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My Barfing Genes

Why do some people get sick from getting whipped around by a carnival ride or even riding in a car?

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‘Tis the season. Shopping season, that is. Choosing just the thing for this nephew or that in-law is tough. Nobody wants to throw money away on gifts that aren’t appreciated. We’re wandering down the tech aisle this year because who doesn’t love tech? Gadgets and wearables and smart everything, oh my! The FLUX Led Light & Power Bank will give you days of mega light at a campsite or anywhere else, and charge your phones at the same time. This thing is awesome and going on our list. It’s drone time, don’t you think? Seems like they’re all over the place. We love the DJI Phantom 4 Pro. It captures images you only dream of, and the controller is a thing of beauty with a built-in screen. Pardon our drool. The Stellarscope allows you to dial in your location and look to the stars, which are charted out for you. Great gift for the budding scientist in your family. And bonus, you get to use it, too. Wireless sound. Not earbuds – maybe they’re called cheekbuds? Trekz Air uses “bone conduction technology” to give you the sound you want without sticking uncomfortable plastic bits in your ear. They wrap around the back of your head/neck and rest on your cheekbones. We have got to try these! The constellation of products under the Amazon Echo umbrella allow you to set up your home in pretty smart fashion. You can ask Alexa to adjust the heat if you’re a bit cool, turn on the bedside lamp when you’re headed that way, get the coffee going when you actually wake up and not when you were supposed to get up, play games with you, or do loads of other helpful things. We want one, or possibly nine. Do you know a pregnant someone who is hugging the toilet throughout the day? Does your SO get all clammy and hang his head out of the car window as soon as the wheels leave the driveway? Reliefband® controls the nasty symptoms of morning and motion sickness. It slips on the wrist and, with the touch of a button, sends a signal to the part of the brain that controls nausea, retching, and vomiting. Wearable tech everybody loves! There you go, shopping solved. What’s on your tech list this year?

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Holiday Travel And Motion Sickness

Holiday travel is coming up and you’re dreading it. Not because Uncle Jimmy’s going to eat too much and sprawl all over the couch, but because you suffer from wicked motion sickness and the journey is not going to be fun. We have some tips to help you navigate a puke-free path to your destination. Hang in there, we will get you to mom’s mincemeat pie! First, if you don’t already have one, get a Reliefband®; put it on your wrist and turn it on before traveling. This device will change your world. Don’t take our word for it, check out what Reliefband® users have to say. Other actions you can take to help alleviate the nausea include: Keep your eyes on what’s happening outside the car/train/plane. Do not read a book or watch movies on your e-device. Direct airflow toward your face. A fresh, gentle breeze helps. Any cool air coming from the ventilation system will do, as long as it’s not smelly. No greasy, heavy meals before or during the trip. If you need to eat, make it something light and not spicy. Water is good to drink, but no sugary or acidic beverages. If there’s room, stretch out and take a nap. Snooze your way through to your destination. With a little planning and your Reliefband® on your wrist, you will survive the journey in fine form, and possibly even beat Uncle Jimmy to the couch for a post-dinner nap.

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Unexpected Triggers Of Motion Sickness

Do you suffer from motion sickness? If so, you know there are classic triggers, such as riding in the backseat of a moving car, flying in a small (or large) plane, or rocking in a boat. But for some sufferers, the triggers can be unexpected, and definitely not classic. If you experience any of these, maybe it’ll help to know you’re not alone. Anticipatory nausea and vomiting happens when you’ve experienced untreated nausea or vomiting in the past. Maybe this has happened when you’ve been sailing. After feeling icky or vomiting a few times while on a boat, you might start feeling nauseous or even barfing just at the thought of being on a boat bobbing in the water. That’s anticipatory nausea and vomiting. Elevators are sneaky triggers. If it’s common for you to get motion sickness under normal circumstances, you’ve probably staggered off of a few elevators, feeling crummy. Lots of sufferers experience this. Then there’s the one that’s particular to the computer age: scrolling through a document or a website. If that scroll gets going just a teeny bit too fast, watch out. If you get blindsided by unexpected triggers for motion sickness, we recommend you consider wearing your Reliefband® every time you leave the house. Unless you get surprised at home with oddball triggers, in which case, wear it there! Next time you see someone wearing a Reliefband®, give them a wave and a grin. Let them know they’re not alone!

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How Reliefband Works

Do you suffer from motion or morning sickness? It’s awful to live with, isn’t it! If you’re new to Reliefband®, we believe you’re about to meet your favorite piece of technology. Reliefband® is wearable technology that puts you in control of treating nausea, retching, and vomiting associated with morning sickness and motion sickness—without drugs and without delay. How It Works Reliefband® is worn on the wrist, with the band holding the device to the underside of the wrist. When it’s turned on, it releases a specific pattern of pulses, like beats on a drum, that stimulate a nerve under the skin called the median nerve. These pulses create a signal, which pulses through the body’s nervous system to the part of the brain that controls nausea, retching, and vomiting. This area is known as the dorsal vagal complex. The pulses quiet and normalize the nerve messages that travel along what’s called the vagus nerve, from the brain to the stomach. This relieves the symptoms of nausea, retching, and vomiting caused by motion or morning sickness. Reliefband®. It’s stunning technology that will change your life, so you can live life in full motion.

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Time For Autumn Vacay!

What?! Who takes vacations in autumn? We’re all exhausted from summer travels (not to mention kids at home 24/7). In the autumn, we spend our days at work and our nights planning our holiday and winter vacations. Well, turns out that autumn is the perfect vacation season. Everyone else is back in school or at work, so fewer crowds, nicer weather, and did we mention the kids are back in school? Now is the time to decompress, between the chaos of summer and the nonstop holidays. There’s a place you can go where the loudest thing you’ll hear is the ocean lapping the shoreline. No cars and not many people to disturb your long walks on Bald Head Island, North Carolina. Get a little daring on your last night and take the Ghost Walk tour. Pennsylvania Dutch Country (a.k.a. Lancaster, PA, and surrounding areas) is the antiquer’s paradise. Just north of Lancaster, 3,000+ antique dealers wait to share a piece of history and a story to go with it, if you have the time. Rambling around the area during harvest season is a treat for the senses as every leaf is in the process of dazzling us with color or wafting to earth for the winter, and the scent of apples blankets the town. Watch out for those corn mazes—you wouldn’t be the first to panic at yet another dead end. Nestled in the shadows of the Cascade Mountains, Leavenworth, WA, is a tiny Bavarian village that celebrates Octoberfest for the entire month of October, and then erupts in twinkly holiday lights that cover every tree and building in the city limits. When you’re tired of strolling the beautiful lanes, you can jump in a kayak or on a horse and get your outdoorsy on. You’re in the Northwest, after all! All of these destinations sound great, but those of us who live with motion sickness never think about such vacations without also thinking of how sick we’re going to get in transit. You know what? We say enough! Enough with the cold sweats, nausea, and vomiting. We have Reliefband® to treat those nasty symptoms of motion sickness. No drugs, just slip it on your wrist and adjust the power to suit your needs. Take control, and live your life in full motion. We’ll be with you every step of the way.

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VR Is Everywhere!

Virtual Reality (VR) is popping up in surprisingly useful places. It’s gone way beyond gaming, although games such as Fallout 4 and Elite: Dangerous still get plenty of attention. For instance, Wisconsin Oven lets potential customers walk through their facility on a VR tour. Forget catalogs when you can actually see how the ovens are made. Surgeons can practice procedures before getting near the operating room. This allows them to work out most problems before touching their patient. We all support this, right? Therapists treat us through exposure therapy using VR. Afraid of spiders? No problem, just slip on a VR headset and you’ll see a teeny spider in the distance. Gradually, as your fear decreases due to repeated exposure to more and bigger spiders, you’ll be able to keep a tarantula around the house. Well, you get the idea, anyway. VR’s potential is limited only by our imaginations. But, during this explosive exploration, we hope designers work on the nuts and bolts of making the VR world seamless to our eyes. If the timing is just a teensy bit off, many users will feel a rush of VR-related motion sickness. Unlike the VR world, the nausea is IRL (In Real Life). The good news is, Reliefband® on the wrist controls the nausea, retching, and vomiting of VR-related motion sickness. Slip it on, turn it on, and Live Life in Full Motion. Enjoy Virtual Reality, no matter the reason you find yourself there.

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How-To Guide For Reliefband Classic

After years of nausea, and probably more than a little retching and vomiting, you’ve ordered your very first Reliefband®. Congratulations! Now, let’s talk about the nuts and bolts of how to use Reliefband® to get maximum effectiveness for you. Positioning Reliefband® properly on your wrist is essential for relief of your nausea, retching, and vomiting symptoms. Before you start using Reliefband®, please read the Instructions for Use carefully. You must feel stimulation in your palm and/or middle fingers for Reliefband® to work. There’s a specific spot on the underside of your wrist where Reliefband® needs to be positioned. Find the starting area on the wrist. Using either wrist, the correct area is between the two tendons on the underside of the wrist – two finger-widths above the wrist crease farthest from your elbow. Before positioning your Reliefband®, clean the area first. Once the area is clean, apply a small drop of gel and spread it in a circle about the size of a large coin with an even sheen (i.e., a thin layer with a shiny appearance). Place the device over the gelled area and attach it to the wrist. Fasten the device snugly. Press the power button in the center of the device to turn it on. Starting at power level 1, increase stimulation until tingling is felt through median nerve in palm and middle finger at a comfortable level. Press the power button in the center of the device for 3 seconds to turn it off. When to use Reliefband®? You can use your Reliefband® either before or after your nausea, retching, and vomiting symptoms start and leave it on for as long as your symptoms last. If you are highly susceptible to motion sickness, apply Reliefband® one half hour before a motion sickness event (e.g., riding in a car, airplane, or boat). How can you be sure you’ve found the area for maximum stimulation? After the device is turned on, move it slightly up or down, and side to side on the wrist until the maximum “tingling” feeling is felt. You will feel a tingling sensation in your palm and/or middle fingers when Reliefband® is in the proper wrist location. Stimulation will cycle every four seconds. If little or no tingling is felt after moving it around, increase the power level to the next level of stimulation. This device has five levels of stimulation: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (level 5 is the highest setting). On which wrist should you wear Reliefband®? On the wrist that gives you the greatest tingling in the hand at the lowest stimulation level. Is dry or sensitive skin a problem? For dry skin, the gel may be lightly applied more often. If you have especially sensitive skin, switch wrists every 2-3 hours. Be sure to re-apply gel as directed. And that’s it! Please read your Instructions For Use, and let us know if you have any questions. Now go, and live your life in full motion!

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Bye Mom, Hello Uni!

It’s that time of year when we help our grown children pack up and leave the family home. University for them, now-idle bedroom converted to a hobby room for us. Life is good. So, what’s on the packing list? There is a packing list, right? If not, you will be shipping multiple packages for months, full of forgotten boots, tennis rackets, special shampoos, or favorite jammies. Bedding. Take a look at your child’s bed and add everything you see to the list. Pillows, sheets, blankets, throw pillows, possibly stuffed animals will all make the list. Plus, an anti-bedbug mattress cover and some sort of feather or foam mattress topper to provide cushioning for what is sure to be a hard mattress. Room stuff. If you know how big the room is and what’s already in it, this part should be easy. Things to consider: seating (chair, beanbag, futon, whatever), lamps, desk, rugs, small table(s), trashcans, storage bins for under the bed and bed risers to make more room for the bins, hangers and storage bins for the closet, large mirror, curtains and rods, wall décor, fridge, fan. Well, that’s a start. Bathroom items. This is the tough one because you’ll need to go into your child’s bathroom in order to fill out the list. Take your child with you — no sense in suffering alone. Starting from one corner of the room, inspect every inch of the space, making your way completely around the room while noting items for the list. Don’t forget essential but non-personal objects such as toilet paper and cotton balls. Medical/Legal necessities. Note all prescription and over-the-counter medicines your child takes, even those taken only occasionally. Plus, list any documents that will need to be in the possession of your grown child. Note: it’s critical that you make copies of all documents you send with your child. When possible, send the copy and keep the original. Think passport, health/car/renters insurance, birth certificate, social security, bank accounts, really all the documents you’ve kept safely filed away, you’ll now have to entrust to your grown child. Odds and ends. There are helpful lists on the internet that mention hundreds of necessary and unnecessary items your child may need to pack for university. It’s a good idea to browse those lists and compare yours for missing items. Some overlooked things we find useful for grown children packing for university are earplugs, duct tape, umbrella, flashlight, deck of cards, small toolkit, and a sleep mask. And finally, help them live life in full motion. Slip a Reliefband® on your young adult’s wrist and explain how to use it. It’s drug-free wearable tech that treats the nausea, retching, and vomiting associated with VR-related motion sickness. He or she will be prepared for the next epic all-day battle in Raw Data or Chronos, right after he/she aces the tests for the week. If they are wearing a Reliefband®, they won’t need mom or dad there to treat the nasty symptoms of motion sickness caused by VR, or those caused by riding in cars/planes/boats. That’s a good thing . . . right? Sniff.

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