Some of my earliest memories involve being in the back of a car, trying not to throw up. Motion sickness has been a lifelong companion, and to this day I've been known to get queasy on winding country roads—even when I'm driving.
So when I had to fly from my Missouri home to Texas recently, I was excited to try out the Reliefband during the flight.
Reliefband is a wristband that reduces nausea—especially related to motion sickness, VR gaming, and morning sickness—by emitting pulses that stimulate the vagus nerve in the wrist. This nerve affects the part of your brain associated with nausea, which is why you'll see many nausea relief bands focus on pressure points in the wrist.
The band has five intensity levels. When you first get your Reliefband, you bump up the level until it's as high as you can comfortably tolerate, and that's the level you always use. You don't move it up and down depending on how nauseated you are on a given day.
Little did I know when I booked my flight that I'd not only be counting on Reliefband to battle my motion sickness, but I would also be newly pregnant and deep in the throes of all-day morning sickness. But I strapped on my Reliefband and hoped for the best as I boarded a regional jet without so much as a Dramamine.
TSA didn't make me remove Reliefband in the security line, which was a pleasant surprise. But once on the plane, I didn't even feel the takeoff. What was this sorcery? I could feel a gentle, rhythmic pulsing in my fingertips, which let me know the Reliefband was placed correctly, but that was all I felt. No flip-flopping of my stomach as we left the ground nor as we ascended to ear-popping altitudes. I was ready to get out my laptop right then and there to write up this article and sing Reliefband's praises.
Then we hit a lengthy patch of turbulence on the descent into Dallas. Maybe I would have been way more sick had I not been wearing the band, but the nausea hit me hard. I wasn't the only one whose blood drained from their face and contemplated reaching for the barf bag. Everyone around me went quiet and focused on keeping their lunches down. So maybe Reliefband granted me the average person's level of motion sickness.
I've never been so relieved to walk off a plane as I was that one. Unfortunately, I then had to ride in the back of a crowded shuttle bus to get to my rental car and there, finally, my nausea passed.
The Reliefband made a difference for me. But that rocky landing in Dallas prompted me to pair my Reliefband with a dose of Dramamine for the (smooth) return flight, during which I experienced the same amount of nausea I usually do during a Dramamine-enhanced flight. Maybe Reliefband works better on some people than others, and perhaps I'm such a hard case that nothing can totally get rid of my motion sickness.
The Reliefband is currently for sale for $94.99. The package comes with a gel that conducts the pulses and protects the skin; gel refills are $14.99. Reliefband is also prepping a new model, Reliefband Neurowave (above), which will offer nausea sufferers another drug-free option for getting their lives back.