Question:
I need to know ( and I'm sure someone asks once a week), what is the best
thing for motion sickness? I have read that Ginger Root is good. Is that the
grocery store version? Or do I need to do some kinda ritual dance with a
ginger root in my cheek?
Answer:
You can get ginger in capsule form at the health food store. Though we
personally do not get seasick (thank goodness) we ALWAYS carry some of these
with us, and they have helped many a green companion on our diving trips.
The nice thing about the capsules is that they are concentrated. You would
have to eat a pound of ginger for the same results.
Now that the scopolamine patch is back on the market, I'd strongly suggest
she try that before staking your next vacation on ginger treatments. The
patch is a prescription drug. If you want over the counter, try the "less
drowsy" formula of Dramamine.
Ginger? Well, I'd avoid ginger-based dietary supplements. Try taking a box of
ginger snaps with you on the boat. Drinking ginger tea at breakfast before the
dive. Ginger ale and ginger snaps during your surface intervals.
Remember this, too. A lot of sea sickness is visual. When you see your
partner waving up and down and up and down and up and ----- uuuurrp! ¡®Scuse
me. When you see all these thing bobbing up and down your equilibrium goes
haywire. Look at something in the distance, another boat, a buoy or the
horizon. If you're on a boat and talking to9 someone and they, annoyingly,
look past your shoulder while they speak to you, you can bet they're watching
the horizon and fighting another wave of mal-de-mer.
Interestingly, my Chinese lady friend, works on a research ship six months
out of the year. (Only someone gone that much, can stand me!!!) The only
thing that works for her are prescription drugs that make her dopey. So, she
goes without and suffers. Thank god, I don't have to be around her when she
has PMS, too!
