Sea sickness

Any ideas for keeping queeziness at bay without taking tablets? Ive heard ginger is good but in what form?

I use ginger biscuits if needed but I rarely suffer from it but if I do they seem to work ok for me.

My uncle's father-in-law was a North Sea fisherman.

He recommended port and brandy!

Tastes good and works-1 have never been seasick

I take crystallised ginger with me. I have a little in the car on the way to the port and maybe some the next day. No problems yet.

Thanks for the advice. The port and brandy sounds good and if I drink enough of it I’m sure it would at least take my mind off the sea sickness! I’ve been looking into the ginger option and Holland & Barratt sell a chewy ginger sweet which looks quite good for nausea and motion sickness.

I take crystallised ginger with me. I have a little in the car on the way to the port and maybe some the next day. No problems yet.

Yes, this is the sort of stuff that is good. Holland and Barrett do it including mail order. It comes in pre-packed bags of random lumps which you chew a bit then swallow as quickly or slowly as you prefer. They are sugar coated and this takes a fair bit of the strong taste off it. It is significantly more concentrated and more effective than ginger nut biscuits.

Regards John

The trick seems to be prevent it before it starts if you possibly can. Things like lots bending over can precipitate motion sickness as can an empty stomach. Therefore avoid these at all costs and if you begin to feel queasy the crew often tell you to eat a green apple.

Happy cruisingx

Any ideas for keeping queeziness at bay without taking tablets? Ive heard ginger is good but in what form?

Unless you have a medical condition that prevents it, I would take Stugeron tablets and be done with it. There are a lot of old wives tales and things that may provide some people with a Placebo effect, but if you are genuinely susceptible to sea sickness you will need a tablet or injection and resisting that can ruin a few days of a hard earned holiday. We tried a number of things to no avail before landing on Stugeron thanks to advice gained from this forum. Take 2 as you leave Southampton and then just one as you wake up and one as you go to bed until the risk of bad weather has passed. They have been transformative for us. We were in a force 11 (one down from hurricane) a couple of weeks ago and felt absolutely fine. A lot of people weren’t, probably because they were relying on some of the more imaginative solutions!

As per previous post I also suffered for years before I discovered Sturgeon (also thanks to this forum). So pleased I did. One tiny little tablet in the morning is all I need. I used to force myself to sit in the lobby all day without being able to go to the cabin which was not very practical. But otherwise I would recommend eating some dry biscuits or something before getting out of bed to try to make sure you don’t walk around the cabin with an empty stomach first thing and trigger it.

Ginger works for many people. There is a fair bit of medical literature on the subject, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4818021/

Sea-bands are a wrist band that have a stud. When worn properly the stud applies pressure to a particular point in the wrist area. It has been clinically proven.

Reliefband is an electronic version of wrist band it too has been clinically proven effective.

I always take Sea Bands just incase I feel sick - never had to use them until our last cruise when we hit the side of a hurricane. I thought I would give them a try as didn't want to go down the meds route.....they were amazing!! I felt so much better. I knew they were working because as soon as I took them off to have a shower I started to feel queasy again - put them straight back on and hey presto!

If you take some medicines you can find that ginger can interact with them. An example is Warfarin which reduces blood clotting, ginger also reduces blood clotting so if you use ginger and take Warfarin you can find that you bleed or bruise very easily and in extreme cases you may need medical assistance to stop the bleeding. We discovered this when hubby was on Warfarin following heart surgery and cut himself, we had to go to A&E because he was bleeding so badly, one of the questions they asked was whether he had eaten ginger, which he had because we had just come off a bad ferry crossing from France. An overnight stay in hospital for him and in a hotel for me in Dover had had ensured that he does no longer uss ginger for motion sickness.

All great advice, thank you. Although I have never actually been sick, there have been times when I feel quite nauseous. I find the cabin and especially the bathroom are the worst places to be for making me feel that way. Do you think you are better to lie down or keep moving around in this situation?

All great advice, thank you. Although I have never actually been sick, there have been times when I feel quite nauseous. I find the cabin and especially the bathroom are the worst places to be for making me feel that way. Do you think you are better to lie down or keep moving around in this situation?

Seasickness is caused by your body and inner senses being different to what you see as everything moves about. Your eyes do not see the movement as being the same as your body's senses perceive it. Lying down with your eyes shut you sense movement and your eyes see nothing so this is good, no discrepancy exists.

If you stand inside on a ship you sense movement but the walls and everything do not appear to move. The floor stays at right angles to the walls. This feeling of movement is particularly apparent in small confined spaces such as a bathroom or shower. Your feelings are that everything is moving about but your eyes do not see it.

Classic advice is to stand on open decks staring at the horizon. This also adds in the benefit of fresh air which is nice. What you do not want are unappealing fumes or any other stimulus that will cause you to feel ill. Bifocal glasses or anything to affect eye sight are another problem in my experience. Psychology also helps, confident we are not going to make a scene by vomiting all over the place. Newcomers hear about seasickness and suddenly think it will be a major problem to them despite never being sick on any other form of transport, fairground equipment etc. So best not to over think things and tell everyone around you that it may affect them.

Regards John

All great advice, thank you. Although I have never actually been sick, there have been times when I feel quite nauseous. I find the cabin and especially the bathroom are the worst places to be for making me feel that way. Do you think you are better to lie down or keep moving around in this situation?

Personally I prefer to keep moving.

But I am in the Stugeron camp if we are warned of bad weather I take them as directed until the weather passes. We were in a force 11 coming back from Alto in Norway last March and again crossing the Bay of Biscay last June and both times were fine. I also always like a blast of fresh air, sometimes if it is really rough a lot of the external doors are closed off for safety reason and I have restored to the smoking area (if its that bad there are very few smokers around) as I find a blast of fresh air works for me.

Please don't let the thought of sea sickness put you off cruising.

My first cruise I missed the first two days and a day on the return journey. It started 9.30 on the first night, more a feeling of dizziness which I put down to fatigue as I had been up since 4.30 in the morning.

I went to bed and totally missed the first day, then got up to go to the medical centre half way through the second day (which was a waste of time). I was the talk of the ship, or at least it felt like it. The sickness went away fairly quickly, but the light headedness persisted. I took the tablets for over a week, then didn't one night but the next day my head felt fuzzy again. So I kept on with them.

On the way back we had a rough day at sea so I took another tablet and ended up in bed for a few hours. In spite of all this I had a great holiday and have been on two more and going again in June.

I now take one tablet just before bedtime, for two nights before we go and one as the coach pulls up to the ship. Then that has been it for the rest of the holiday. As already said stop it before it starts, it seems to work.

Enjoy your holiday.

travel wrist bands work wonders they work on presure points in you're wrist just search boots adult travel bands.

they help us when we get back with the swaying you end up with when you get of the ship also work on sea sickness my parents swear by them I don't tend to use them I just lay down on sunbed going down length of the ship or on a bed in the cabin only need to do for about 20 minutes.

the wrist bands work I used them traveling through a particular bad trip through Biscay and they worked wonders.

Stugeron makes me feel awful. very sleepy and out of it. I'll stick with the ginger!

Stugeron is wonderful. I have suffered from motion sickness all my life - cars being the worst - and was really concerned that, having persuaded my husband that I really wanted to cruise for our 40th wedding anniversary, I would spend the entire holiday being ill. I took one Stugeron for the car journey to Southampton then another on the first cruise morning and was absolutely fine. Only repeated the dose if the Captain intimated that there would be choppy seas coming up. Absolutely no sickness although I believe some passengers were poorly. I took another for the car journey home. I have taken various tablets over the years but Stugeron are the only ones that did not make me sleepy. Have to say sleepy is preferable to sickness!

Stugeron makes me feel awful. very sleepy and out of it. I'll stick with the ginger!

Stugeron's active ingredient is cinnarizine and one of the known side effects is drowsiness.

An alternative is Avomine where the active ingredient is promethazine teoclate and although it also warns of drowsiness as a possible side effect it may be worth trying just to see if that also affects you. My wife who suffers very badly from travel sickness in the mildest of situations uses them and even in very bouncy seas doesn't notice anything and also hasn't experienced any drowsiness.

Avomine is far harder to obtain in the UK than Stugeron but Lloyds Pharmacy's own brand travel sickness tablets are a generic versions using promethazine teoclate.

 

Avomine is far harder to obtain in the UK than Stugeron but Lloyds Pharmacy's own brand travel sickness tablets are a generic versions using promethazine teoclate.

Avomine is sold online by Chemist Direct and Superdrug, both reputable companies. I started using it (recommended by a pharmacist friend) when 'Sealegs' was discontinued, and they work.

Avomine are sold on P&O ships.

I've always used patches but on our last cruise I had some avomine and found they worked well and didn't make me too drowsy. At least I don't think they did. I have to admit I always sleep a lot when on board!:):)

Avomine is sold in our local Boots.

Its better if you take the tablets on a night.

When we have cruised on ships with lots of Americans on board, we have noticed that they had a small round plaster behind their ear to stop seasickness.

Has anyone tried these, and can we get them in the UK?