What is it within the body that causes seasickness? What can a person do to prevent it?
The results we got by searching on “seasickness” were not very helpful, so we shifted strategies and began browsing Yahoo!’s Health Reference category. MyHealtheon*, a consumer health resource, defines seasickness as a form of motion sickness — the movement of a boat on a fluid sea “disturbs the organs of balance located in the inner ear. Symptoms are nausea and vomiting, dizziness, headache, pallor and cold perspiration.” They go on to advise that seasickness may be prevented by eating lightly, avoiding fatty and spicy foods, or by staying in fresh air instead of in a stuffy cabin. There we also learned about herbal remedies recommended for treating seasickness, including cayenne pepper, ground pumpkin seed, and ginger to combat nausea. We visited Healthfinder, a guide to reliable online consumer health information developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We typed “mo
