The Cause of Motion Sickness in Oriental Medicine

멀미의 병인(病因)에 대한 한의학적(韓醫學的) 접근(接近)

Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate that causes of motion sickness in oriental medicine. Methods The internal and external studies about motion sickness were searched Results and Conclusions The motion sickness is induced by conflict of balance system including vestibular, visual and proprioceptive system. The motion sickness is more common in female and in children between 2 and 12 years old. In western medicine, antihistamine and anticholinergic has been used for treatment of motion sickness, but these anti-motion sickness drug turn out to be not a perfect solution and have several side effects. On the other hands, In oriental medical terminology, there is no words equivalent to the "motion sickness", but we consider the motion sickness as state with dizziness, nausea and vomiting. The motion sickness can be induced by either internal or external causes and the internal causes can thought to be a constitutional factor of an individuals, and the general transportation can be an external cause. The important internal cause is a dysfunction of the spleen, stomch(脾胃不調), retention of phlegm and fluids(痰飮), and deficiency of the kidney jing(腎精不足). The wind(風) and fire(火) in the upper part of the body, especially in the head, also can be an important cause of the motion sickness.