One in three people experience it at least once in their life.
Only newborns and very old people hardly ever suffer from it. On the other hand, the younger and fatter you are, the greater the risk. An even greater risk if you are a woman.
The car is not the worst form of transport, however. It causes only 3 to 5% of patients against 5 to 10% for the plane, 25 to 30 for the boat and the top of the malaise, more than 50% of nausea in Soyuz or the American shuttle.
To never be sick, you have to choose the train, or better, the horse, which does not cause any discomfort, unlike the back of a camel or an elephant … Go figure!
Finally, know that humans are not the only ones to suffer from motion sickness. Cat, dog, horse, cow, but also, what is more comical, the fish, which in an aquarium, on a boat, suffers from seasickness.
You are reassured but not cured. Especially since we do not know the causes.
What to do ? Well first of all, don’t wait too long to offer a stop and a little air, because motion sickness evolves in several phases: first feeling unwell, nausea, then vomiting, finally prostration, even fainting.
Then there are small ways:
– lie down to reduce as much as possible the movements that will trigger motion sickness,
– eat before the trip so as not to have an empty stomach,
– drink sweetened from time to time during the journey,
– finally, try to control your breathing by breathing and exhaling deeply.
Among the medicines, we must mention homeopathy, which gives good results but can be treated before, during and after the trip; in fact, real psychotherapy.
But as a former offshore racing doctor, I could not tell you better than this advice I give each time I am told about seasickness: to avoid being sick in a boat, the best way is to lie down. … under an apple tree!
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