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Updated October 14, 2018 1.1K votes 304 voters 27.1K views
Over 300 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Nausea-Inducing Things You Didn't Know About Seasickness
Voting Rules
Vote up the seasickness facts that make you the most queasy
There's probably not a person alive who enjoys getting seasick. The rolling waves, the jostling, the bile rising in your stomach... you might get nauseated just thinking about it! For seasickness sufferers, it can feel like the only cure is to curl up in a corner and hope to die. And for those of you who blissfully wonder, what is getting seasick like? Count your blessings every time you go out on the water, for the rest of our sakes.
With all this in mind, you probably think you have a pretty good understanding of what seasickness is, right? Well, do you know that some of the great thinkers of history, including Darwin and Hippocrates, suffered from seasickness? Did you know that animals such as horses can get seasick? And that curling up in a corner to die can actually make it worse? See, there are some seasickness facts that even you didn't know.
Maybe you're looking for potential cures, or maybe you're just morbidly curious, but oh boy, do we have a nausea-inducing list of facts for you! You be the judge of which of these weird information tidbits are the most fascinating or gross, and try to remember, don't think about rolling waves. Just don't think about rolling waves.
So, you brave your vomitous test of horror for a week, and you finally get to go back on sweet, wonderful land. All your problems are over, right? Not quite. You see, once your body has acclimated to the rolling motion of the ocean, it can have trouble readjusting to non-moving land. In fact, the body can react by making you feel all the symptoms you originally had when you were seasick, effectively making you seasick while on land. It can take several days to get your "landlegs" again.
98 votes
2
65 VOTES
Symptoms of Seasickness Can Last for Up to Three Days
If you take a little trip, whalewatching or birdwatching perhaps, and come back feeling sick, you might not be out of the woods yet. Even if the sickness is brief, symptoms of it, including the nausea and vomiting, can sometimes last up to three days. Even if you're safe at home in your bed. So get plenty of fluids and rest when you get home, and pray that it's not the dreaded three-day kind.
65 votes
3
80 VOTES
It Can Make You Vomit So Much That You Get Dehydrated
There are no real serious health complications from a bout of seasickness, except for one. When you vomit, you remove fluids from your body, and that can dehydrate you, especially if you can't keep anything down. Enough dehydration can cause fainting and low blood pressure, both of which can make your trip even more miserable. So it's always a good idea to see the ship's medic when you start throwing up.
Ever heard of Norovirus? If you haven't, and haven't had it, be very glad. It involves lots of vomiting, exhaustion, and fever, and can knock you on your butt for days on end. Due to the vomiting and exhaustion and other motion sickness-like symptoms, it can be mistaken for seasickness during the early stages. The horrible thing about this is that Norovirus is often found on cruise ships, and it's highly contagious. If you want to ruin a fun time out on the ocean, that's a surefire way to do it.
60 votes
5
61 VOTES
Some People Say Drinking Sea Water Will Stop the Nausea
First of all, these people are absolutely wrong and should stop talking. Drinking sea water is a terrible idea and you should never ever do it for any reason. Secondly, this is a very old remedy. Way back in the great seafaring explorer times, drinking a cup of bilge water or sea water was a suggested cure for seasickness. Those guys had pretty short lifespans anyway, so it's probably not a good idea for us today.
When you think of seasickness, you probably right away think of vomiting as the biggest symptom. Well, there are a few other rather unsavory ones you might not not know about. One of these is that seasickness can make you salivate too much, which means your mouth is going to fill up with spit. Combine that with an increase in burping, and you're likely to be a gross drooly mess, even if you're not actually throwing up.
