It is a major bummer to be invited on a luxury yacht for a good time in the summer, only to have to decline because you simply cannot go a minute on a boat without throwing up and grossing everyone out.
Not to mention putting a damper on the weekend.
Contrary to common assumption, motion sickness does not only happen on water vessels. It could also happen on a drive or a plane.
Motion sickness is brought on by a miscommunication in the sensory organs. Your ears report a rolling motion, while your eyes do not see that motion.
Your brain then tries to make sense of the information being relayed by consulting the skin’s pressure points but does not get accurate readings.
Your brain knows that something is wrong if the two are not agreeing and therefore assumes that your body is being attacked by an intruder.
Therefore, your brain induces a reaction to defend your body from that intruder in the form of sweating and vomiting.
These are meant to flush out whatever perceived toxins your brain might think are threatening the well being of your body. Thus, motion sickness.
Motion sickness is common in women on their menstruation period or during pregnancy. But motion sickness can also be experienced by anyone undergoing hormone therapy.
People who get migraines are also at a high risk of getting motion sickness. Children are also very likely to experience motion sickness.
In medical terms, a person with a functional vestibular system can get motion sickness.
A faulty or absent vestibular system accords one immunity to motion sickness in a weird twist of things. A more intrinsic reason is a malfunctioning endocannabinoid signaling.
A 2010 study in which weightlessness was simulated reiterated the stance on involvement of the endocannabinoid system. The German scientists took blood samples before, during and after.
Research at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego in 2003 revealed that 70% of the population had vestibular abnormalities.
Another study in China in 2014 found that a drug that enhanced the endocannabinoid system was most efficient in treating and managing motion sickness. This only further proved the point.
A study conducted into this phenomenon proved the endocannabinoid angle. The level of endocannabinoids in the blood was measured during motion sickness.
It was found that there was far much less activity in the CB1 receptors than usual.
CBD through activation of the 5-HT1A receptor can reduce release of emetic chemical response therefore abating motion sickness both at the cellular and psychological level.
It can also rebalance the endocannabinoid system so that the sensory organs begin to agree with each other.
Managing Your Symptoms of Motion Sickness
Nausea and Vomiting
Extensive studies have shown that CB1 agonist suppresses vomiting, but CB1 antagonist reverses the effect.
Inverse agonist promotes vomiting.
Most studies have been done on rats so far. A condition called gaping in rats and mice mimics that of human vomiting and is therefore induced to test out this theory.
Once the rats were expose to vomiting cues and gaping was established in a study, a fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor was brought in to mitigate the situation and did so effectively.
As your body breaks down CBD, with the help of dopamine and serotonin FAAH is inhibited. FAAH inhibitors work to disrupt actions of the CB1 receptors.
Other studies have shown that CBD will relax your muscles wonderfully so that you can stop vomiting.
Your brain may want to but the muscles will be too chill to care, so to speak. The nausea might persist (highly unlikely) but the vomit will not materialize, and your food will finally stay down.
Dizziness and Sweating
A study in 2016 revealed that the endocannabinoid system was spread into areas commonly affected by vertigo.
This opened up the field for treatment of dizziness through the ECS therefore, phytocannabinoids.
Dizziness is the feeling of wooziness, loss of balance and floating, and it can often be followed by fainting.
The dizziness will often be coupled with sweating, that is caused by an over activation of the sweat glands.
It is a reaction to both the miscommunication of sensory organs and anxiety of developing motion sickness. The anxiety will exacerbate the sweating and other symptoms.
Anxiety
If you are prone to motion sickness, you will usually have a good idea of what your triggers are. You will also know what symptoms to look out for.
Some of the stimuli are unavoidable, like if you would have to travel by bus or use a boat to cross a mass of water onto an island.
Usually you will know beforehand about the impending doom. So you’ll also have a pretty good idea of what will happen once that bus gets to winding corners or once you step foot onto that boat.
You will be nervous and anxious about it, and will fret and worry about how severe the motion sickness will be this time.
In a sick twist of physiology, the anxiety will make the motion sickness worse. Probably even bring it on prematurely!
Anxiety and Cannabidiol is one of the very well studied areas. It is well researched and the general consensus is that CBD is effective in abating anxiety.
The endocannabinoid system is a worthy avenue for therapy and to calm the nerves.
Calm nerves in the wake of a looming bout of motion sickness is a significant amount of the work done. It will be easier to handle other symptoms without anxiety getting in the way making things harder for you in an already difficult situation.
Multiple Ways to Get CBD into Your System
CBD Edibles are a great and tasty way to consume CBD. You can also make your own CBD edibles! As the recipes that are available now are so genius and creative that you will easily and often forget that there is cannabidiol in there.
Have a cookie or light snack before getting on that bus or boat. And let the CBD slowly spread through your body ensuring homeostasis is maintained and that there is no miscommunication.
Gummy bears and other sorts of CBD candies are discreet and novel.
To everyone else, you will be enjoying a guilty pleasure but to you, that right there is your lifeline for mitigating motion sickness.
It’s important that you ensure to bring enough to last you through the trip. Keep an eye on the concentration so that you do not overdo it, although there a very few side effects of CBD.
You can even close your eyes and enjoy your treat. Not only will the sweetness be more intense, your eyes will have nothing to report and confuse your brain about.
CBD water will serve two very important purposes. The first, of course, is to hydrate. You will want to keep taking sips of cold water while on that motion sickness inducing problem.
It is sort of like when people pat someone on the back when they are angry and spoiling for a fight. It is not much but keeps things from escalating.
CBD water is also manufactured using a technology that assures immediate bioavailability therefore offering a great and fast way to consume CBD.
A transdermal patch was made for people who were looking to quit smoking. The idea was to use the CBD transdermal patch in place of the nicotine patch which has proven counter productive for some.
The patch would also be useful for someone on a ride as they would get a constant surge of CBD throughout.
