Ginger & Motion Sickness

In a couple weeks I am going on a trip to Antarctica! (Really I am!) To travel there we take a cruise boat from the tip of Argentina to Antarctica through the Drake Channel. They tell us it will be very rocky and that we should prepare for motion sickness. I am getting ready to bring the patch (transderm-scop) that you wear behind your ear (a pharmaceutical drug). However, I had a memory of something I used for motion sickness once before.

Before my "vitamin" days, I was in Australia on a boat on the Great Barrier Reef and we were all seasick. Someone handed me a ginger pill and I instantly felt so much better.

After doing some research I found that ginger has historically been used to help prevent motion sickness. One study in Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology found that ginger "helps prevent the development of gastric dysrhythmias and the elevation of plasma vasopressin." A number of other studies also recommend 1 g of ginger for motion sickness.

It all makes sense to me now that growing up when I was nauseous my parents would tell me to drink Ginger Ale! Taking ginger tablets, however, is a much more potent and pure form. I'm definitely going to try this natural route on my trip!