Have you ever had a long trip, boat ride and/or flight and you felt sick? Or you may be stunned or distracted when traveling in a moving vehicle for a while.
If this is the case, your body has symptoms of motion sickness. Motion sickness is defined as a disorder of the sense of balance. Motion sickness is also known as a complex syndrome that includes several features in addition to nausea and vomiting.
Although medicines exist to treat the symptoms of motion sickness, drowsiness, and other side effects can occur after use. As a result, people are turning to other alternatives like CBD due to its many benefits against nausea and anxiety related to motion sickness.
In this article, we'll discuss how CBD may help with the causes of motion sickness, while referring to scientific articles and studies. If you are curious how to deal with your motion sickness, keep reading...
CBD can potentially be used against motion sickness for many reasons. On the one hand, cannabis and cannabinoids like CBD have different medicinal properties and benefits.
In particular, one of the first recognized therapeutic benefits was treating nausea. Cannabis is also known to limit and/or prevent nausea and vomiting from various causes.
CBD produces antiemetic effects in humans and animals. Additional evidence indicates that manipulation of the endocannabinoid system regulates nausea and vomiting in humans and animals.
So far, however, it has shown an antiemetic effect of CBD in both species. Recent preclinical studies indicate that CBD may be clinically useful in the treatment of nausea and vomiting. For this reason, many others show the benefits of CBD for symptoms of motion sickness such as nausea, vomiting, and associated pain.
What is Motion Sickness?
Motion sickness is an effect caused by changes in the inner ear from repeated vehicle movements, for example, or any other action that interferes with the inner ear.
Some people have nausea and even vomiting while traveling by plane, car, or amusement park. The study, published in PloS one in 2013, suggests that 3D movies can also cause nausea.
This disease is commonly called motion sickness. When we travel by boat or probably by ship, we usually talk about seasickness, but it's the same mess.
Types of Motion Sickness?
There are a few variations of motion sickness to consider.
Air Sickness
If you have traveled by plane recently, you may have felt nauseous or anxious for apparently no reason at all. Well, there is a reason and it has to do with conflicting signals in the brain.
Car Sickness
Some of the most common car sickness symptoms arise when people read or pay attention to still objects while in motion. Nausea and anxiety may result from fixating on moving objects.
Sea Sickness
When traveling by boat or ship for long periods of time, especially while indoors, seasickness is a common problem. Since the vessel is constantly moving while it appears you are stationary, the signal mismatch within you brain triggers a nausea response leading to vomiting.
Vertigo
Vertigo affects many people in the throws of a motion sickness fit. It is an inner ear imbalance that results in dizziness spells and anxiety, similar to other motion sickness symptoms.
What Causes Motion Sickness?
The brain senses movement in various pathways of the nervous system, including the inner ear, eyes, and body surface tissues.
When the body moves deliberately, for example, as it walks, our brains coordinate the entrance of all pathways.
In some cases, Motion sickness symptoms occur when the central nervous system receives conflicting messages from various sensory systems. The inner ear, eyes, skin pressure receptors, and joint receptors are some of these systems.
For example, if someone is sitting in a boat or car (not looking out the window), their inner ear may sense movement, but their eyes remain static as if there is no movement. This creates a conflict between inputs and may be responsible for motion sickness.
Treatment Options for Motion Sickness
To help diagnose this illness, your doctor will ask you about your symptoms and determine the cause of the problem (for example, traveling by boat, plane, or car ride).
Laboratory tests are not usually required to diagnose motion sickness. And always remember to ask your doctor on the best treatment option before venturing into any.
Medical Treatment
If motion sickness occurs regularly, people may seek medical help. In this case, pharmaceutical drugs are offered as a possible treatment method.
Several essential remedies for motion sickness include Marezine, Benadryl, Dramamine, Gravol, Bonine, and Scopolamine. If used, most of these drugs only show drowsiness as side effects.
Therefore, it is not advised to drive a vehicle or operate heavy machinery while taking these medicines.
Alternative Treatment
- Concentrate on the horizon or on a distant object. Do not read while traveling or using electronic devices.
- Keep your head calm while resting the seatbacks.
- Do not smoke or sit near a smoker.
- Avoid strong odors, spicy and oily foods, and alcohol.
- Consider scopolamine, available in the Transderm Scop label. A few hours before planning your trip, apply a patch behind your ear for 72 hours. If you have health problems such as glaucoma or urinary retention, talk to your doctor before using the medication.
- Try ginger. Ginger supplementation, in combination with ginger, ginger allele, or candied ginger, can help reduce nausea.
- Eat a little. Some people find snacks baking cakes and drinking cold water or caffeinated soda.
CBD Treatment
In general, CBD may treat many debilitating conditions that cause nausea and vomiting, including motion sickness.
In many cases, the symptoms of motion sickness stop when the movement that created it also stops. However, some people feel lasting symptoms even a few days after the onset.
Instead of taking pharmaceutical drugs that cause drowsiness, CBD can be used because of its many medicinal properties. CBD is multifunctional because CBD can treat motion sickness symptoms while also offer pain and anxiety relief.
How CBD Can Treat Motion Sickness Symptoms
Several symptoms of motion sickness are vertigo, poor balance, vomiting, sweating, anxiety, dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, headache/migraine pain.
Evidence from animal experiments suggests the general utility of CBD and other cannabinoids. Evidence shows that CBD may be useful in treating the most severe symptoms of nausea and anticipatory nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
In a limited dose range, CBD has been found to suppress nausea and vomiting. Also, at low doses, CBD reduces nausea-related behavior without affecting measurements of motor activity.
As an alternative method, many people consume CBD because of their research into the symptoms of dizziness. Further research has shown that CBD can block both acute and late vomiting.
Also, CBD can reduce conditioned reactions due to conditioned nausea. However, CBD has other benefits over motion sickness symptoms. For example, one study focused on participants with movements that used cannabinoids to treat symptoms.
CB1 receptor expression was found to be decreased in participants with impaired mobility compared with those not affected by motility.
On the same note, some people feel anxiety when motion sick. CBD is not only a natural pain reliever, but CBD can treat motion sickness symptoms such as migraines and general headaches.
CBD is a natural painkiller for motion sickness and serves as an analgesic for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). A clinical trial was conducted in participants with CINV. Participants consumed herbal medicine containing cannabidiol. The CBD drug was found to be well tolerated whle also offering greater protection against CINV.
What's the CBD Dosage for Motion Sickness?
Based on widespread anecdotal evidence only, the standard CBD dosage recommendation may depend on your body weight. Start with 1 to 6 mg for every 10 pounds of body weight.
We've built a calculator for you so that you can find the lowest starting dose for your body weight below:
The above dosage recommendation is general and merely a suggestion. Your case may differ in that you may need a lot more, while others may need a lot less. Please consult with your physician before supplementing your treatment with CBD.
FINAL THOUGHTS
For those interested in the natural methods of treating motion sickness, there are some options available. For example, ginger, mint essential oil, breathing techniques, and cannabidiol (CBD) are all options.
However, CBD has become a viable treatment method due to its anti-nausea and antiemetic properties.
Next trip by car, cruise ship and/or flight, consider using CBD to avoid the symptoms of motion sickness and/or eliminate them alongside.