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Risk factors are things that make you more likely to develop a disease in the first place.

Pathogenesis refers to the development of a disease. It’s the story of how a disease gets started and progresses.

This is the entire journey of a disease, encompassing the cause but going beyond it.

Pathophysiology, on the other hand, focuses on the functional changes that occur in the body due to the disease. It explains how the disease disrupts normal physiological processes and how this disruption leads to the signs and symptoms we see.

Imagine a car accident. Pathogenesis would be like understanding how the accident happened – what caused it, the sequence of events (e.g., one car ran a red light, then hit another car). Pathophysiology would be like understanding the damage caused by the accident – the bent fenders, deployed airbags, and any injuries to the passengers.

In simpler terms, pathogenesis is about the "why" of a disease, while pathophysiology is about the "how" of the disease’s effects.

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Sign & Symptoms of Motion Sickness

• Nausea may be the first recognized symptom of motion sickness. It is almost always preceded by other subtle symptoms such as Stomach awareness (i.e., a sensation of fullness in the epigastrium)
• Malaise
• Drowsiness
• Irritability
• Retching or vomiting
• Cold sweats
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Fatigue
• Yawning
• Hyperventilation
• Salivation
• Fainting
• Pallor

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Diagnosis of Motion Sickness:

• Morning sickness is typically diagnosed based on your signs and symptoms.
• If your health care provider suspects hyperemesis gravidarum, you may need a clinical exam and various urine and blood tests.

Differential Diagnosis of Motion Sickness

• Gastrointestinal disorders
• Pyelonephritis
• Uraemia
• Migraine headaches
• Acute fatty liver of pregnancy
• Drug toxicity or intolerance
• Kidney stones [5]

Complications are what happen after you have a disease. They are the negative consequences of the disease process.

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Treatment of Motion Sickness

Motion sickness can be self-diagnosed and the treatment consist mostly of preventive measures i.e., physical exercises and some natural and home remedies.

However, in case of extreme condition where the motion sickness cannot be controlled by preventive measures there are also some medications that can be used.

Some of the most common and effective medications used to treat motion sickness are

• Scopolamine
• Promethazine
• Cyclizine
• Dimenhydrinate
• Meclizine [3]

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Homeopathic Treatment of Motion Sickness

Homeopathy treats the person as a whole. It means that homeopathic treatment focuses on the patient as a person, as well as his pathological condition. The homeopathic medicines selected after a full individualizing examination and case-analysis.

which includes

• The medical history of the patient,
• Physical and mental constitution,
• Family history,
• Presenting symptoms,
• Underlying pathology,
• Possible causative factors etc.

A miasmatic tendency (predisposition/susceptibility) also often taken into account for the treatment of chronic conditions.

What Homoeopathic doctors do?

A homeopathy doctor tries to treat more than just the presenting symptoms. The focus is usually on what caused the disease condition? Why ‘this patient’ is sick ‘this way’?.

The disease diagnosis is important but in homeopathy, the cause of disease not just probed to the level of bacteria and viruses. Other factors like mental, emotional and physical stress that could predispose a person to illness also looked for. No a days, even modern medicine also considers a large number of diseases as psychosomatic. The correct homeopathy remedy tries to correct this disease predisposition.

The focus is not on curing the disease but to cure the person who is sick, to restore the health. If a disease pathology not very advanced, homeopathy remedies do give a hope for cure but even in incurable cases, the quality of life can greatly improved with homeopathic medicines.

Homeopathic Medicines for Motion Sickness:

The homeopathic remedies (medicines) given below indicate the therapeutic affinity but this is not a complete and definite guide to the homeopathy treatment of this condition. The symptoms listed against each homeopathic remedy may not be directly related to this disease because in homeopathy general symptoms and constitutional indications also taken into account for selecting a remedy.

Homeopathy Approach

Homeopathy treats the person as a whole. It means that homeopathic treatment focuses on the patient as a person, as well as his pathological condition. The homeopathic medicines are selected after a full individualizing examination and case-analysis, which includes the medical history of the patient, physical and mental constitution, family history, presenting symptoms, underlying pathology, possible causative factors etc.

A miasmatic tendency (predisposition/susceptibility) is also often taken into account for the treatment of chronic conditions. A homeopathy doctor tries to treat more than just the presenting symptoms. The focus is usually on what caused the disease condition? Why ‘this patient’ is sick ‘this way’.

The disease diagnosis is important but in homeopathy, the cause of disease is not just probed to the level of bacteria and viruses. Other factors like mental, emotional and physical stress that could predispose a person to illness are also looked for. No a days, even modern medicine also considers a large number of diseases as psychosomatic. The correct homeopathy remedy tries to correct this disease predisposition.

The focus is not on curing the disease but to cure the person who is sick, to restore the health. If a disease pathology is not very advanced, homeopathy remedies do give a hope for cure but even in incurable cases, the quality of life can be greatly improved with homeopathic medicines.

The homeopathic remedies (medicines) given below indicate the therapeutic affinity but this is not a complete and definite guide to the homeopathy treatment of this condition. The symptoms listed against each homeopathic remedy may not be directly related to this disease because in homeopathy general symptoms and constitutional indications are also taken into account for selecting a remedy.

Medicines:

Borax

• Dread of downward motion. Sensitive to sudden noises.
• Vertigo, with fullness in the head, especially when going upstairs, or to any elevation whatsoever.
• Headache, with nausea and inclination to vomit, especially at 10 am.
• Pain in the hypochondria mostly pressive and in the left side, especially when riding in a carriage.
• Aches, with nausea and trembling of whole body.
• Worse – downward motion, noise, warm weather. Better – pressure, evening, cold weather.[4]

Cocculus

• Nausea from riding in cars, boats etc or looking at boat in motion.
• Faintness and vomiting. Metallic taste in mouth. Hungry but the thought and smell of food nauseates.
• Vertigo and nausea, especially when riding or sitting up. Sick headache with extreme nausea rising into head, retching and vomiting.
• Vertigo, whirling dizziness especially when lifting head. Cannot accommodate eyes to moving objects – may lose consciousness.
• Weakness in whole body forces to lie down. Worse open air, but seasickness better in fresh cold air.
• Worse – motion, eating, noise, jar, sun, warmth of bed. Better – in a room, sitting ameliorates some symptoms.

Lycopodium

• Loss of appetite. Mouth clammy or bitter, especially in morning, often with nausea.
• Nausea in pharynx and stomach. Nausea in morning and when riding in a carriage.
• Nausea when in a room, which disappears in open air, and vice versa.
• Tension round hypochondria, as from pressure of a hoop. Pressure and tension in liver. Pain in liver as from a blow, Worse by touch.
• Whirling vertigo, especially when stooping or in a warm room, with inclination to vomit. Stupefying headache, with heat in temples and ears, dryness of mouth and lips.
• Worse – 4pm-8pm, right side, from heat or a warm room. Better – warm food and drink, on getting cold, from being uncovered.[4]

Nux Vomica

• Pale or yellowish colour of skin.
• Vertigo with sensation of revolving and of wavering of the brain, principally during or after a meal, as well as when walking and exercising in open air.
• Better wrapping head up in a warm room. Headache in the sunshine.
• Retching and violent vomiting of mucous and sour matter, or of food or bile, often with headache, cramps in legs and feet, anxiety and trembling of limbs.
• Stitches in region of liver, worse from touch or motion. Nausea and bearing down spasmodic pains leading to ineffectual desire to stool.
• Worse – morning, after eating, spices, stimulants, dry weather, cold. Better – in evening, while at rest, damp wet weather.[4]

Petroleum

• Frequent vertigo, especially on raising eyes, stooping, rising from bed or a seat.
• Occipital headache, with nausea, especially in sea-sickness. Repugnance to meat and fat, worse after eating cabbage.
• Frequent nausea, especially in morning, often with accumulation of saliva in mouth, obstructed respiration, sour risings, tongue dry and white, stitches in hepatic region, heat in face, vertigo.[4]

Sepia

• Skin yellow, like jaundice. Vertigo, with sensation of something rolling around in head.
• Feeling of "gone ness" in stomach, not relieved by eating. Nausea at smell or sight of food.
• Everything tastes too salty. Nausea in morning before eating.
• Burning in pit of stomach. Worse after milk. Loathes fat.
• Liver sore and painful, relieved by lying on right side. Flashes of heat with perspiration and faintness. Very weak, faints easily after travel.
• Worse – forenoon and evening, dampness, cold air, after sweat. Better – pressure, warmth of bed, drawing limbs up, cold bathing.

Sulphur

• Beating headache, worse stooping and with vertigo.
• Sick headache recurring periodically. Putrid eructation. Milk disagrees. Great desire for sweets.
• Very weak and faint about 11 am, must have something to eat.
• Nausea, which sometimes induces fainting, with trembling, weakness and frequent eructation.
• Painful sensibility of hypochondria, pressure of clothes disagreeable.
• Worse – at rest, when standing, 11 am, periodically. Better – dry warm weather, lying on right side.[4]

Tabacum

• Emptiness and confusion in the head.
• Dizziness, vertigo which often produces loss of consciousness, nausea, worse indoors, better in open air. Great thirst, worse at night.
• Frequent nausea during movement, often inducing syncope, with deathly paleness of face.
• Seasickness, nausea with inclination to vomit, sensation of coldness in stomach, or pinching in abdomen.
• Vomiting of water only. Deathly nausea, with vertigo, in paroxysms, body covered with cold sweat.
• Worse – opening eyes, evening. Better – open fresh air, uncovering.

Theridion

• Vertigo, with nausea and vomiting on least motion, particularly when closing eyes. Sensitive to light.
• Stinging pain on left side over anterior aspect of spleen. Burning in liver region.
• Cardiac anxiety and pain. Worse – touch, pressure, on shipboard, closing eyes, jar, noise.[4]

Diet & Regimen of Motion Sickness

• Stay well hydrated during traveling
• Avoid taking Excessive food before traveling
• Avoid alcoholic drinks
• Consumption of low-fat, light, soft, bland and Low-acid food can minimize the symptoms
• Voluntary stabilization of the head and neck movements
• Gaze control
• Avoid close visual task
• Rest with eyes closed while traveling
• Continuous exposure to motion can reduce symptoms focusing on the true horizon (skyline) minimized symptoms of motion sickness.[2][3]

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References use for Article Motion Sickness

[1] https://www.nap.edu/read/4761/chapter/10

[2] https://www.lybrate.com/topic/motion-sickness

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9492893

[4] Therapeutics from Zomeo Ultimate LAN

[5] https://www.aafp.org/afp/2003/0701/p121.html

[6]  https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/morning-sickness/diagnosis-treatment/drc-2037526

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Motion Sickness?

Motion Sickness is a very common balance disorder especially among young children. It is condition of the inner ear where repeated motion caused by a vehicle or any other movements disturbs the inner ear.

Homeopathic Medicines used by Homeopathic Doctors in treatment of Motion Sickness?

• Borax
• Cocculus
• Lycopodium
• Nux Vomica
• Petroleum
• Sepia

What causes Motion Sickness?

The pathogenesis of motion sickness is not clearly understood, but it is thought to be related to conflict between the vestibular, visual, and other proprioceptive system.

What are the symptoms of Motion Sickness?

• Nausea
• Malaise
• Drowsiness
• Irritability
• Retching or vomiting
• Cold sweats
• Dizziness