Gingerly Nauseous

My best friend held his wedding on a 80 foot schooner on Sunday. Only 60 feet of it was deck space, but it was still the largest sail boat I’ve ever had the pleasure to ride. It was a beautiful day and the most fun I’ve ever had at a wedding. As the best man, not only was I the bachelor party organizer, napkin folder, and backseat photographer, but I was also the investigator of scientific literature.

Since the ceremony was on a sail boat, a member of our party mentioned the night before that he’s had bad reactions to Dramamine, the motion-sickness medication, and brought up ginger as an alternative. I’ve never heard of ginger’s purported effects on alleviating nausea, upset stomach or other motion-sickness symptoms and I’m cautious of word-of-mouth only claims. However, I was careful to keep my skepticism to myself since I did not want to ruin anyone’s chances of taking comfort in the placebo effect. If the placebo effect can keep them from vomiting at a wedding, then the more power to them.

I make it a point to research these claims unless the person making them reassures me that they’re not merely parroting the information. Ever played the telephone game? It works kind of like that, so I want reassurance from the person telling me the information or from my own research. Fortunately, it did not take long to find this review paper from the British Journal of Anaesthesia: Efficacy of ginger for nausea and vomiting: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials (PDF).

The review paper covers several kinds of conditions that induce nausea and vomiting, but only one of these papers investigated sea-sickness. In the words, the conclusion is not strong because there hasn’t been a lot of research in it, but the overall verdict supports ginger as a herbal remedy for high seas. I say it’s a good enough conclusion for now, and it’s better than spending the wedding vomiting off the side of the boat.