Q: I’m going on a cruise to Alaska this summer. Which motion sickness medicine should I take with me?
Even if you’ve never had trouble with motion sickness before, packing something to deal with seasickness is a smart idea.
You have several remedies to pick from: ginger root, over-the-counter remedies such as Dramamine® or Bonine®, and a prescription-only scopolamine patch called Transderm-Scop®. These differ from one another in 3 ways: how long the protective effect lasts, what type of side effects they can cause, and whether or not you actually will experience any side effects. Unfortunately, there’s no way to predict whether any medicine will give you side effects, so it’s best if you try it on yourself long before your ship casts off.
Ginger root is the safest option for preventing motion sickness. It has no side effects and is the best choice for children and pregnant women. I wish my parents had known about using ginger – it would have saved me so much misery riding in the back seat of my parents’ station wagon. Discovering it as an adult totally transformed my travel experience.
Ginger should be taken at least 30 minutes before you’ll need it to start working. Each dose is only effective for 4-6 hours, so be prepared to redose several times during the day. You can buy ginger as crystallized chunks of root (cooked with sugar) in the spice aisle, but if its intense hot/sweet taste is not for you, ginger capsules are widely available in the health food section of most grocery stores.
There are 2 antihistamines used for motion sickness prevention available without a prescription: meclizine and dimenhydrinate. Meclizine is my personal choice. It’s available as Bonine® and Dramamine® Less-Drowsy Formula in 25mg tablets, and also as generic meclizine in 2 different strengths, 12.5mg and 25mg. Meclizine works for 24 hours and is taken once a day. It can cause some drowsiness, but how much will vary from person to person. Most people don’t notice much drowsiness, but if you are one of the unlucky ones, one tablet can put you to sleep for the day! Also, watch out, neither antihistamine mixes well with alcohol causing significant drowsiness or confusion.
Buying Dramamine® for motion sickness can be confusing because it comes as two different products: Original and Less-Drowsy. The Less-Drowsy formula contains meclizine; the Original Formula has a shorter-acting antihistamine called dimenhydrinate. Your body turns dimenhydrinate into diphenhydramine, which you may recognize as the generic name of Benadryl®. Benadryl® commonly causes drowsiness and is even sold as a sleeping pills like Sominex-2 and Tylenol-PM. Just like Benadryl®, dimenhydrinate only lasts 4-6 hours, which means you’ll need to redose during the day.
The last motion sickness medicine is Transderm-Scop®, a small, round tan-colored patch applied behind your ear. This prescription-only patch contains scopolamine and lasts for 3 days, longer than any other motion sickness medicine. Scopolamine side effects include dry mouth, blurred vision, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations, something you definitely want to check out BEFORE you’re depending on it to keep down your dinner. It also shouldn’t be cut or given to a child.
On a trip back home to Seattle from Orlando some years ago I lost track of how long it had been since my last dose of ginger because of the time changes heading westward. I didn’t realize the ginger had worn off until we hit turbulence heading over the Cascade Mountains on the last 30 minutes of the flight. After the very bumpy and utterly miserable descent into Seattle, I vowed to find another option. Today I take meclizine on every trip, although I also pack crystallized ginger pieces if I’m going on a boat. My small tube of chewable meclizine called Bonine® is easy to pack and I keep it refilled from a bottle of 100-count generic 25mg chewable tablets at home. Meclizine is my miracle motion sickness remedy because I only have to chew one tablet a day and I’ve never had drowsiness or any other side effects from it.
Whether you choose to take ginger, meclizine or a scopolamine patch on your cruise, be sure to try it out before you go to avoid getting on the wrong ship because of blurry vision, snoozing your vacation away in your cabin or seeing dancing elephants on the ceiling. Bon voyage!
