#MotionSickness

Citroën has developed a device, meant to be worn on the face, that resemble eyeglasses and can eliminate the symptoms associated with motion sickness within minutes of putting them on. Or so it claims.

Obviously, such an invention would be a blessing for travelers afflicted with a sensitive stomach, but we’ve noticed they’re not the most stylish set of frames on the market. On the spectrum of taste, we’d place them right between the novelty glasses people wear during New Year’s Eve — denoting the coming annum — and the false spectacles you drew on your passed-out roommate’s face in college.

However, if you view Citroën motion sickness glasses as a medical device, they become easier on the eyes. Tragically named Seetroën, the frames are said to use “Boarding Ring™ technology” and boast 95 percent effectiveness. All you have to do is wait until you feel sick and chuck these bad boys onto your face. After about ten minutes, the glasses “enable the mind to resynchronize with the movement perceived by the inner ear while the eyes were focused on an immobile object.”

They say the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

I was blessed with an appreciation for road racing and cars that corner and handle well. Unfortunately, I’m also very prone to motion sickness. That means I can’t race cars.

Back when I was riding around in the rear facing far back seat in the Buick station wagon belonging to my best friend Stevie Margolin’s mom, this affliction was called “car sickness.” It was either in that Buick or on one of Detroit’s Bob-Lo boats that I recall first experiencing nausea when in motion.

Nausea and motion have a long association. The term nausea in fact comes to use from the ancient Greek word for boat. Up to 95 percent of the population experiences some form of motion sickness, with 5-15 percent being extremely sensitive to it. Placebos, pharmaceuticals, over the counter medications, pressure bands, and even skin patches behind the ear have all been tried as treatments to varying degrees of success and side effects.

A new wearable medical device called the ReliefBand may make that motion induced nausea a thing of the past — and finally let me go racing.