Efficacy of Acupressure Wristbands in Prevention of Motion Sickness

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate actual use of Pericardium (P)6 acupressure on prevention of significant motion sickness symptoms. To investigate this hypothesis, surveys of US Coast Guard crewmembers (N=915) on various ocean vessels were conducted, demonstrating potential efficacy of commercially available acupressure wristbands (N=45 with a 76% success rate). These noninvasive wristbands are occasionally recommended by physicians who have successful results with patients experiencing morning sickness from pregnancy, nausea symptoms from anesthesia and motion sickness from cars, boats, trains and planes. Although there is no demonstrated correlation between motion sickness at sea, Space Motion Sickness or parabolic flight maneuvers, it is hoped that positive results from noninvasive devices such as the wristbands presented may have potential use in such missions in the future.