How to Cope with Seasickness

Seasickness happens when the balance centers of your brain have trouble making sense of the rocking motion of a boat on water, because the boat motion doesn't match up with what your eyes see. Seasickness can range from minor queasiness to nonstop vomiting.

How to Avoid Seasickness

1. First and most common way: pills. Over-the-counter anti-emetic drugs like Dramamine, Bonine, or Marezine are small, chewable tablets that are readily available in any drugstore or grocery store pharmacy. Take one every 12 to 24 hours (read the package instructions), with the first one an hour before the boat leaves the dock. If the boating activity is on a cruise ship or otherwise hosted expedition, the boat might carry a supply of meclizine (generic of Bonine).



2. Then there's scopalamine patches. These are small, round, typically skin colored (for light-colored skin), and placed behind the ear. One patch is good for three days. They are expensive, however, and available only by prescription. Don't use more than one at a time.

3. Acupressure wristbands like Sea Band. There is a pressure point on the inside of each wrist which, when pressed hard enough, will silence the nerves that cause nausea. Finding the right spot can be tricky, however, and the spots on both wrists must be firmly pressed for it to work. Acupressure wristbands come with very tight elastic and a small button to do the pressing. The elastic is good for several years before it wears out and the wristbands lose effectiveness.



4. Motion Eaze is a liquid made of "natural oils." Like the scopalamine patch, it is absorbed through the skin.



5. Ginger (in the form of ginger gum in the picture above) may be effective on very mild cases of seasickness. The very first part of seasickness is increased sleepiness, and ginger will stimulate alertness.

How to Ease Seasickness In Progress

If your prevention methods have failed and you feel sick, don't hide inside or below-deck - that will just make it worse. You need to be able to see the horizon, which means you need to be outside. Sit on as low a level of the boat as possible, and as close to the middle as you can get while still being outside. Tall boats sway more up top than at the water surface, and rock more at their sides. You're looking for the part with the least motion.

Also, try to avoid places with too much engine noise or fuel fumes. If you can't see the horizon (it's dark or foggy), focus on anything you can see that's as far away as possible - wave crests (not the swirly ones right by the boat!), the moon or stars, clouds, etc.

Preparing to Vomit

If you know you will be vomiting, there are a number of things to do in advance. First, figure out which way is downwind (probably facing to the back of the boat) and where on the deck has the least wind. Check that there are no people immediately downwind of your chosen spot. You do not want to vomit while facing the wind, as it will come right back and land on your face. It's also considered bad form for it to land on other people.

If it's a small boat on calm waters, leaning over the side is the preferred way to go. On larger ships in the open seas, be sure to wear a life jacket. However, leaning over the side isn't strictly necessary if the boat comes equipped with deck-cleaning hoses that you can access. All outside decks are waterproof, and if you have access to a hose, you can simply rinse off afterward.

Make sure you have lots of paper towels and kleenex stashed away in your pockets, so you can clean yourself up afterward as well. Kleenex is important if any of the vomit goes through your nose.

What to do After Vomiting

Afterward, eat starchy foods like rice, potatoes, bread, or crackers. Those will help settle your stomach. Eat something even if you aren't hungry. If nothing else, it gives your stomach something to empty if you need to vomit again later - which, while uncomfortable, is still better than vomiting nothing.

If you're unfortunate enough to be seasick no matter what you try to do to prevent it, bring along Snickers candy bars. Those are one of the few food items that taste just as good coming up as going down.

Landsickness

The good news is that eventually, if your boating trip lasts long enough, you will probably develop your "sea legs." The balance centers of your brain will adapt to the rocking motion and you'll stop noticing it.

The bad news is that you might go through the reverse process once you're back on land. This is called either "dock rock" or "landsickness" depending on how long it lasts. Basically it feels like perfectly still ground is moving, and your body will sway to try to counter the rocking motion that isn't happening - sometimes to the point where you lose your balance. Depending on how long your trip was, it can take up to a week to go away.

How to Do Yogi Bicycle Situps

A yogi bicycle situp is like a regular situp but with a twist. They will stretch your side muscles while strengthening your abdominal muscles. It makes for a more strenuous alternative to regular situps if you're looking for variety in your workouts. All you need is an exercise mat or some non-slip floor space.



Lie flat on your back. Clasp your hands under your head. Hold your legs up, bent 90 degrees, so that your thighs are vertical and your calves are parallel to the floor.



Raise the upper half of your body to touch your right elbow to your left knee - without moving your knee. At the same time, straighten your right leg so that it's hovering just above the floor. Breathe out.



Return to the starting position. Breathe in.



Now touch your left elbow to your right knee while straightening your left leg. Breathe out.



Return to the starting position. Breathe in.

Repeat until you can't move anymore. :) As you alternate sides, your legs should move as if you were peddling a bicycle.

Some Tips

• Don't hold your breath.
• Be sure to consult with a doctor before embarking on any fitness program, especially if you have any heart conditions, neck injuries, pregnancy, etc.

How to Do a Dolphin Pushup

A dolphin pushup combines the dolphin pose from yoga with some muscle-pumping action to build strength in the upper body. It makes for an interesting alternative to regular pushups if you're looking for variety in your workouts. All you need is an exercise mat or some non-slip floor space.


dolphin pose

The yoga dolphin pose is an upside-down V with your feet on the ground, legs straight, butt in the air, back straight, elbows on the ground, and hands clasped together on the ground.

To get into the pose, start on your hands and knees. Get down on your elbows and clasp your hands together. Make sure your elbows are shoulder width apart. Put your feet at hip distance apart and facing forward. Lift your butt and straighten your legs. Be careful not to hyper-extend your knees if you're double-jointed.

Your feet don't have to be completely flat on the ground, though your heels should stretch for it. Try to keep your lower back from rounding. Press your butt upward and backward. Your shoulder blades should be pulled in toward your spine and "down" toward your waist. Your head should be pointing in the small triangular space between your elbows and clasped hands - keep your neck relaxed and your head hanging freely.


pushing "up" (forward) in dolphin pose

While in dolphin pose, swing your upper body forward so that your head passes the front of your clasped hands. Maintain all other aspects of the pose - your legs and back remain straight, shoulder blades back and down, neck remains loose. Breathe in as you move.

Depending on how far your feet are from your elbows, you might be able to swing far enough forward to be essentially straightened like a plank.



Swing your upper body backward until you're back to the starting position, or just past it. Breathe out as you move.

Repeat this back and forth motion until you're too tired to move. :)

This won't feel as intense of a workout as a regular plank pushup, and you'll probably be able to do more of them. It's a good way to build some upper body strength if you're starting out with none, and can't do regular pushups yet. If you hold the rest of dolphin pose correctly, it will also stretch out your back and hamstrings.

Some Tips

• Don't hold your breath.
• Move slowly, and hold for a few seconds at each end of the pushup.
• Be sure to consult with a doctor before embarking on any fitness program, especially if you have any heart conditions, joint problems, pregnancy, etc.

How to Remove Sticky Oil Residue From Nonstick Pans

So you've pan-fried something in oil in your non-stick pan. But then you didn't have time to clean the pan right away. Now it has a super-sticky mess all over it, and it doesn't come off by scrubbing with soap. What can you do?

Luckily, all is not lost! You don't have to throw it away and get a new pan. Here's a simple way to get the sticky oil residue out of the pan, using water and a bit of vinegar.

Step One

Put the pan on the largest burner on the stove. Fill it with water, all the way to the top. Add a teaspoon of vinegar. Turn the heat on high and bring it to a boil.

Step Two

Let it boil for about five minutes. The bubbles will clean off the oil residue in the bottom of the pan. The vinegar helps spread the bubbles more evenly in the pan, including to the walls.

If there was a lot of oil residue, you will probably see some foam form on the water surface.

Step Three

Turn off the heat and discard the water. Be careful not to let any foam stick back to the wall of the pan - try to pour it out.

At this point the bottom of the pan should be completely clean.

Immediately wipe the walls of the pan with a paper towel. You want to do this before the pan cools and the oil residue hardens back up. If you're fast, you should be able to remove it all.

Step Four

If it's a large pan and you didn't get all of the oil residue off the walls the first time, just do it again. Wipe firmly. The key is to remove it before the pan cools.

How to Remove and Avoid Buildup of Earwax

Ear blocked up by excessive wax? Here are some ways to clean them out at home, without an expensive trip to the doctor. Once they're unblocked, a small amount of regular cleaning can help keep them cleared.

The Water Squirt Method

A common method often practiced by doctors is to shoot warm water into the ear canal at high speed and volume. They have enormous blunt-nosed syringes for this purpose. After two or three shots, the wax slug will pop out of the ear with a sudden loud gurgle.

You can remove earwax at home with high-volume water guns, which do the same thing at much lower cost. Smaller water guns, rubber bulbs, etc. may also do the trick if you're patient enough to stay in the shower squirting for a while. Use some soap to help the earwax along. Make sure the water is not too warm or too cold before you shoot it into your ear - which is probably more sensitive than your outside skin.

You may also want to try softening the wax with some mineral oil or hydrogen peroxide before you start.

Ear Candling

Ear candling is a traditional, non-intrusive way to clean the ears of excessive wax. The candle is a hollow tube of beeswax. One end is inserted into the ear, with no gaps between the end of the candle and the inside of the ear. The other end is lit like a candle. The flame creates smoke and gentle warmth inside the ear, melting the earwax. There might be a crackling sound. The melted wax is drawn upward, out of the ear and into the base of the candle, where it cools, reforming into solid wax along the inside walls. After the candling, you can dissect the base of the candle to find out how much was removed. The earwax can be easily distinguished from the candle's wax by its dark brown color.

When done correctly, ear candling works well. Massage therapists are sometimes taught the proper use of beeswax ear candles as part of their professional training. The recommendation is to candle the ears once or twice a year.

However, beware of ear candling scams. Done improperly with bad candles, it can cause more harm than good. Find someone who knows what they're doing to candle your ears.
   

Commercial Chemical Ear Drops You can also dissolve earwax with chemicals. Commercial ear drops like Debrox will turn the wax into a dark brown ooze, giving your ears the appearance of having the runs. Depending on how much wax was in there at the time, it could go on for days. If you buy a package of ear drops, just follow the directions they provide. For Debrox, you add 6 drops into the ear and keep your head tilted for 10-15 minutes. You'll hear a lot of fizzing, and it may tickle. Then let the drops run out of the ear into a tissue, and tilt your head the other way for the other ear.

Earwax Buildup Prevention

Once you've cleared earwax from your ears via any of the above methods, rinse your ears regularly with soap and water. This will help keep the wax from building up to the point of blockage. Also, soap makes the wax crumbly so that it falls out easier (like it should, naturally) - instead of turning into the kind of hard resinous mass (earwax impaction) that eventually requires outside intervention.

Don't be worried about flushing your ears with water. The skin inside the ear canal is the same kind of skin as everywhere else, and can (and should) be cleaned the same way. Also, a healthy eardrum can stand up just fine to quite a bit of water pressure.

Final Caution

Don't put solid objects into your ears. Cotton swabs in particular used to be a popular way to clean out the ear canals. However, all that does is push most of the earwax to the back and pack it in tighter, not get rid of it. That never ends well. Leave the cotton swabs in the hands of medical professionals with bright lights.

How to Choose Between Phillips Sonicare and Braun Oral B Electric Toothbrushes: A Comparison Review

Braun's Oral B (left) and Philips Sonicare (right)
For many people, electric toothbrushes are better than manual toothbrushes for cleaning teeth. But which should you buy? This article compares Braun's Oral B and Philips' Sonicare - two of the top brands - with each other. Specifically, it compares the Oral B 8900 DLX with OxyJet Irrigator to the Sonicare RS980 with UV Sanitizer.

Braun's Oral B with Oxyjet Irrigator


View of Oral B showing OxyJet. Water goes in the gray tank.

The Oral B 8900 DLX with OxyJet Irrigator comes with a toothbrush that has a circular brush head. The bristles vibrate with both a side-to-side motion and an in-and-out motion, and have two speed settings.

The OxyJet squirts water between teeth and at the gumline to aerate the gums and dislodge debris between the teeth that are out of reach of brushes. It has a whole dial of different spray intensities (from 1 for gentle to 5 for robust), and can either stream or spray the water. It can also squirt mouthwash instead of water. It will keep the spaces between the teeth cleaner for longer, but is not a substitute for flossing.

The white box behind the OxyJet water tank and handles has storage areas for the brush and jet heads.

Sonicare with UV Sanitizer

   

View of inside of UV box. Brushes mount on the pegs at bottom, UV comes from the silver cage thing in the middle.

The toothbrush of the Sonicare with UV Sanitizer has a brush head shaped like manual toothbrushes. Its bristles vibrate side-to-side, and have three settings - two different speeds and a "massage" pattern of motion.

The UV Sanitizer is a box with UV light that kills plaque-building microbes on the brush heads, preventing them from accumulating as the brush head gets older.

Comparing for Teeth Cleanliness

My measure of overall teeth cleanliness is based on how much plaque has accumulated by the following morning. Comparing just the brushes by themselves, the Sonicare cleans teeth slightly better than the Oral B. However, the Oral B brush combined with the OxyJet works better than the Sonicare. On the other hand, the Sonicare's UV Sanitizer does keep the brush heads cleaner for longer, while Oral B brush heads become less effective as they get older. (Both are still much better than a manual toothbrush.)

Comparing for Learning Curve

Although the Sonicare toothbrush with UV Sanitizer does clean better than the Oral B toothbrush without the OxyJet, especially when the brush heads have been in use for a while, there is a steeper learning curve involved. It took me longer to figure out how to use the Sonicare toothbrush effectively - angle to hold the brush, in what order to clean the teeth, etc. It actually came with an educational DVD to explain the best way to use it. The Oral B toothbrush is very straightforward by comparison, and will clean teeth equally well using a wide variety of approaches.

Comparing the Built-In Timers

Both electric toothbrush brands have a 30-second timer to indicate how long you should spend on each quarter of your mouth (upper left, upper right, bottom left, bottom right). After two minutes (four 30-second intervals), the Sonicare automatically shuts off. The Oral B does not; it provides a signal that 2 minutes have elapsed but will stay on. The Sonicare can be annoying if you routinely take longer than 2 minutes to brush all of your teeth.

Comparing the Brush Heads


Brush heads: Oral B (left) and Sonicare (right)

The Oral B toothbrush head attaches to the handle with a noticeable click. It is also easier to remove from the handle afterward. The Sonicare has no obvious indication that the brush head is fully mounted, and there is no convenient place to brace a finger for removing it from the handle without disturbing the bristles.

Comparing for Mess

To keep toothpaste from flying off of the bristles the moment you turn on an Oral B brush, just jam the toothpaste into the bristles fairly deeply. I apply a small amount before I start, then add more toothpaste after the first half of my mouth - when I've finished the top teeth and before moving to the bottom. The Oral B ends up using far less toothpaste than a manual brush.

The Sonicare, on the other hand, will fling toothpaste everywhere no matter where on the bristles you put it. You have to be careful to keep your mouth as closed as possible, as it will throw toothpaste surprisingly high into the air (based on where the spots land on the mirror). Even of the toothpaste that stays in your mouth, a lot of it never ends up cleaning any teeth but will land in big drops on teeth you aren't working on and on your tongue. I add toothpaste six times - upper outside left, upper outside right, upper inside left, upper inside right, lower outside left, lower outside right. (By that point there's enough toothpaste fallen on the lower teeth that I don't need more for lower inside left and right.) The end result is a lot of stopping and restarting, and more overall toothpaste use.

Additionally, especially if your mouth is small, the Sonicare toothbrush works best if you use a large brush head for the outside of the teeth and a smaller one for the inside. Oral B is more flexible in that you can brush everything effectively with just one small brush head. Normally when I'm using the Sonicare, I just do the best I can with one brush, because it's too much effort to change in the middle and have to clean two brushes afterward instead of only one. (Yes, I'm lazy.)

Comparing for Sound

The sound of the Oral B toothbrush is a high whining buzz. The sound of the OxyJet is more like a vibrating screech - and can be quite loud. The Sonicare toothbrush produces a lower-pitched, more pleasant hum.

Comparing for Battery Life

The charge lasts longer on the Sonicare toothbrush than the Oral B, and there is a battery life indicator on the front that the Oral B doesn't have. The Oral B bristle speed just gradually becomes slower and slower as the battery runs down. The Sonicare bristles continue to vibrate at the same speed right up until the very end.

The Oral B battery and charging system is less robust in general; sometimes you have to fiddle with the dock to get it to charge. It also dies permanently a lot faster than the Sonicare battery - I've had mine replaced twice now and the third one has also died since. This surprises me somewhat, because Braun is a German company and they usually do good engineering work.

Comparing Accessories

Both toothbrushes came with an assortment of other features and attachments. The Sonicare has a number of sophisticated programming options (different speeds and patterns for different people, for example), as well as a travel charger and carrying case. The Oral B came with some of every type of brush head they have, including a polisher and tongue cleaner. I've not tried most of these.

I hope this electric toothbrush review helps you choose the best electric toothbrush for you. May you have awesomely healthy gums and teeth throughout your life. :)