How Motion Sickness Works

"After a couple of weeks, you'd just be walking down the sidewalk, and people would pull up alongside you in their car and roll down the window and go, Avatar! — Chuck references Ardish Barker's stand-up comedy bit about Avatar's omnipresent cultural presence when it was released." — Chuck

"Arnold. On Happy Days? Arnold. Yeah. Al was the name of the actor. Yeah. He's from California. Pat Merida. — Josh and Chuck discuss Pat Morita's character Arnold on Happy Days while talking about the actor's role in Karate Kid." — Josh

"It's not like the Star Wars world, or Star Trek, or all these things. — Josh mentions Star Trek as an example of a franchise with sustained cultural impact compared to Avatar." — Josh

"It's not like the Star Wars world, or Star Trek, or all these things. — Josh compares Avatar's lasting cultural impact to Star Wars as an example of a movie with enduring relevance." — Josh

"He played Al, the replacement Al? Arnold. On Happy Days? Arnold. Yeah. Al was the name of the actor. Yeah. He's from California. Pat Merida. — Chuck and Josh discuss Pat Morita's role in The Karate Kid and his portrayal of an accent." — Chuck

"Yeah. Then there's also land sickness, which is interesting. I didn't look too much into it, but I have heard of it, which is basically the concept that if you're a sailor, then you've gotten, or just somebody who's been on boats enough, you don't have to be a professional. You get your sea legs so well that you get land sickness. Yeah, when you get back. Yeah, and you're on solid ground, you're like, I don't know what to do. Right. Because your brain's so used to things moving that it perceives that it's moving, even though it's not. You want to say the French name for it? Mal de Barquemont. Close. Let me look. I wasn't even looking. That was out of the. You forgot the middle part. Well, then you say it. There's a QUE in the middle. So maybe Mal de Barquemont. I said, Mal de Barquemont. Mal de Barquemont. Barquemont. Yeah, barbecue malt. I love that when we do this stuff, it's probably literally 50% people laughing, and 50% people want to kill us. Yeah. You know? Yeah. A lot of people want to kill us. I can live with that. As long as they never do. All right. So should we go over some things that you can do to prevent it? Because, I mean, that whole segment on what explains motion sickness is kind of petered out, but that's the state of science right now. Yeah. I will say they have looked at the 23andMe for the genetic side and have found some support for both claims. I think that they're together. I do, too. Like, I think, yes, your swaying system is set up in a certain way. And why can't that be a component that, along with the vestibular system and your site and all that, is affected and creates motion sickness? I just don't understand why it has to be one or the other. That was the impression that I had. He was trying to really come and get across, is that it's, no, it's his own thing. Yeah, yeah. I just think that's weird. So what do you go to if you get motion sick? Well, they say to keep your eyes on the horizon, whether you're in a car or a boat or whatever, that that'll help. Cuts down on motion, right? Or the sensation of motion? I'm not sure. I think so, because think about it. When you look at stuff that's close to the car, it's blurring by. It's going so fast. Horizons staying constant. Look at you. Keep your head still so you can lay down if you're able to somewhere. Or at least put your head back against the seat. Just sort of keep it as still as possible. Don't smoke. Sure. That's just good advice all around. Exactly. If you're going to fly, they say to avoid big greasy meals and alcohol the night before, and eat light meals or snacks, low in calories, the day of. But yeah, you do want to have something in your stomach, though, because that's just going to help. Empty stomach, no good. Right. Turn that air vent, whether you're in your car or a plane or a boat, you want some fresh air blowing on your face, ideally, or at least recycled air. I haven't felt this bed since I didn't need a Bryant console. Sit in the front of the airplane or over a wing, supposedly. Yeah, the rear of the airplane. Can you tell the difference? Oh, man. Really? You just get whipped around back and forth. It's way worse. If you get motion sick, you should never sit behind the wings of the airplane. See, I love the last car of a roller coaster, though. Well, yeah, you're feeling it more. Yeah. You're enjoying it more. You don't get motion sick. What else, avoid salty foods before you travel? There's also remedies, too, right? So the jury's out on whether ginger actually helps or not, or if it's just the placebo effect. Ginger, peppermint, and black whorehound, apparently, are some of the herbs that may or may not work. Who knows? I can tell you firsthand, and I looked it up, C bands, acupressure bracelets that go on your wrist, three fingers widths down from the heel of your palm. The pericardium 6 is the acupuncture point. I saw research that showed that neither placebo nor the acupressure bands had any effect on motion sickness. I can tell you that even if it is just placebo, they still work. Oh, yeah? First hand, they work. All right. Even if it's placebo, I don't care. That's fine. I got a C band. As long as it keeps me from being motion sick. Yeah. It kept me and you me from being motion sick on an entire cruise. But would you have been motion sick without it? Yeah, because we didn't use it for one day, and we felt it immediately. Gotcha. Yeah. I brought one on my only cruise that I went to, and I don't think I wore it because I didn't need to. We had divots on our wrist because we just hang on like the whole time. Yeah, you should bring it just in case. Yeah, sure. We also had scopolamine, and we didn't even use it, because the C bands work so well. Dramamine, is that the same thing, or is it different? No, scopolamine is that stuff that they drug people with, and then it's like, remember in our Truth Seer episode, we talked about scopolamine? Oh, yeah. It's like a drug in South America where they'll dose you with it, and then you end up just basically becoming zombified and don't remember anything. Yeah. It's the same stuff. But it doles the messages from your inner ear to your brain, so your sensation of motion is decreased. Nice. Homeopathy, there haven't been a ton of studies about the effectiveness of specific remedies, but they do say things like borax, calculus, petroleum, sepia, tabicum. Dude, we're going to hear from so many people just for having even uttered the word homeopathy. Does that say it, homeopathy? No, it goes both ways. Yeah, I know. I mean, nothing drives people more crazy than that. I know. They're going to go berserk, mark my words. Because it's not, you know, well, well, I said that take it or leave it, basically. Yeah. Some people swear by it. Yeah. Some people think it's. From what I have ever seen, it's like the biggest flash point of anything. Of anything that skeptics talk about, nothing drives them crazier than homeopathy. Yeah, yeah. Like make some nuts. It's kind of funny to watch. It does, because then you people say you shouldn't even say Western versus Eastern medicine. You should say proven science versus, like, witchcraft. Did the people say that on Facebook? Yeah, they get really like you shouldn't even say Western medicine. Don't even say it. I said you can't say it. Don't even say it, Josh. What else? Yeah, I'm making fun of you. Mind body medicine, biofeedback training and relaxation. They did a study of 55 pilots who had to stop flying due to motion sickness, which by the way, I didn't know that, like that frightens me just knowing that. That a pilot can get motion sickness. But think about it for the pilot. It's like career ending. Oh, I'm sure. 76% of them got over their motion sickness and were able to return to work after biofeedback training and relaxation programs. So basically, they sit in that tilt-a-whirl, bring it on, and then biofeedback instruments record temperature, muscle tension, and they use relaxation techniques and mental imagery in the chair. And over time, it's sort of like cognitive behavioral therapy, which is another thing that they use, which is, like, you know, get in the chair and do it until it doesn't affect you any longer. Exposure therapy, right? Yeah. There's this guy named Sam Puma, who's a physician and aeronautics engineer, I think, maybe. At the very least, he's worked in the aerospace industry for a really long time. And he has come up with some habituation exercises, where basically, you kind of mildly expose your body to the kind of movement it's going to expect on like a space shuttle or whatever ahead of your trip. And he says you can be prepared and not have any motion sickness as little as a week. Yeah. And I guess it checks out. Yeah, because it sounds like, you know, come on, what's this guy selling me? Right. But then the Atlantic author, she said, you know, no, apparently it's a real thing. Yeah. And then another good tip that I saw was if you're in a car and you're not driving, pretend like you're driving. You might feel silly, but you know, pretend like you're driving. Maybe even do your hands and anticipate the curves and things. Yeah. Maybe give them a little horn, a little imaginary horn once in a while. Yeah, the reason why the best seat in a car is the driver is because you can anticipate the movements the car's going to make, which supports sway theory if you think about it. True. Because you can counteract it. Do you ever have one of those passengers in your car that hits the fake brake because you're nervous? Sure. It's like just an involuntary action. You see them stomp their foot on the floor board. It's pretty funny. I have one friend in particular that does that. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Let's see, I guess that's it, right? I got nothing else. — Chuck references Homer Simpson's appearance at a bachelor auction as an example of awkward walking."