June 7, 2016 • 36 mins
Motion sickness is the worst and hits about 25 to 40 percent of humans when they ride in cars, boats, or simply watch the wrong 3-D movie. Join us as we break down the science behind this nausea-inducing affliction.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Joshua Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's over there.
I'm speaking in a monotone kind of Hey, dude, Hey,
(00:27):
how's it going. It's going well. I'm not motionsick, so
things are fine. Do you get motion sick sometimes? I mean,
if the conditions are right. I was really surprised to
find that not everybody gets motion sick. What are your conditions? Um,
poor ventilation and like lots of movement, um, backseat of
(00:48):
a car. Okay, uh, but anytime I read in a car,
even like glancing at my phone on a map. Really,
if I have to read anything, it gets me very quick.
So I've just learned that, like, I can't do it. Yeah,
I cannot do it. So I don't I get it
(01:09):
a little bit too. I used to get it more,
I think when I was younger. Supposedly it's normal. Supposedly
it is. But I remember a very specific story that
my brother still laughs at. And by the way, boy,
I'm glad I said that I owe my brother, my
big brother, a big apology because I saw him over
the weekend and he said, oh, by the way, I
(01:30):
was just done an old episode and he said, you've
never been a groom's a best man. I was the
best man at my brother's wedding. Man. I felt like
a jerk, man, Scott, I'm sorry, I know. And what
happened was when I said I hadn't, I just like
quickly scanned through my friends that have gotten married, and
I didn't think about my brother and I was his
(01:51):
best man. A jerk. Well, it's it's rectified now. Well
I told him. I was like, you're gonna get a
public apology. So there it is. That's pretty public. Yeah,
it gets. You could have also started a scores based
website if you wanted, but it's really easy that. Um So, anyway,
this is old story. When we went to Disney, uh geez,
(02:15):
which is the one where Body Wars is at. You
should have asked Holly from stuff you missed in history,
she would know if she probably senses that someone's talking
about Disney right now. Body Wars either was or still is.
I don't know if it's still there. One of those
rides that you sit in a you know, it's one
of those first sort of virtual things where they show
(02:36):
you a movie and then they moved the car, like
The Amazing Voyage or something, wasn't it. Yeah, you went
inside a human body and we're traveling around. I want
to say disney World, but I can't remember. Um so
I went in that, And I mean, wait, I'm getting
you grew up in Atlanta. I'm guessing you went to
disney World. Well, it definitely was at Disneyland, but I
don't know if he was Epcot, Universal Studio Guys, or
(02:57):
Disney World. It was in Orlando. So from what I
under stand, we have a buddy who works for Disney
and he set me straight on this before, and I
think I've got it. So disney World is all of those.
The Magic Kingdom is what you're specifying. So disney World
includes Epcott and Universal Studios. If I'm not mistaken, I
really hope I'm not missing. The Magic Kingdom is specifically
(03:21):
with the Castle. Right. If I did get that wrong, Brandon,
I apologize. It's one with the castle. All the weird
adults that think their children like, uh so, body wars. Anyway,
you're traveling through the body, and I remember at one
point I was like, man, it's getting hot in here,
and Scott's like, this is great. I was like, I'm
not feeling so good man. It's like, do they have
(03:42):
the heat going. It's like, what are you talking about?
It feels great? And I got I didn't vomit, but
I got really sick and made it through the ride
and left. And he still teases me to this day.
He was like, it was temperature air controlled, and you
thought it was like ninety degrees and they were like
pumping in heat. It's funny, like it got to you
like that, like your own body cold sweats the who while, yeah,
(04:04):
that's bad, but generally you you actually did puke, No, no, no,
I did not, you didn't. But generally I don't like
it takes a certain thing, like a really hardcore roller
coaster going in fast, fast circles, but I don't get
sick complaints or the one cruise I went on, it
didn't get sick. Yeah, you know, I've gotten. I've gotten
(04:26):
sick before, like on vacation. But and I'm planes, it's
usually fairly fleeting. It's when I introduced reading that it's
like you're in big trouble for a long time. You
can read on a plane though I can't. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
now I think about it's reading in a car. I
just gotta stay away from that. But usually it does
(04:46):
come about with like poor ventilation that kind of thing,
um yeah, which is another trigger, it's a big one,
or like a rough odor or something like that. I'm
sure all those things don't help. The thing is for
for as much as like we kind of commonly understand
and motion sickness, science really doesn't have a full explanation
for it. I'm picturing little Josh because riding backwards is
(05:08):
bad and like a rumble seat in a station wagon,
in a in a super u brat with like your
dad has like salami socks on or something that stink
what like the windows are rolled up. I don't know,
it just anything. It's something gross salamie socks, like socks
made of salami, Like, wouldn't that smelled gross? He's wearing
(05:29):
the skin of another person. Well, now I was thinking
smelled like old salami, but made of salamis even better, right.
I think I'm just picturing you back there, like reading
your Mad magazine feeling bad. Yeah, yeah, no, I do
remember being a kid and figuring out I can't read
in cars. There was a period where I could, which
is kind of surprising because when you're younger, you're more
(05:50):
susceptible to motion sickness. But I could read in the
car while I was younger, and then probably around the
time of puberty, I was like, I can't do this anymore.
You went opposite weird. Yeah, well maybe you developed your hips, right,
because that's a tease. We'll just leave that out there,
all right. So people supposedly are susceptible to motion sickness. Uh,
(06:15):
and it can happen on planes, it can happen. It's weird.
This one University of Maryland side I went to said, uh,
the following are the most common risk factors riding in
a car, boat, airplane, or space shuttle. Really, yeah, nerds,
Just like they didn't even put the amusement park ride.
They just went straight to space shuttle. You know, one
(06:37):
that I hadn't seen before. But apparently as the thing is,
I'm looking through a microscope, Yeah I hadn't. That makes
a little bit of sense though, Yeah, because the slide
can move in. Your eyes are seeing movement, but you're
not moving, and yeah, I'll get to you. Uh. Like
another nerdy motion sickness space shuttles and microscope. Uh So,
like you said, age between two and twelve, you're more
(06:57):
likely uh, and then you're also more likely to grow
out of it after puberty. And one of the reasons
that women are more motion sickness than men or get
motion sickness more than men is because one of the
theories is that after puberty they developed more in the hips.
Men develop more in the chest, and I guess that
(07:20):
makes a difference. They didn't really explain why they did that. Well,
it all has to do with sway theory, which Will's right,
sway theory. Yeah, but it is true that, like, women
are more susceptible just on average, to motion sickness than
men are. Yeah, studies apparently also Asian women, well Asian
period because Pinn State did a study and they put
(07:41):
people in situations that make emotion sick or not. Did
you look into those Oh is it like a tilted world, dude?
Like if you went in for just a clinical study,
like I'm gonna make some scratch or maybe they'll give
me a cool drug or something, and it turns out
to be a motion sickness study, you should leave. No,
I totally was. So there's this thing called a um
(08:02):
opt to kinetic drum, I believe is what it's called.
Oh I did see that. Yeah, I have to connectic.
It's it's like um a drum, like a big drum
that you sit inside of, and it's got a vertical
black and white painted stretched and it spins around you
and the motion, the movement is really emphasized and like
it's designed to make anybody motion sick and that's how
(08:25):
they induce motion sickness. And I saw another one UM
where they use a chair that just kind of moves
you around, whether you like it or not, and it
induces motion sickness. Like, what a terrible thing to have
happened to you. Man. There was a ride at six
Flags over Georgia growing up that they got rid of
because someone got hurt, supposedly where it's this barrel that
(08:45):
you all get in. You stand it, it's like kind
of below ground. You stand against the wall. Love those
and it's spins so fast. Then they dropped the floor
beneath you and then some trifical force holds you against
the wall. It's like the spin cycle in the washing machine.
You mean, I were just talking about that. The other
thing was awful. That was my favorite of all time. Really,
I just thought it was so cool. Well, the old
(09:06):
story was that someone's leg got trapped when the floor
came back up. But I remember here now that I
look back, because I'm sure that was an old live stale.
Although I was on Snoops the other day and I
was reading an early article and they were talking about, um,
you know, the urban legend about some girl who got
scalped because her hair got caught in an amusement park
ride or something. It actually happened, really, Yeah, the girl's
(09:27):
ponytail got caught in there. It just got pulled right
off of her head. I know, but it actually did happen.
So it's possible someone's leg got got sucked into the
tiltal world. Well, but then what happens is it happened
at every amusement park, right, It happened to my cousin's friend, right, Alright.
So the Penn State study, uh, they put people in
(09:48):
these torture machines, and interestingly, they did confirm eight of
Asian people got sick when it was less than fifty
percent for Caucasian and non Caucasian, which is really it's
very crazy. Um, but it kind of underscores a growing
awareness among motion sickness researchers a K that the evil
(10:11):
ones um that genetics play a big role in susceptibility
to motion sickness. Well, yeah, because there were another couple
of findings that lend to that. UM. Twins. They study
two hundred sets of identical twins, and one percent of
the identical twins were both affected. Um. Yeah, and some
(10:32):
of that, you know, they can't prove that it's genetics
because it also could be the uh just where they
were raised and how were they were raised. What's it
called uh nurture environment environment environmental um. And if parents
are both susceptible to motion sickness, they found that their
children are five times more likely. So it's sort of
(10:55):
points to genetics. But then other things point away from genetics,
like why why would you know two people in the
same family in the same conditions not get sick? Or
why did why why did two people period not get
sick under the same conditions. Yeah, Like, I guess what
(11:15):
I'm saying, salami socks smell same backwards facing seat. Yeah,
I guess what I'm saying is they haven't figured it out, No,
they haven't. But if we do figure out that it's genetic,
thanks to the magic of the Crisper Casts nine gene
editing process to be able to knock that right out
for you, what else is pregnant? Yeah, pregnant women are
more susceptible to it. Um, women who are menstruating, I
(11:39):
think also are, and people who get migraines are more susceptible.
And then people who sleep poorly are more susceptible to
um uh. Motion sickness. Yeah, it says if you're prone
to nausea or vomiting, but I don't know if that's like,
that's sort of a chicken or the egg thing. Well,
we're gonna get into again. We said science as to
(12:00):
understand exactly what's going on here. But there's some good theories.
We're gonna talk about them right after, so chuck, Yeah,
(12:32):
let's talk about some theories for motion sickness because it's
kind of two Yeah. I saw I think it was
this Atlantic article you sent. It's not so much um,
it's not so much science. It's a debate over you know,
the likelier explanation, but they actually kind of fit together.
I think so, but if you ask the people, apparently
(12:54):
the author in the Atlantic, Uh, it's called the Mysterious
Science Emotion Sickness. He's sort of pokes fun a little bit.
He's like, to me, they sound sort of the same.
But don't tell that to those people who believe one
or the other, because they're like, no, they're nothing like
each other. She Julie beck I was that, who wasn't nice? Job,
Julie good article. Um, pat on the back for you,
(13:16):
cold star. So, uh, here's the first one is and
this one. They both make a lot of sense to me. Um. Basically,
there's a dissonance between the parts of your body that
sense motion. Right, that's the easiest way to say it.
It's called the sensory conflict theory. To get dryballs. Yeah,
that it senses motion. It's it's weird if you think
(13:39):
about your eyes doing that, but that's one of the
roles that they play in motion. You also have the
vestibular system, which is centered around your inner ear, and
that definitely senses motion, movement, acceleration, gravity. Uh. And then
you have all the sensors, the sensors and like your
muscles and joints and stuff, right, Yeah, I didn't really
(13:59):
think about that is being one, but for sure, like
your body actually feels it. Yeah, well, think about it,
like if you if you feel yourself kind of moving backward,
you're definitely sensing it through your inner ear, but you
can also feel it in your feet as well, and
they're sending a a bulletin to your brain saying, lean forward, dummy,
(14:20):
you're gonna fall back. What's your problem? Friend? So, this
dissonance occurs when basically, like let's say you're sitting in
a movie theater like an IMAX and it's a scene
where you're you're flying with Superman or something like. You're
seeing this with your eyeballs like a first person perspective
shot of flight, but you're sitting in your seat, so
(14:43):
your eyes are saying you're flying and your butts going
you're sitting here and your brains like a witch. Yeah,
pretty much witchcraft. Uh. So it creates this, This creates
motion sickness. That's when the uh, nausea might kick in, dizziness, uh,
those cold sweats, salivation. I like how the the author
of the house Stuff Works article pointed out she specifically
(15:05):
mentioned Avatar. Yeah, who is the dude? Um? The the
guy who was like the friend on the Flight of
the Concords Mary. No, the other dude, the guy who
worked in the pond. Yeah, yeah, oh man, what is
his name? It's not Range Parker, Arrange Parker, Yes, it was.
I always want to call him Boslerman. I know it's
(15:26):
definitely not the same dude Parker. You mean. I went
to go see him. He did some stand up, right,
and he was talking about Avatar, and he said, when
it first came up, people like, oh, Avatar, have you
seen Avatar? Yea great And then like everything you heard
was have you seen Avatar? You gotta see Avatar, you said,
like after a couple of weeks, you'd just be walking
down the sidewalk and people would pull up alongside you
in your car and roll down the window and go Avatar.
(15:48):
And this is I think a great example of that. Well,
it's interesting. I posted an article on Facebook not too
long ago on the Stuff you Should Know page about
this person wrote an article about Avatar and the argument
was that it for such a huge movie, it had
like zero cultural impact, Like it was big at the time,
but does anyone care now, Like it's not like the
(16:11):
Star Wars World or Star Treker, all these things, and
I totally agreed. I saw Avatar once and I was like,
I'm done with it. Typical James Cameron schlock. I've seen
it zero times. No, that sucks, But dude, there are
Avatar people though, that piled on and we're like, what's
god no idea what he's talking about? It's totally relevant. Oh,
I'm sure they're gonna be all over Facebook page after
(16:33):
this episode comes out. Hey, Chuck forever. Now, I like
some of James Cameron stuff, but if he wrote the script,
then it's I'm not gonna like it. No, I know
what you mean. I think he's a hack writer. Yeah.
Did I just say that two hundreds of thousands of people? Yeah,
And I'm sure James Cameron cares what you think. He's
(16:53):
at the bottom of the Marianna Trench right now. He's not.
He's picking out my future burial site. So um, Chuck,
we're talking about the century conflict theory, right, that's one
big explanation, and it definitely kind of makes sense. Right.
Your your brain just basically gets overloaded and it's like, oh,
I need to sit down. I've got the vapors, right,
(17:17):
I'm doing a lot of bad impressions in this episode
was supposed to be uh, somebody fainting in the late
nineteenth century. Oh, no, it's great. So it was your
arch Parker fop. That's what it was. It was a
fop the dandy popping. There's another competing idea, and that is, UM,
we kind of talked about. UM. It's called sway theory. Yeah.
(17:41):
And there's a dude, h Thomas uh staff or staff Regin.
I'm going with the gin s University of University of Minnesota,
Professor of Kinesiology and listen to this. He's the director
of it Affordance Perception Action Laboratory NERD. He gets motion
(18:05):
sickness looking through microscope. UM. So he proposes the sway
theory UM, which basically has nothing to do with the
vestibular system. He said. He says that I don't I
don't necessarily agree with that, but okay, I agree that
he thinks that. No, I know that he thinks that
I don't agree with that his take on that. Agree.
(18:25):
I think it's still tied together. But his theory is
and this first part isn't theory. It's true is that
everyone sways like unless you're one of those uh people
that stand like motionless in the middle of New Orleans
for money. M hmm, yeah, silver or something like that. Yeah,
they're good, they're good at it. But if you're just
a regular dope like you and I, when we stand there,
(18:47):
we're gonna be moving in a little bit. Yeah, you
mean swaying a little bit. It's weird, like if you
stop and like really pay attention to it. Yeah, you
you notice it, but you'll never notice it unless you
are focused on that. Yeah, you're always moving a little bit. Yeah, swaying.
If you're standing up, you're swaying for the most part. Yes.
And the point he makes is if everyone truly relaxed
(19:08):
every muscle in their body, they'd fall over. Right. So
the whole point, the whole thing is swaying is it's
the byproduct of us standing upright, which is not something
we've been doing for all of the time we've been
on earth, because we evolved from things that walked on
four legs. Standing up is kind of new. Well, sure,
and babies don't stand up, they have to, yeah, exactly.
(19:31):
So um Stoffordgin's whole idea is that motion sickness comes
about when you have um when you're exposed to movement
that contradicts the natural um swaying that you've learned to
do to stand upright right, and it undermines it, and
(19:52):
your brain goes Which makes sense in a way because
let's say you're on a boat and the boat's tilting
to the left, and so what you're feet do, or
you know, they account for that, and maybe you lean
in on the inside of your foot and your toes
flex so because you want to make yourself more upright again.
And then the boat turns again in a direction you're
(20:13):
not expecting. You're correcting for that first move, the second
move happens, and your body doesn't know what to do.
So here's the thing. The the sensory conflict one makes
a little more sense to me than this one, because
that sounds to me like if that if that were
the case, if that's what's going on, and it clearly is.
Like when it's when you get your sea legs or
(20:35):
whatever um you you you were moving along, you're trying
to stay standing under these weird conditions, why would that
translate into something like dizziness or nausea or vomiting or
cold sweats that doesn't make sense to me. Sensory conflict
I can see translating into it. But even beyond that,
a lot of people are like, no, that doesn't Still,
(20:55):
it doesn't make sense why you would vomit. And this
one guy named um Michael Easman seven came up with
a pretty awesome explanation for why we should get nauseated
when we get motion sick right. Well, yeah, should we
take a break and talk about that? Oh all right,
(21:35):
Josh Michael Treatman seven in the journal Science. What did
he say? Oh? He said that we get nauseated from
motion sickness because over there are some toxins out there
that can mess with our vestibular system. Right, yes, So
the body is tricked into thinking that it's possibly been
(21:56):
exposed to some sort of toxin because the vestibular vestibular
system is out of whack from motion sickness, So it
gets nauseated and ultimately might vomit as a reflex to
get rid of whatever toxin it thinks has been ingested.
It's basically a case of mistaken identity. I think it
explained it perfectly. It makes sense to me. I could
(22:18):
see a little bit. I think what Um what staff
Regin is saying is that you're you're used to regaining
your balance. You spend your entire life learning this system,
and that if it's thrown off, what he doesn't do
is connect it. I believe, I believe you're right. He
doesn't connect it in the end to like something that
happens in your brain, right, the the why the physiological
(22:41):
reaction agreed. Yeah, but he does have some pretty good
evidence backing his idea of sway theory up though. Um,
so again, women are more susceptible to um to motion
sickness than men. Right, Yes, that's what they say. Well,
he says, ah, Well, Sway theory explains that um, kids
(23:01):
are equally susceptible to both genders are equally susceptible to
motion sickness before puberty. Then after puberty, the bodies change
and where um, women and men hold most of their
weight is different. Right, Women hold it mostly around their hips.
Men hold it more around their chest, and that means
that the center of gravity is different, which means the
(23:23):
amount that we sway is different. Right yeah, I think Uh?
Who does he say sways? Women's way farther but slower,
but slower Men's sway faster but within a tighter area.
And and these are micro sways. Yeah, I mean I
think that like most people move no more than like
an inch to any given side. And even then you're
(23:46):
like Barney on the Simpsons when he walked out for
that like bachelor um auction. Uh. Then there's also landsickness,
which is interesting. Yeah. 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
you know, just somebody who's been on boats enough. You
(24:09):
don't have to be a professional. Um, you get your
sea legs so well that you get landsickness. 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 your
brain 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, mild barkmant let me look,
(24:33):
I wasn't even looking. That was you forgot the middle part.
There's a qui in the middle, so maybe mal de
bark uman, I said, Mel debarkmon Mel debarkmall barkman barbecue
mal I love that when we do this stuff, there's
it's probably literally fi people laughing and people want to
(24:54):
kill us. Yeah, you know, yeah, a lot of people
want to kill us. Can about as long as they
never do alright, So, um, should we go over some
some things that you can do? Because I mean that
that whole segment on what explains most of the sickness
kind of petered out. But that's the state of science
(25:16):
right now. Yeah, although they will say they have looked
at the twenty three in me um for the genetic
side and have found some support for both claims. I
think that they're together. Like I think, if yes, your
your swaying system is set up in a certain way,
and why can't that be a component that, along with
(25:38):
the vestibular system and your site and all that um
is affected and creates motion sickness. I just don't understand
why it has to be one or the other. That's
the impression that I had he was trying to really
come get across, is that it's no, it's its own thing.
I think that's weird. So what do you what do
you go to if you get motion sick Well, they
(25:59):
say to keep your eyes on the horizon, whether you're
in a car or a boat or whatever, that that
will 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 the horizon, sting. Yeah, constant look
(26:20):
at you. Um, keep your head still so you can
lay down if you're able to somewhere, um or at
least put your head back against the seat. Just sort
of keep it as still as possible. Don't smoke. Sure,
they say it's just good advice all around exactly. Um,
if you're gonna fly, they say to avoid big, greasy
(26:40):
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 gonna help empty stomach. No good turn
that air vent. Whether you're in your car or a
plane or a boat, you need want some fresh air
blowing on your face, ideally or at least cycled air
(27:02):
felt this bed sinstead. It need to brank hunt uh,
sit in the front of the airplane or over a wing. Supposedly, yeah,
the rear of the airplane. Oh man, you just get
whipped around back, and it's way worse if you get
motion sick You should never sit behind the the wings
of the airplane. See I love the last car of
(27:24):
a roller coaster though, Well, yeah, you're feeling it more,
you're enjoying it more. You don't get motion sick. Um
what else? Avoid salty foods before you travel. There's also
remedies too, right, So the jury is out on whether
ginger actually helps or not, or if it's just the
placebo effect. Ginger, peppermint, and black horehound apparently are some
(27:46):
of the herbs that may or may not work. Who knows. UM,
I can tell you firsthand, and I looked it up.
See bands actu pressure bracelets that go on your wrist
three fingers with down from the heel of your palm,
the pairicardium six so the acupuncture point. I saw research
(28:07):
that showed that UM, neither placebo nor acupressure bands had
any effect on motion sickness. I can tell you that
even if it is just placebo, they still work firsthand.
They work alright, even if it's placebo. I don't care.
That's fine as long as it keeps me from being motionsick. Yeah. Yeah,
it kept me and you me from being motion sick
(28:28):
on an entire cruise. But would you have been motion
sick without it? Yeah, because we had We didn't use
it for one day and we felt immediately. Yeah, Um,
I brought one on my only cruise that I went
to and uh, I don't think I work because I
didn't need to. We had like divots on our risk
because we just come on like the whole the time. Yeah,
(28:48):
you should bring it just in case. Yeah. Sure. We
also had scope al amin and we didn't even use
it because the c bands work so well. Drama meine,
is that the same thing or different? Scope ala mean?
Is that stuff that like eight um drug people with
and then uh, it's like remember in our truths Herem
episode we talked about scope limit. It's like a drug
in South America where they'll they'll dose you with it
(29:11):
and then you end up like just basically becoming zombified
and don't remember anything. It's the same stuff, but it
doles the messages from your inner ear to your brain,
so your sensation of motion is decreased. Homeopathy, there haven't
been a ton of studies about the effective effectiveness of
specific remedies. But they do say things like borax, coculus, petroleum, tabacum. Dude,
(29:41):
So we're gonna hear from so many people just for
having even uttered the word homeopathy. Does that I say
it homeopathy? No? It goes both ways. Um, yeah, I know.
I mean, nothing drives people more crazy than that. They're
gonna go desert mark my word because it's not you know, well,
well I said that that take it or leave it. Basically,
(30:05):
some people swear by it, yeah, and some people think
it's uh too. From what I have ever seen, it's
like the biggest flashpoint, uh like of anything, of anything
at Skeptics talk about nothing drives them crazier than than homeopathy.
Ye like makes them nuts. It's kind of funny to
watch it does, because then you people say you shouldn't
(30:27):
even say western versus Eastern medicine. You should say proven
science versus like witchcraft. Who did the people say that?
On Facebook? Yeah, they get really like, you shouldn't even
say I don't even see it. I said you can't
say it, don't even say it? Josh? Um what else? Yeah,
I'm making fun of you. Mind body medicine, biofeedback training
(30:52):
and relaxation. They did a study of fifty pilots UM
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 most
but think about it. For the pilot, it's like career ending,
you know. Um, seventy of them got over their motion
sickness and we're able to return to work after biofeedback
(31:14):
training and relaxation programs. So basically they sit in that
tilt a whirl, bring it on, and then biofeedback instruments
record uh, temperature, muscle tension, and they use relaxation techniques
uh 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
(31:36):
in the chair and do it until it doesn't affect you.
An exposure therapy, right yeah. Um. 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
(31:57):
mildly expose your body to the kind of move mints
it's going to expect on like a space shuttle or
whatever ahead of your trip, and you can he says,
you can be prepared and not have any emotion sickness
and as little as a week. Yeah, and I guess
it checks out, Yeah, because it sounds like, you know,
(32:18):
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. Uh. 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 curbs and things. Maybe give
(32:39):
him a little horn, a little imaginary horn once an ord. Uh. Yeah.
The reason why the best seat in the car is
the drivers because you can anticipate the movements the car
is gonna 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 break because they're nervous. It's like, I just
(33:03):
an involuntary action. You seem stumped their foot on the floorboard.
It's pretty funny. I have one friend in particular that
does that. Uh, let's see. I guess that's it, right.
I got nothing else. Um, if you want to learn
more about motion sickness, you can type those words in
the search part how stuff works dot com. And since
(33:24):
I said search bar, it's time for the listener mayo,
I'm gonna call this uh Bonsai to two. Hey, guys,
love the show. I'm a twotoo maker who new but
you know somebody makes them. Sure they don't just grow
on trees, not anymore. I'm a two two maker and
(33:45):
work alone in my studio a lot making two tooos
and you guys are my company and thank you for that.
Also have a Bachelor of Science and ornamental horticulture. So
listening to the bonsai episode reminded me of an experience
ad with a bonsai master in a class I had
in college. The professor covered the art of bonsai. Leading
up to this man's visit. He covered the art, particulous
(34:06):
decisions made in the shaping of the tree, et cetera.
The day came when the master was there to speak
with us. It came into class, and all of his
amazing work was displayed around the classroom. It was really beautiful.
Everyone sort of spoke about it in touchstones, very reverent
to each other. Finally, the master, who was a rather
tiny Japanese man, was ready to demonstrate the technique for us.
He unpotted the plant in front of him, spoke about
(34:28):
the shape and what he felt would be the best
way to train it. And after this, he pulled out
a club the size of a baseball bat and beat
the crap out of the root ball, explaining the need
to control the plant, and no one knew exactly how
to recapt I had not thought about that for a
really long time, and I listened to the show chuckling
the whole time because of it. I thought you might
appreciate the story that is from Nancy Gallagher, the two
(34:51):
Tuo maker. Well thanks a lot, Nancy. Uh. Maybe he
was just trying to get the dirt away from the roots,
I don't know, or maybe it was bad Bonsai. Mr
Miyagi would never do that. I worked with Pat Marita.
Did I mention that on the show? Was it? He
did a music video that I worked on, the Karate
(35:12):
Kid spoof? Oh oh, yeah, alien Ant Farm and I
worked with him. He's super nice and it was just
a couple of years. Whore he died. He's dead. Oh yeah,
that's the shame. Yeah, he liked the white wine. Oh yeah,
I think he told me the story for it. Sounds familiar.
I had to go fetch him some chardonay like noon.
(35:34):
I was like, you know what if that was Pat
Marina on the side of the music video, sure, I'd
be like, I'd have a p a fetch me some
chardonnay do. Yeah. Remember he played Al the replacement Al
l Happy case Arnold al was the name of the actor. Yeah,
right from California at Marita. What was that to do
with it? Nothing? Oh that was an additional fact. Yeah,
(35:56):
I just I mean some people might see the Karate
Kid and I only know that and and keys from Japan.
But he was putting on that accident. Oh yeah, yeah,
he's a California dude, totally. Yeah, like laid back kind
of shardonay guy. If you want to know more about
Pat Morita or get in touch of this or whatever,
you can send off for more info to s Y
s K podcast on Twitter or on Instagram. You can
(36:19):
join us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to Stuff podcast at
how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us
at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know
dot com For more on this and thousands of other topics.
Is it how stuff Works dot com
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Joshua Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry's over there.
I'm speaking in a monotone kind of Hey, dude, Hey,
(00:27):
how's it going. It's going well. I'm not motionsick, so
things are fine. Do you get motion sick sometimes? I mean,
if the conditions are right. I was really surprised to
find that not everybody gets motion sick. What are your conditions? Um,
poor ventilation and like lots of movement, um, backseat of
(00:48):
a car. Okay, uh, but anytime I read in a car,
even like glancing at my phone on a map. Really,
if I have to read anything, it gets me very quick.
So I've just learned that, like, I can't do it. Yeah,
I cannot do it. So I don't I get it
(01:09):
a little bit too. I used to get it more,
I think when I was younger. Supposedly it's normal. Supposedly
it is. But I remember a very specific story that
my brother still laughs at. And by the way, boy,
I'm glad I said that I owe my brother, my
big brother, a big apology because I saw him over
the weekend and he said, oh, by the way, I
(01:30):
was just done an old episode and he said, you've
never been a groom's a best man. I was the
best man at my brother's wedding. Man. I felt like
a jerk, man, Scott, I'm sorry, I know. And what
happened was when I said I hadn't, I just like
quickly scanned through my friends that have gotten married, and
I didn't think about my brother and I was his
(01:51):
best man. A jerk. Well, it's it's rectified now. Well
I told him. I was like, you're gonna get a
public apology. So there it is. That's pretty public. Yeah,
it gets. You could have also started a scores based
website if you wanted, but it's really easy that. Um So, anyway,
this is old story. When we went to Disney, uh geez,
(02:15):
which is the one where Body Wars is at. You
should have asked Holly from stuff you missed in history,
she would know if she probably senses that someone's talking
about Disney right now. Body Wars either was or still is.
I don't know if it's still there. One of those
rides that you sit in a you know, it's one
of those first sort of virtual things where they show
(02:36):
you a movie and then they moved the car, like
The Amazing Voyage or something, wasn't it. Yeah, you went
inside a human body and we're traveling around. I want
to say disney World, but I can't remember. Um so
I went in that, And I mean, wait, I'm getting
you grew up in Atlanta. I'm guessing you went to
disney World. Well, it definitely was at Disneyland, but I
don't know if he was Epcot, Universal Studio Guys, or
(02:57):
Disney World. It was in Orlando. So from what I
under stand, we have a buddy who works for Disney
and he set me straight on this before, and I
think I've got it. So disney World is all of those.
The Magic Kingdom is what you're specifying. So disney World
includes Epcott and Universal Studios. If I'm not mistaken, I
really hope I'm not missing. The Magic Kingdom is specifically
(03:21):
with the Castle. Right. If I did get that wrong, Brandon,
I apologize. It's one with the castle. All the weird
adults that think their children like, uh so, body wars. Anyway,
you're traveling through the body, and I remember at one
point I was like, man, it's getting hot in here,
and Scott's like, this is great. I was like, I'm
not feeling so good man. It's like, do they have
(03:42):
the heat going. It's like, what are you talking about?
It feels great? And I got I didn't vomit, but
I got really sick and made it through the ride
and left. And he still teases me to this day.
He was like, it was temperature air controlled, and you
thought it was like ninety degrees and they were like
pumping in heat. It's funny, like it got to you
like that, like your own body cold sweats the who while, yeah,
(04:04):
that's bad, but generally you you actually did puke, No, no, no,
I did not, you didn't. But generally I don't like
it takes a certain thing, like a really hardcore roller
coaster going in fast, fast circles, but I don't get
sick complaints or the one cruise I went on, it
didn't get sick. Yeah, you know, I've gotten. I've gotten
(04:26):
sick before, like on vacation. But and I'm planes, it's
usually fairly fleeting. It's when I introduced reading that it's
like you're in big trouble for a long time. You
can read on a plane though I can't. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
now I think about it's reading in a car. I
just gotta stay away from that. But usually it does
(04:46):
come about with like poor ventilation that kind of thing,
um yeah, which is another trigger, it's a big one,
or like a rough odor or something like that. I'm
sure all those things don't help. The thing is for
for as much as like we kind of commonly understand
and motion sickness, science really doesn't have a full explanation
for it. I'm picturing little Josh because riding backwards is
(05:08):
bad and like a rumble seat in a station wagon,
in a in a super u brat with like your
dad has like salami socks on or something that stink
what like the windows are rolled up. I don't know,
it just anything. It's something gross salamie socks, like socks
made of salami, Like, wouldn't that smelled gross? He's wearing
(05:29):
the skin of another person. Well, now I was thinking
smelled like old salami, but made of salamis even better, right.
I think I'm just picturing you back there, like reading
your Mad magazine feeling bad. Yeah, yeah, no, I do
remember being a kid and figuring out I can't read
in cars. There was a period where I could, which
is kind of surprising because when you're younger, you're more
(05:50):
susceptible to motion sickness. But I could read in the
car while I was younger, and then probably around the
time of puberty, I was like, I can't do this anymore.
You went opposite weird. Yeah, well maybe you developed your hips, right,
because that's a tease. We'll just leave that out there,
all right. So people supposedly are susceptible to motion sickness. Uh,
(06:15):
and it can happen on planes, it can happen. It's weird.
This one University of Maryland side I went to said, uh,
the following are the most common risk factors riding in
a car, boat, airplane, or space shuttle. Really, yeah, nerds,
Just like they didn't even put the amusement park ride.
They just went straight to space shuttle. You know, one
(06:37):
that I hadn't seen before. But apparently as the thing is,
I'm looking through a microscope, Yeah I hadn't. That makes
a little bit of sense though, Yeah, because the slide
can move in. Your eyes are seeing movement, but you're
not moving, and yeah, I'll get to you. Uh. Like
another nerdy motion sickness space shuttles and microscope. Uh So,
like you said, age between two and twelve, you're more
(06:57):
likely uh, and then you're also more likely to grow
out of it after puberty. And one of the reasons
that women are more motion sickness than men or get
motion sickness more than men is because one of the
theories is that after puberty they developed more in the hips.
Men develop more in the chest, and I guess that
(07:20):
makes a difference. They didn't really explain why they did that. Well,
it all has to do with sway theory, which Will's right,
sway theory. Yeah, but it is true that, like, women
are more susceptible just on average, to motion sickness than
men are. Yeah, studies apparently also Asian women, well Asian
period because Pinn State did a study and they put
(07:41):
people in situations that make emotion sick or not. Did
you look into those Oh is it like a tilted world, dude?
Like if you went in for just a clinical study,
like I'm gonna make some scratch or maybe they'll give
me a cool drug or something, and it turns out
to be a motion sickness study, you should leave. No,
I totally was. So there's this thing called a um
(08:02):
opt to kinetic drum, I believe is what it's called.
Oh I did see that. Yeah, I have to connectic.
It's it's like um a drum, like a big drum
that you sit inside of, and it's got a vertical
black and white painted stretched and it spins around you
and the motion, the movement is really emphasized and like
it's designed to make anybody motion sick and that's how
(08:25):
they induce motion sickness. And I saw another one UM
where they use a chair that just kind of moves
you around, whether you like it or not, and it
induces motion sickness. Like, what a terrible thing to have
happened to you. Man. There was a ride at six
Flags over Georgia growing up that they got rid of
because someone got hurt, supposedly where it's this barrel that
(08:45):
you all get in. You stand it, it's like kind
of below ground. You stand against the wall. Love those
and it's spins so fast. Then they dropped the floor
beneath you and then some trifical force holds you against
the wall. It's like the spin cycle in the washing machine.
You mean, I were just talking about that. The other
thing was awful. That was my favorite of all time. Really,
I just thought it was so cool. Well, the old
(09:06):
story was that someone's leg got trapped when the floor
came back up. But I remember here now that I
look back, because I'm sure that was an old live stale.
Although I was on Snoops the other day and I
was reading an early article and they were talking about, um,
you know, the urban legend about some girl who got
scalped because her hair got caught in an amusement park
ride or something. It actually happened, really, Yeah, the girl's
(09:27):
ponytail got caught in there. It just got pulled right
off of her head. I know, but it actually did happen.
So it's possible someone's leg got got sucked into the
tiltal world. Well, but then what happens is it happened
at every amusement park, right, It happened to my cousin's friend, right, Alright.
So the Penn State study, uh, they put people in
(09:48):
these torture machines, and interestingly, they did confirm eight of
Asian people got sick when it was less than fifty
percent for Caucasian and non Caucasian, which is really it's
very crazy. Um, but it kind of underscores a growing
awareness among motion sickness researchers a K that the evil
(10:11):
ones um that genetics play a big role in susceptibility
to motion sickness. Well, yeah, because there were another couple
of findings that lend to that. UM. Twins. They study
two hundred sets of identical twins, and one percent of
the identical twins were both affected. Um. Yeah, and some
(10:32):
of that, you know, they can't prove that it's genetics
because it also could be the uh just where they
were raised and how were they were raised. What's it
called uh nurture environment environment environmental um. And if parents
are both susceptible to motion sickness, they found that their
children are five times more likely. So it's sort of
(10:55):
points to genetics. But then other things point away from genetics,
like why why would you know two people in the
same family in the same conditions not get sick? Or
why did why why did two people period not get
sick under the same conditions. Yeah, Like, I guess what
(11:15):
I'm saying, salami socks smell same backwards facing seat. Yeah,
I guess what I'm saying is they haven't figured it out, No,
they haven't. But if we do figure out that it's genetic,
thanks to the magic of the Crisper Casts nine gene
editing process to be able to knock that right out
for you, what else is pregnant? Yeah, pregnant women are
more susceptible to it. Um, women who are menstruating, I
(11:39):
think also are, and people who get migraines are more susceptible.
And then people who sleep poorly are more susceptible to
um uh. Motion sickness. Yeah, it says if you're prone
to nausea or vomiting, but I don't know if that's like,
that's sort of a chicken or the egg thing. Well,
we're gonna get into again. We said science as to
(12:00):
understand exactly what's going on here. But there's some good theories.
We're gonna talk about them right after, so chuck, Yeah,
(12:32):
let's talk about some theories for motion sickness because it's
kind of two Yeah. I saw I think it was
this Atlantic article you sent. It's not so much um,
it's not so much science. It's a debate over you know,
the likelier explanation, but they actually kind of fit together.
I think so, but if you ask the people, apparently
(12:54):
the author in the Atlantic, Uh, it's called the Mysterious
Science Emotion Sickness. He's sort of pokes fun a little bit.
He's like, to me, they sound sort of the same.
But don't tell that to those people who believe one
or the other, because they're like, no, they're nothing like
each other. She Julie beck I was that, who wasn't nice? Job,
Julie good article. Um, pat on the back for you,
(13:16):
cold star. So, uh, here's the first one is and
this one. They both make a lot of sense to me. Um. Basically,
there's a dissonance between the parts of your body that
sense motion. Right, that's the easiest way to say it.
It's called the sensory conflict theory. To get dryballs. Yeah,
that it senses motion. It's it's weird if you think
(13:39):
about your eyes doing that, but that's one of the
roles that they play in motion. You also have the
vestibular system, which is centered around your inner ear, and
that definitely senses motion, movement, acceleration, gravity. Uh. And then
you have all the sensors, the sensors and like your
muscles and joints and stuff, right, Yeah, I didn't really
(13:59):
think about that is being one, but for sure, like
your body actually feels it. Yeah, well, think about it,
like if you if you feel yourself kind of moving backward,
you're definitely sensing it through your inner ear, but you
can also feel it in your feet as well, and
they're sending a a bulletin to your brain saying, lean forward, dummy,
(14:20):
you're gonna fall back. What's your problem? Friend? So, this
dissonance occurs when basically, like let's say you're sitting in
a movie theater like an IMAX and it's a scene
where you're you're flying with Superman or something like. You're
seeing this with your eyeballs like a first person perspective
shot of flight, but you're sitting in your seat, so
(14:43):
your eyes are saying you're flying and your butts going
you're sitting here and your brains like a witch. Yeah,
pretty much witchcraft. Uh. So it creates this, This creates
motion sickness. That's when the uh, nausea might kick in, dizziness, uh,
those cold sweats, salivation. I like how the the author
of the house Stuff Works article pointed out she specifically
(15:05):
mentioned Avatar. Yeah, who is the dude? Um? The the
guy who was like the friend on the Flight of
the Concords Mary. No, the other dude, the guy who
worked in the pond. Yeah, yeah, oh man, what is
his name? It's not Range Parker, Arrange Parker, Yes, it was.
I always want to call him Boslerman. I know it's
(15:26):
definitely not the same dude Parker. You mean. I went
to go see him. He did some stand up, right,
and he was talking about Avatar, and he said, when
it first came up, people like, oh, Avatar, have you
seen Avatar? Yea great And then like everything you heard
was have you seen Avatar? You gotta see Avatar, you said,
like after a couple of weeks, you'd just be walking
down the sidewalk and people would pull up alongside you
in your car and roll down the window and go Avatar.
(15:48):
And this is I think a great example of that. Well,
it's interesting. I posted an article on Facebook not too
long ago on the Stuff you Should Know page about
this person wrote an article about Avatar and the argument
was that it for such a huge movie, it had
like zero cultural impact, Like it was big at the time,
but does anyone care now, Like it's not like the
(16:11):
Star Wars World or Star Treker, all these things, and
I totally agreed. I saw Avatar once and I was like,
I'm done with it. Typical James Cameron schlock. I've seen
it zero times. No, that sucks, But dude, there are
Avatar people though, that piled on and we're like, what's
god no idea what he's talking about? It's totally relevant. Oh,
I'm sure they're gonna be all over Facebook page after
(16:33):
this episode comes out. Hey, Chuck forever. Now, I like
some of James Cameron stuff, but if he wrote the script,
then it's I'm not gonna like it. No, I know
what you mean. I think he's a hack writer. Yeah.
Did I just say that two hundreds of thousands of people? Yeah,
And I'm sure James Cameron cares what you think. He's
(16:53):
at the bottom of the Marianna Trench right now. He's not.
He's picking out my future burial site. So um, Chuck,
we're talking about the century conflict theory, right, that's one
big explanation, and it definitely kind of makes sense. Right.
Your your brain just basically gets overloaded and it's like, oh,
I need to sit down. I've got the vapors, right,
(17:17):
I'm doing a lot of bad impressions in this episode
was supposed to be uh, somebody fainting in the late
nineteenth century. Oh, no, it's great. So it was your
arch Parker fop. That's what it was. It was a
fop the dandy popping. There's another competing idea, and that is, UM,
we kind of talked about. UM. It's called sway theory. Yeah.
(17:41):
And there's a dude, h Thomas uh staff or staff Regin.
I'm going with the gin s University of University of Minnesota,
Professor of Kinesiology and listen to this. He's the director
of it Affordance Perception Action Laboratory NERD. He gets motion
(18:05):
sickness looking through microscope. UM. So he proposes the sway
theory UM, which basically has nothing to do with the
vestibular system. He said. He says that I don't I
don't necessarily agree with that, but okay, I agree that
he thinks that. No, I know that he thinks that
I don't agree with that his take on that. Agree.
(18:25):
I think it's still tied together. But his theory is
and this first part isn't theory. It's true is that
everyone sways like unless you're one of those uh people
that stand like motionless in the middle of New Orleans
for money. M hmm, yeah, silver or something like that. Yeah,
they're good, they're good at it. But if you're just
a regular dope like you and I, when we stand there,
(18:47):
we're gonna be moving in a little bit. Yeah, you
mean swaying a little bit. It's weird, like if you
stop and like really pay attention to it. Yeah, you
you notice it, but you'll never notice it unless you
are focused on that. Yeah, you're always moving a little bit. Yeah, swaying.
If you're standing up, you're swaying for the most part. Yes.
And the point he makes is if everyone truly relaxed
(19:08):
every muscle in their body, they'd fall over. Right. So
the whole point, the whole thing is swaying is it's
the byproduct of us standing upright, which is not something
we've been doing for all of the time we've been
on earth, because we evolved from things that walked on
four legs. Standing up is kind of new. Well, sure,
and babies don't stand up, they have to, yeah, exactly.
(19:31):
So um Stoffordgin's whole idea is that motion sickness comes
about when you have um when you're exposed to movement
that contradicts the natural um swaying that you've learned to
do to stand upright right, and it undermines it, and
(19:52):
your brain goes Which makes sense in a way because
let's say you're on a boat and the boat's tilting
to the left, and so what you're feet do, or
you know, they account for that, and maybe you lean
in on the inside of your foot and your toes
flex so because you want to make yourself more upright again.
And then the boat turns again in a direction you're
(20:13):
not expecting. You're correcting for that first move, the second
move happens, and your body doesn't know what to do.
So here's the thing. The the sensory conflict one makes
a little more sense to me than this one, because
that sounds to me like if that if that were
the case, if that's what's going on, and it clearly is.
Like when it's when you get your sea legs or
(20:35):
whatever um you you you were moving along, you're trying
to stay standing under these weird conditions, why would that
translate into something like dizziness or nausea or vomiting or
cold sweats that doesn't make sense to me. Sensory conflict
I can see translating into it. But even beyond that,
a lot of people are like, no, that doesn't Still,
(20:55):
it doesn't make sense why you would vomit. And this
one guy named um Michael Easman seven came up with
a pretty awesome explanation for why we should get nauseated
when we get motion sick right. Well, yeah, should we
take a break and talk about that? Oh all right,
(21:35):
Josh Michael Treatman seven in the journal Science. What did
he say? Oh? He said that we get nauseated from
motion sickness because over there are some toxins out there
that can mess with our vestibular system. Right, yes, So
the body is tricked into thinking that it's possibly been
(21:56):
exposed to some sort of toxin because the vestibular vestibular
system is out of whack from motion sickness, So it
gets nauseated and ultimately might vomit as a reflex to
get rid of whatever toxin it thinks has been ingested.
It's basically a case of mistaken identity. I think it
explained it perfectly. It makes sense to me. I could
(22:18):
see a little bit. I think what Um what staff
Regin is saying is that you're you're used to regaining
your balance. You spend your entire life learning this system,
and that if it's thrown off, what he doesn't do
is connect it. I believe, I believe you're right. He
doesn't connect it in the end to like something that
happens in your brain, right, the the why the physiological
(22:41):
reaction agreed. Yeah, but he does have some pretty good
evidence backing his idea of sway theory up though. Um,
so again, women are more susceptible to um to motion
sickness than men. Right, Yes, that's what they say. Well,
he says, ah, Well, Sway theory explains that um, kids
(23:01):
are equally susceptible to both genders are equally susceptible to
motion sickness before puberty. Then after puberty, the bodies change
and where um, women and men hold most of their
weight is different. Right, Women hold it mostly around their hips.
Men hold it more around their chest, and that means
that the center of gravity is different, which means the
(23:23):
amount that we sway is different. Right yeah, I think Uh?
Who does he say sways? Women's way farther but slower,
but slower Men's sway faster but within a tighter area.
And and these are micro sways. Yeah, I mean I
think that like most people move no more than like
an inch to any given side. And even then you're
(23:46):
like Barney on the Simpsons when he walked out for
that like bachelor um auction. Uh. Then there's also landsickness,
which is interesting. Yeah. 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
you know, just somebody who's been on boats enough. You
(24:09):
don't have to be a professional. Um, you get your
sea legs so well that you get landsickness. 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 your
brain 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, mild barkmant let me look,
(24:33):
I wasn't even looking. That was you forgot the middle part.
There's a qui in the middle, so maybe mal de
bark uman, I said, Mel debarkmon Mel debarkmall barkman barbecue
mal I love that when we do this stuff, there's
it's probably literally fi people laughing and people want to
(24:54):
kill us. Yeah, you know, yeah, a lot of people
want to kill us. Can about as long as they
never do alright, So, um, should we go over some
some things that you can do? Because I mean that
that whole segment on what explains most of the sickness
kind of petered out. But that's the state of science
(25:16):
right now. Yeah, although they will say they have looked
at the twenty three in me um for the genetic
side and have found some support for both claims. I
think that they're together. Like I think, if yes, your
your swaying system is set up in a certain way,
and why can't that be a component that, along with
(25:38):
the vestibular system and your site and all that um
is affected and creates motion sickness. I just don't understand
why it has to be one or the other. That's
the impression that I had he was trying to really
come get across, is that it's no, it's its own thing.
I think that's weird. So what do you what do
you go to if you get motion sick Well, they
(25:59):
say to keep your eyes on the horizon, whether you're
in a car or a boat or whatever, that that
will 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 the horizon, sting. Yeah, constant look
(26:20):
at you. Um, keep your head still so you can
lay down if you're able to somewhere, um or at
least put your head back against the seat. Just sort
of keep it as still as possible. Don't smoke. Sure,
they say it's just good advice all around exactly. Um,
if you're gonna fly, they say to avoid big, greasy
(26:40):
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 gonna help empty stomach. No good turn
that air vent. Whether you're in your car or a
plane or a boat, you need want some fresh air
blowing on your face, ideally or at least cycled air
(27:02):
felt this bed sinstead. It need to brank hunt uh,
sit in the front of the airplane or over a wing. Supposedly, yeah,
the rear of the airplane. Oh man, you just get
whipped around back, and it's way worse if you get
motion sick You should never sit behind the the wings
of the airplane. See I love the last car of
(27:24):
a roller coaster though, Well, yeah, you're feeling it more,
you're enjoying it more. You don't get motion sick. Um
what else? Avoid salty foods before you travel. There's also
remedies too, right, So the jury is out on whether
ginger actually helps or not, or if it's just the
placebo effect. Ginger, peppermint, and black horehound apparently are some
(27:46):
of the herbs that may or may not work. Who knows. UM,
I can tell you firsthand, and I looked it up.
See bands actu pressure bracelets that go on your wrist
three fingers with down from the heel of your palm,
the pairicardium six so the acupuncture point. I saw research
(28:07):
that showed that UM, neither placebo nor acupressure bands had
any effect on motion sickness. I can tell you that
even if it is just placebo, they still work firsthand.
They work alright, even if it's placebo. I don't care.
That's fine as long as it keeps me from being motionsick. Yeah. Yeah,
it kept me and you me from being motion sick
(28:28):
on an entire cruise. But would you have been motion
sick without it? Yeah, because we had We didn't use
it for one day and we felt immediately. Yeah, Um,
I brought one on my only cruise that I went
to and uh, I don't think I work because I
didn't need to. We had like divots on our risk
because we just come on like the whole the time. Yeah,
(28:48):
you should bring it just in case. Yeah. Sure. We
also had scope al amin and we didn't even use
it because the c bands work so well. Drama meine,
is that the same thing or different? Scope ala mean?
Is that stuff that like eight um drug people with
and then uh, it's like remember in our truths Herem
episode we talked about scope limit. It's like a drug
in South America where they'll they'll dose you with it
(29:11):
and then you end up like just basically becoming zombified
and don't remember anything. It's the same stuff, but it
doles the messages from your inner ear to your brain,
so your sensation of motion is decreased. Homeopathy, there haven't
been a ton of studies about the effective effectiveness of
specific remedies. But they do say things like borax, coculus, petroleum, tabacum. Dude,
(29:41):
So we're gonna hear from so many people just for
having even uttered the word homeopathy. Does that I say
it homeopathy? No? It goes both ways. Um, yeah, I know.
I mean, nothing drives people more crazy than that. They're
gonna go desert mark my word because it's not you know, well,
well I said that that take it or leave it. Basically,
(30:05):
some people swear by it, yeah, and some people think
it's uh too. From what I have ever seen, it's
like the biggest flashpoint, uh like of anything, of anything
at Skeptics talk about nothing drives them crazier than than homeopathy.
Ye like makes them nuts. It's kind of funny to
watch it does, because then you people say you shouldn't
(30:27):
even say western versus Eastern medicine. You should say proven
science versus like witchcraft. Who did the people say that?
On Facebook? Yeah, they get really like, you shouldn't even
say I don't even see it. I said you can't
say it, don't even say it? Josh? Um what else? Yeah,
I'm making fun of you. Mind body medicine, biofeedback training
(30:52):
and relaxation. They did a study of fifty pilots UM
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 most
but think about it. For the pilot, it's like career ending,
you know. Um, seventy of them got over their motion
sickness and we're able to return to work after biofeedback
(31:14):
training and relaxation programs. So basically they sit in that
tilt a whirl, bring it on, and then biofeedback instruments
record uh, temperature, muscle tension, and they use relaxation techniques
uh 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
(31:36):
in the chair and do it until it doesn't affect you.
An exposure therapy, right yeah. Um. 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
(31:57):
mildly expose your body to the kind of move mints
it's going to expect on like a space shuttle or
whatever ahead of your trip, and you can he says,
you can be prepared and not have any emotion sickness
and as little as a week. Yeah, and I guess
it checks out, Yeah, because it sounds like, you know,
(32:18):
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. Uh. 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 curbs and things. Maybe give
(32:39):
him a little horn, a little imaginary horn once an ord. Uh. Yeah.
The reason why the best seat in the car is
the drivers because you can anticipate the movements the car
is gonna 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 break because they're nervous. It's like, I just
(33:03):
an involuntary action. You seem stumped their foot on the floorboard.
It's pretty funny. I have one friend in particular that
does that. Uh, let's see. I guess that's it, right.
I got nothing else. Um, if you want to learn
more about motion sickness, you can type those words in
the search part how stuff works dot com. And since
(33:24):
I said search bar, it's time for the listener mayo,
I'm gonna call this uh Bonsai to two. Hey, guys,
love the show. I'm a twotoo maker who new but
you know somebody makes them. Sure they don't just grow
on trees, not anymore. I'm a two two maker and
(33:45):
work alone in my studio a lot making two tooos
and you guys are my company and thank you for that.
Also have a Bachelor of Science and ornamental horticulture. So
listening to the bonsai episode reminded me of an experience
ad with a bonsai master in a class I had
in college. The professor covered the art of bonsai. Leading
up to this man's visit. He covered the art, particulous
(34:06):
decisions made in the shaping of the tree, et cetera.
The day came when the master was there to speak
with us. It came into class, and all of his
amazing work was displayed around the classroom. It was really beautiful.
Everyone sort of spoke about it in touchstones, very reverent
to each other. Finally, the master, who was a rather
tiny Japanese man, was ready to demonstrate the technique for us.
He unpotted the plant in front of him, spoke about
(34:28):
the shape and what he felt would be the best
way to train it. And after this, he pulled out
a club the size of a baseball bat and beat
the crap out of the root ball, explaining the need
to control the plant, and no one knew exactly how
to recapt I had not thought about that for a
really long time, and I listened to the show chuckling
the whole time because of it. I thought you might
appreciate the story that is from Nancy Gallagher, the two
(34:51):
Tuo maker. Well thanks a lot, Nancy. Uh. Maybe he
was just trying to get the dirt away from the roots,
I don't know, or maybe it was bad Bonsai. Mr
Miyagi would never do that. I worked with Pat Marita.
Did I mention that on the show? Was it? He
did a music video that I worked on, the Karate
(35:12):
Kid spoof? Oh oh, yeah, alien Ant Farm and I
worked with him. He's super nice and it was just
a couple of years. Whore he died. He's dead. Oh yeah,
that's the shame. Yeah, he liked the white wine. Oh yeah,
I think he told me the story for it. Sounds familiar.
I had to go fetch him some chardonay like noon.
(35:34):
I was like, you know what if that was Pat
Marina on the side of the music video, sure, I'd
be like, I'd have a p a fetch me some
chardonnay do. Yeah. Remember he played Al the replacement Al
l Happy case Arnold al was the name of the actor. Yeah,
right from California at Marita. What was that to do
with it? Nothing? Oh that was an additional fact. Yeah,
(35:56):
I just I mean some people might see the Karate
Kid and I only know that and and keys from Japan.
But he was putting on that accident. Oh yeah, yeah,
he's a California dude, totally. Yeah, like laid back kind
of shardonay guy. If you want to know more about
Pat Morita or get in touch of this or whatever,
you can send off for more info to s Y
s K podcast on Twitter or on Instagram. You can
(36:19):
join us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to Stuff podcast at
how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us
at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know
dot com For more on this and thousands of other topics.
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