InDepth, Seasickness
Index
Antiseasickness Product Hurl-off, Introduction
Antiseasickness Product Hurl-off, Survey Winner
Antiseasickness Product Hurl-off, Our Drug of Choice
Antiseasickness Product Hurl-off, Introduction
Despite my somewhat opinionated tone in many of the articles on this site, there are very few things I feel that I’m really the absolute ultimate authority on. The exception is seasickness. Thirty-five years of blowing my dinner during the first 24 hours of almost every offshore passage gives me the right, I feel, to set up as an authority—sort of the king of puke, if you like.
Over the years I have tried just about every remedy for mal de mer from ginger to scopolamine. As far as the drugs are concerned, I have come to the conclusion that, at least for me, the remedy is worse than the illness due to the side effects. In fact, after a recent experience where I watched a normally competent crew member turn into a non-responsive and potentially dangerous zombie, we have banned the scopolamine (Transderm) patch from Morgan’s Cloud. (We do still carry Gravol in both pill and suppository form.)
I have had some success with wrist pressure point bands. They certainly don’t stop the problem completely, but they do take the edge off my nausea, hasten my recovery, and all without side effects. So, when I heard about the ReliefBand I reasoned that something that zapped the same point as the bands might work even better.
My real-world testing took place our first night out on a recent passage from Beaufort, North Carolina, to Bermuda, as Morgan’s Cloud gleefully close reached at over eight knots in 18 to 22 knots of true wind and a short, confused Gulfstream sea—perfect conditions for scientific study.
I donned the ReliefBand well before I felt sick, following the instructions carefully, which state that you must keep the band in contact with your wrist in such a way that you constantly feel the tingle of the shocks.
First off, I found that it was extremely difficult to keep the electrodes in the proscribed position on my wrist when active. Worse still, even when I was not active and had full contact all the time, I found that the ReliefBand had no effect, even though I could feel it merrily zapping me as I hung over the rail calling for my old buddy Ralf a record three times in an hour. Not only did the ReliefBand not help, I think, based on years of experience monitoring myself in these circumstances, that I was sicker than without it.
After three hours—never let it be said that we at Attainable Adventure Cruising don’t go the extra mile (or hurl) for you, our readers—I removed the ReliefBand, donned my trusty wrist bands and immediately felt better.
Reader comment:
I used the ReliefBand and had a very similar experience to John. It just isn’t practical to keep your wrist in the perfect limp-wristed, band-zapping position and even when it is properly positioned the effects were naught for me.
I found the best relief from Zofran (http://www.drugs.com/zofran.html) which I recently used in wafer form. It didn’t completely stop my vomiting (I seem to do it for 3 to 4 days which is annoyingly long) but the vomiting was reduced and I felt better while doing it. I noticed no side effects from the drug.
I’ve tried Compazine and the patch, but they aren’t strong enough for my degree of mal de mer. Zofran is the best so far.
Our response:
Readers should note that Zofran is a powerful, and expensive, prescription drug that is not specifically approved for seasickness.
We strongly recommend that before you use any drug like this at sea, that you research it carefully on the internet, have an in-depth talk with your doctor, and try it for a couple of days on dry land in case you react badly to it.
Having said all that, there are plenty of endorsements of Zofran for seasickness including this one from a source we respect: http://www.mahina.com/seasick.html.
Reader comment:
During a six-year circumnavigation on Danza I found Sturgeron to be the best of the drugs with the least side effects. For me it worked even if mal de mer had crept up unexpectedly. Equally important I found eating bland food helpful. I always have a good bland meal before heading out. Prior to a passage we always make ‘passage food’—something bland like boiled potatoes and carrots, rice, or mac-n-cheese—so eating when down and out was not a chore. I always eat something immediately after throwing up as it seems to calm the internal seas. It works for me. It takes time and some experimenting to find what works for you but passages are better when you get it right.
Our response:
We agree that it's
better to eat immediately after being sick but we both find we feel worse
if we eat bland foods. Our foods of choice are savoury and highly textured
foods: curries, tasty stews, spicy tempeh casseroles, etc. More proof that
we are all unique!
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Antiseasickness Product Hurl-off, Survey Winner
In our informal survey our readers overwhelmingly voted for Stugeron as their remedy of choice for seasickness. The following comment from Attainable Adventure Cruising correspondent, Colin Speedie, is representative and especially useful in that he has had a lot of victims…err crew, to experiment on:
I've been very lucky so far and never once felt ill, but it'll get me one day. However, I do have the distinction of having made many, many people seasick, and have been thrown up on at least three times for my pains, so I can claim a little experience. On all of my research cruises (over 1000 participants) we sent all volunteers a fact sheet on what to bring etc. For seasickness we recommended Stugeron, BUT, 2 to be taken the day before joining us, then 1 from then on. Stugeron is systemic, and of all the treatments has fewest side effects, and seems to work for most people. The only side effect is drowsiness at first, so by taking them the day before, you get that over before boarding. I've had people who have (in the past) been chronically seasick and this worked for them wonderfully well.
I have a criticism of Stugeron, that probably also applies to other drugs too, and that is that it delays, or perhaps even completely obstructs, the onset of the immunity to seasickness that comes to many of us after 24 to 48 hours at sea.
The one time I tried Stugeron, although I did not vomit, I felt slightly unwell for the first three days of the voyage. I then discontinued it and was seasick within a few hours on day four—the first and last time that I have ever been sick after day two of a passage.
In contrast to that experience, on our recent fairly rough five day crossing from Bermuda to Maine, where all I used was my trusty wrist bands, I was mildly sick on day one, but by day two and for the rest of the trip I felt fine and alert despite the rough motion caused by pounding to windward into 15 to 25 knots of wind and a confused cold eddy-induced sea.
It is hard to appreciate an evening like this, our third night out from Bermuda, when dull and drowsy from drugs. Of course I might not notice the subtle shades of colour in the sky when puking my guts out either.
For me at least, taking drugs to prevent the first day’s misery is just not worth the sacrifice of the vitality and alertness I feel for the rest of the trip by being completely free of pharmaceuticals.
Having said that, I’m most definitely not advocating going to sea with no anti-seasickness drugs in the medical kit. Such a course would be seriously negligent given that there are people that simply don’t get better and can even progress to dangerous dehydration if not treated effectively.
One further note: it
has been reported that Stugeron can, in rare cases, cause serious and irreversible
side effects, particularly in older people. We understand that this is
why it is not available without prescription in the USA.
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Antiseasickness Product Hurl-off, Our Drug of Choice
Despite the solid win for Stugeron in our informal survey, we have had better luck with Gravol, which is available over the counter in most countries including Bermuda, Canada and the UK, but not the USA. We suspect that this exception is more to do with drug company marketing issues rather than regulatory ones since the active ingredient in Gravol is Dimenhydrinate, the same as that in Dramamine, which is available in the USA without prescription.
Our reasons for preferring Gravol are as follows:
- It does not seem to delay the onset of natural immunity to seasickness the way that Stugeron does. In fact my experience has been quite the opposite in that, although I have not taken it for years, in the past I have found that a single Gravol taken just before going off watch promotes a deep sleep from which I have awakened completely cured for the rest of the voyage, even if I was suffering mightily before hitting the sack. Of course this presupposes that you can keep the pill down long enough for it to kick in—but read on.
- Gravol comes in time release capsules, as far as I know the only anti-seasickness drug that does, which seems to make it work more effectively than Dramamine.
- Gravol is also available in suppository form. I have only had one experience with these, second hand I’m pleased to say, when a crew on Morgan’s Cloud, after being violently sick for three days to the point that he was becoming dangerously dehydrated (despite taking Stugeron), was completely cured by a single Gravol suppository.
Of course Gravol is, like all drugs, not
without side effects, the most common being extreme drowsiness and dry
mouth. The former can be bad enough, particularly with suppository use,
to render a crew member non-functional. The good news is that, as we
understand it, Dimenhydrinate is one of the safest of all the drugs for
seasickness available.
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