How to avoid travel sickness

When you’re about to go on your dream holiday the last thing you want is to suffer from travel sickness. Travel sickness, also known as motion sickness, is a general term that relates to seasickness, carsickness and airsickness depending on the mode of travel. It makes you feel unwell and can cause dizziness, nausea and vomiting.

In the majority of cases the symptoms of travel sickness subside as the body adapts to the motions that cause the problem. Unfortunately, some sufferers are unable to adapt to the environment so will continue to experience symptoms until their journey finishes or they leave said environment.

Depending on how you are travelling there are a variety of medicines you can take such as tablets, liquids or patches,  you can find a range of treatments here. If you are taking liquid or tablets it’s recommended to take them before you start travelling so your body has time to absorb the medicine. It can also be difficult to take the tablets once travel sickness has started.

Hyoscine is a popular medicine used to treat travel sickness. It comes in both tablet form and as an external patch. The patches are best if you are going on a longer journey, with the patch lasting up to 3 days. Hyoscine works by blocking some of the nerve signals sent from the vestibular system to the brain. 

Antihistamines can also be used to treat travel sickness as they are effective at controlling the symptoms of nausea and vomiting. There are several different types of Antihistamines that are suitable in the treatment of motion sickness, these include – Cyclizine, Cinnarizine (Stugeron Tablets), Promethazine (Phenergan Tablets and Liquid, Avomine Tablets) Its best to take Antihistamines two hours before travelling. 

If travelling by boat you could try a sea band, these bands are worn around the wrist. They work by applying pressure to points that lie between the tendons in your arm, the pressure is thought to reduce symptoms of travel sickness.

I recommend to try different types of medicines to see what works best for you, there’s nothing worse than being stuck on a long journey and feeling under the weather. If you start your trip right then the rest of the trip will continue to be great.