Abstract
Motion sickness refers to illness brought on by movement. Motion is the leading cause of motion sickness, even if many other factors also play a role, such as age, gender, odours, environmental, psychological, and gastrointestinal issues. The brain receives conflicting signals from the visual, vestibular, and bodily proprioceptors, which causes sudden paleness, perspiration, nausea, and the want to throw up all stomach contents. A chemical agent, such as a neurotransmitter, is released in response to this mismatch in sensory information, stimulating the vomiting centre. The most effective homoeopathic remedies for this frequent travel issue are Cocculus, Ipecacuanha, Petroleum, Staphisagria, Tabacum, and Theridion.
Keywords: Motion sickness, carsickness, travel sickness, nausea, homoeopathic medicines, mismatch theory, kinetosis, miasm, psora.
Introduction
Motion sickness, also called kinetosis, was first described by the Greek physician Hippocrates, who wrote: “sailing on the sea proves that motion disturbs the body.” It includes a feeling of unwellness or sickness that develops during travel by air, sea, or land and while riding in a car, train, elevator, amusement ride, swing, horse, or entry and return from space. It typically presents with malaise, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. However, perception of motion can also cause motion sickness, even in non-physical motion.
Epidemiology
Motion sickness is inducible in most people with a functioning vestibular apparatus and sufficient provocative stimulus. Patients with a total loss of labyrinthine function are immune to motion sickness. Individual susceptibility also varies.
Certain characteristics associated with motion sickness include:
- Women are more susceptible than men.
- Motion sickness begins around age 6 and peaks at age 9.
- Elderly people are the least susceptible.
- High aerobic fitness levels increase susceptibility.
- Medical conditions like vertigo, vestibular pathology, Meniere’s disease, and migraines increase the risk.
- Hormone fluctuations during pregnancy and the menstrual cycle increase susceptibility.
- Among all provocative factors, land transport is the most common factor for motion sickness.
Etiology
- Motion sickness is typically triggered by low-frequency lateral and vertical motion (example: air, sea, road transportation) or by virtual simulator motion (video games, virtual simulators).
- The sensory conflict and neural mismatch theory is the most widely accepted theory for explaining motion sickness. It describes the conflict that occurs between the visual, vestibular, and somatosensory systems resulting from real or virtual motion. Afferents from the vestibular apparatus arrive at the vestibular nuclei of the brainstem, which also receive inputs from the visual and proprioceptive systems. Efferent projections then reach the temporoparietal cortex via the posterolateral thalamus, triggering autonomic reactions and the vomiting center. When there is a discrepancy between actual versus expected patterns of vestibular, visual, and kinesthetic inputs, it initiates the cascade of motion sickness symptoms.
Clinical Symptoms
Motion sickness manifests as a variety of symptoms that vary depending on the stimulus’s strength and the individual’s susceptibility.
- Common symptoms include giddiness, discomfort, drowsiness, yawning, nausea, vomiting, cold sweating, pallor, headache, loss of appetite, and increased salivation.
- “Sopite syndrome” refers to profound drowsiness and fatigue that persists for hours to days after exposure.
- Severe symptoms include inability to walk, incapacitation, postural instability, intractable retching, and social isolation.
Diagnosis
- History: During travel, a person may experience fatigue, nausea, giddiness, cold sweats, occipital headaches, upper abdomen pain, and/or vomiting. People frequently describe past motion sickness experiences.
- Physical examination (to rule out other pathologies): The person will be in perfect health when not moving.
- Investigations: There are no specific investigations for motion sickness. Other investigations can be advised, like:
- Ear function tests include hearing tests, the Labyrinthine test, and the caloric test.
- A radiological examination of the skull, cervical spine, and mastoid.
- Pathological tests: Glucose tolerance curve, haemogram.
- Neurological tests such as cerebral angiography and cerebrospinal fluid examination.
- CT scan, M.R.I. of head, etc. To exclude additional underlying pathology.
Complication
In rare cases, severe motion sickness with nausea and severe vomiting for long period can lead to dehydration and prostration
Homoeopathic Perspective
When we try to describe the Homoeopathic basis of any diagnosis, it is apt to classify it accurately under Dr. Hahnemann’s classification of Diseases as explained in the Organon of medicine.
- Individual Susceptibility: Not everyone experiences motion sickness, so homoeopathy sees it as an expression of a person’s unique susceptibility or sensitivity. This is part of the “constitutional” nature of the person.
- Vital Force Imbalance: The disturbance from motion isn’t just mechanical but energetic, affecting the vital force. When balanced, the vital force keeps all functions in harmony. Motion causes a “derangement” in susceptible individuals.
- Dynamic Medicine: Homeopathic remedies aim to gently stimulate the vital force to restore balance rather than suppress symptoms.
Motion Sickness as an Indisposition:
Aphorism 150 states, “If a patient complains of one or more trivial symptoms that have been only observed a short time previously, the physician should not regard this as a fully developed disease that requires serious medical aid. A slight alteration in the diet and regimen will usually suffice to dispel such an indisposition.”
Motion Sickness as an individual Acute disease/ One-sided disease:
In Aphorism 5, Dr. Hahnemann says, “Useful to the physician in assisting him to cure are the particulars of the most probable exciting cause of the acute disease….” Considering the theories of Motion sickness, several exciting causes may exist that can cause sensory conflict or troubles with eye movements. Hence, remedies that can match with the symptoms as well as the cause, maybe given as an acute remedy.
Motion Sickness as a True Chronic Disease:
Dr. H.A. Roberts in his book -The principles and Art of Cure by Homoeopathy under the chapter- DISEASE CLASSIFICATION: PSORA contd. Speaks about how Psora is never the basis of a structural change alone. It may be seen only when conjoined with other miasms. This gives a stronger basis for Motion sickness, which is a purely physiological phenomenon with no structural change involved, A Psoric trait. He also explains how Psora has- “PSORA has numerous sensations of vertigo…and are often induced or aggravated by emotional disturbances.
Dr. Hahnemann speaks of the vertigo of Psora as being many and peculiar, brought on by walking, motion, looking up and quickly, rising from sitting or lying; bilious vertigo, floating, from digestive disturbances, with spots before the eyes; desire to keep quiet by lying down, which >. In this desire to lie down and > by lying down we have the outstanding characteristic of the whole underlying condition.” Here, it clearly shows how vertigo is induced by various motions, including that of only the eye and ameliorated by solving the sensorial conflict.
Homoeopathic Therapeutics on Motion Sickness
These are selected based on symptom totality, not just the condition:
Borax: Nausea, salivation, vomiting, colic, diarrhoea, and faintness. Upset by downward motion like an aeroplane, elevator, or rocking. Anxiety with downward motion.
Cocculus: Vertigo, nausea, especially when riding or sitting up. Sick headache from carriage riding, cannot lie on back part of head. Nausea from riding in cars, boats, etc, or looking at a boat in motion; worse on becoming cold or taking cold. Nausea, with faintness and vomiting. Aversion to food, drink, and tobacco. Metallic taste. Seasickness. Hiccough and spasmodic yawning. Loss of appetite. Desire for cold drinks, especially beer.
Ipecacuanha: Spasm of accommodation from irritable weakness of the ciliary muscle. Nausea from looking at moving objects. Tongue usually clean. Mouth, moist; much saliva. Constant nausea and vomiting, with pale, twitching of face. Vomits food, bile, blood, mucus. The stomach feels relaxed, as if hanging down.
Petroleum: Ailments from riding in cars, carriages, or ships; lingering gastric and lung troubles; chronic diarrhoea. Long-lasting complaints follow mental states- fright, vexation, etc. Vertigo on rising, felt in occiput, as if intoxicated, or like sea-sickness. Nausea from motion of a carriage, with accumulation of water in the mouth, water brash, sour eructation and regurgitation. Greenish and bitter vomiting. Feeling of weakness and emptiness in the stomach, Pressure on the stomach.
Sepia: Weak, empty feeling in the pit of the stomach. Nausea and vertigo from any type of motion like seeing moving objects, the motion of cars, or passive motion. Great exhaustion and chilliness of the body.
Staphisagria: Sea Sickness-Long lasting vertigo along with continued nausea. Before vomiting, dizziness and nausea as during travelling sickness. Recurrent empty eructation with sensation of weight on stomach. Headache brain feels as if torn and squeezed, especially on rising from bed, any motion, amelioration from rest and warmth. Head confused, dull feeling with inability to perform any mental work.
Sulphur: Dizziness from rising from bed, from crossing rivers, from looking at running water with sudden loss of sight. Nausea with vomiting, vomiting of water first, afterwards food vomited out. All gone sensation in stomach.
Tabacum: Seasickness. The nausea, giddiness, death-like pallor, vomiting, icy coldness, and sweat, with the intermittent pulse, are almost characteristic. Vertigo on opening eyes; Incessant nausea; worse, smell of tobacco smoke; vomiting on least motion, sometimes of fecal matter, Seasickness; terribly faint, sinking feeling at pit of stomach. Sense of relaxation of stomach, with nausea.
Theridion: Sea sickness. Vertigo with nausea and vomiting from least motion, closing eyes, fast riding on car or ships or in carriage. A nervous woman shuts her eyes to get rid of the motion of the vessel and becomes deathly sick. It flickers before the eyes even on closed eyes, and it leads to nausea and vomiting, which is aggravated by noise. The least noise penetrates the body, mainly teeth. Anxiety about the heart. Ice-cold sweat with vertigo.
Conclusion
Over the years, not only has the homoeopathic system of medicine proved its permanent action of conditions that have temporary scope in few conditions, but also has shown its vastness of scope in being ready to treat conditions that emerge in the ever-changing future. It is up to the Homoeopathic physician to understand how to use the tool to treat and prevent diseases that can affect the daily life of individuals, improve their quality of life and be beneficial to the society as a whole.
References
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About Author:
Dr. Seema Sahu
MD Scholar,
Batch: 2021-2022
Department of Practice of Medicine,
Government Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital,
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India
