DAAN Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture

Acupressure bands, that work by applying pressure to a particular point, are tested and found to be effective. Of course, you don’t need the bands to use acupressure for nausea, but they may help isolate the correct spot:

“Thousands of years ago, the Chinese started using acupressure to treat nausea. They would firmly press a spot just below the wrist — known as the P6 point — until the queasiness passed. Even today, a Chinese bus careening around winding roads will be full of passengers practicing acupressure on the fly.

In this country, the acupressure remedy for nausea has entered the modern age (which is another way to say that it involves a gadget and can cost you money). For about $10, you can buy a pair of Acuband or Sea-Band wristbands that claim to ease queasiness courtesy of a hard knob that, when positioned properly, sits over the acupressure target. The bands are widely available in drugstores, often next to the Dramamine.

The claims: Ads and packaging for both Acuband and Sea-Band claim that the wristbands can relieve nausea caused by motion sickness, morning sickness and chemotherapy. Ads for Acuband say you’ll “never again be unprepared for the effects of nausea.” The packaging for Sea-Band promises “effective relief . . . without causing drowsiness or other side effects.”

The bottom line: Whether you wear a wristband or simply press the P6 point with your thumb, acupressure really can help ease motion sickness, morning sickness and nausea that follows chemotherapy, says Robert Stern, a professor of psychology at Penn State University who studies motion sickness and nausea. In a study published in 2001, for example, Stern and colleagues tested Acuband wristbands on subjects who had endured a session in a stomach-churning machine that uses spinning images to trigger motion sickness. As advertised, the bands helped fend off queasiness.

Wristbands have a couple of slight advantages over the thumb method, Stern says. People wearing a band may have an easier time finding their P6 point because once in place, the wristbands don’t slip around, and the knob may help focus pressure.”

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