Another, more recent, theory suggests it may have to do with our inability to maintain a stable posture in a moving environment.Ĭommon and well-accepted modern remedies for motion sickness include keeping your eyes on the horizon, choosing your seat wisely (front or driver’s seat in a car, center of a boat, over the wings on a plane), avoiding alcohol and fatty foods, and taking medications such as Dramamine or scopolamine.īut these are rarely complete cures. One theory, from the 1970s, suggests nausea and vomiting is an evolutionary adaptation to the body-eyes signal mismatch, as this could historically have been caused by reactions to eating toxic plants. But why, exactly, this causes nausea is not clear. Most experts think it has something to do with a confusion between the signals received by the body (we’re moving!) and the ones received by the eyes (the seat in front of me is stable-we’re not moving!). Immigrants on the journey to the Americas over the centuries were known to occasionally die of seasickness-induced dehydration, as did babies whose seasick mothers could no longer produce enough milk.ĭespite its commonness, motion sickness is not well understood. When Napoleon launched a camel corps during his campaign in Egypt, some soldiers would become so sick from the animals’ swaying motion they couldn’t fight. Caesar wrote of how some of his troops, swept to Greek shores by stormy seas, were too exhausted to fight and were executed. Though motion sickness is mainly a nuisance today, in the past it actually could have serious ramifications. Their cures included sniffing fragrant herbs like thyme and mint, rubbing ground wormwood in the nostrils, eating rose petals boiled in wine, or simply fasting before a voyage. Early Greeks and Romans also recognized seasickness and noted that professional sailors were relatively immune. Later Chinese medical texts recommend praying to the goddess of sailors or bringing a bit of dirt from your kitchen floor along on a sea journey, for protection. ![]() The Yuan Dynasty physician Zhu Danxi suggested drinking the urine of young boys as a remedy. Ancient Chinese texts speak of seasickness as well as “cart sickness”-motion sickness caused by riding in a horse-drawn cart-and “litter sickness,” caused by riding in a sedan chair. The Boarding Glasses are the latest in a series of anti-motion sickness innovations going back thousands of years. There is also a special limited edition pair being developed for the Citroen auto company. The €90 ($106) glasses are now in pre-order and will ship in December. Father and son now run the company together, with father handling innovation and son handling business. Hubert Jeannin patented his innovation in 2004 and tested the Boarding Glasses prototypes with the French navy, and, although the exact results are confidential, his son says it was extremely successful-some 95 percent of users found the glasses helpful within 10 minutes. The glasses were invented by Jeannin’s father, Hubert, who spent a career working in optics before dedicating himself to the problem of motion sickness. Usually this cures you of nausea for the rest of the journey, Jeannin says. You put the glasses on at the first sign of sickness, leave them on for 10 or 12 minutes, and then take them off. “Your eyes always get the reality of the movement and get a signal that is consistent with the balance system perception,” Jeannin says. With the Boarding Glasses, the liquid moves with the movement of the boat or vehicle, creating an artificial horizon. “Motion sickness comes from a sense of conflict between what your eyes can see and what your balance system and your inner ears can feel,” says Antoine Jeannin, CEO of Boarding Ring, the company that makes the glasses. The Boarding Glasses look like swim goggles for some four-eyed alien species, with two round lenses in front and two on the side, the hollow rims each half filled with blue liquid. Recently, a French company has begun selling a pair of glasses it says can reduce motion sickness in 95 percent of cases. ![]() Many people become less susceptible with age, while others (hello) become more. Women report more and worse sickness, as do migraine sufferers. ![]() ![]() Almost everyone is susceptible to some degree-about 5 percent of us are severely affected, while another 5 percent are relatively immune. Reading in a car on a winding road? Not unless you want to see what I had for breakfast.Īs a sufferer of motion sickness, I’m not alone. These days, simply sitting on a park swing makes me queasy. A full day of loop-de-loop roller coasters at a nearby amusement park was the highlight of the summer. As a kid, I could read for hours in the back of a car zigzagging through the mountains, no problem.
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