One in every four people suffer from motion sickness when on a boat, a plane, a swing and even when just ride the bus. A new Israeli wearable device MotionCure could now provide relief within minutes.
MotionCure, developed by Tel Aviv based startup Sidis Labs, is a neck collar that uses tingling pulses to relieve the nausea, dizziness and vomiting that some people feel when their balance is disturbed by motion.
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“It’s a big thing for everyone who suffers from motion sickness, ” Sidis Labs CEO Ohad Raz tells ISRAEL21c.
“There’s no on/off solution to motion sickness. For some people, MotionCure doesn’t work and we’re honest about it. If it doesn’t work for you, just return it. But for others, the reviews are saying, ‘This is like magic for us.’ It can be an amazing solution.”
Founded in 2014 by Ohad Raz and Ami Dror. The idea for a motion sickness device come up after Raz completed his military service as a captain in the Israeli Navy, where “the problem of motion sickness was very close to my heart, as you can imagine, ” he tells NoCamels.
Sidis Labs technology build on ground of breaking NASA research and scientific studies. They created customized pulses that are transmitted to the area of the median nerve that is at the nape – the back of neck. Those help to reduce the signals that are sent from the brain to the stomach and basically calm down the stomach” Raz said.
While there are other devices claiming similar results, Raz says, “the real competition is medical; prescriptions, not other devices.”
“Motion sickness is thought to occur when there’s a conflict between what your eyes see and what your inner ears, which help with balance, sense, ” according to the National Health Service of England website.
“Your brain holds details about where you are and how you’re moving. It constantly updates this with information from your eyes and vestibular system. If there’s a mismatch of information between these two systems, your brain can’t update your current status and the resulting confusion will lead to symptoms of motion sickness, such as nausea and vomiting.”
A ride in a car, ship, airplane or train can cause motion sickness. People also can get these unpleasant symptoms from amusement park rides or from watching fast-paced movies or video games.
Sidis Labs, named for American mathematician William James Sidis, is also working on a new technology-based device to help alleviate carpal tunnel syndrome.
Helping chemo symptoms, morning sickness
When the company first developed its product and tested it Israel in 2015, providing a cure – or at least some help – for motion sickness sufferers was its goal. In the second quarter of 2016, when MotionCure hit the market, the Sidis Labs team was in for a surprise.
Customers who bought the wellness device wrote to the company to say it was bringing comfort to chemotherapy patients and women experiencing morning sickness as well.
“I never expected that we could help people suffering from side effects of chemotherapy. With motion sickness, the worst-case scenario is that you vomit. You can deal with it. But when you get chemo, you suffer from so many other things, and if we can make your life one percent better, it would make us so much happier, ” Ami Dror, a cofounder and investor in Sidis Labs, tells ISRAEL21c.
Raz says a letter from a cancer support group leader to the company, relating how a woman in her group could finally ride in a car without getting sick and could keep her balance while walking thanks to the Israeli device, prompted the Sidis Labs team to introduce a new policy and set out to help as many cancer patients as it could.
Anyone in chemotherapy who wants to try MotionCure can contact the company and will be given the $149 device for free.
Raz says he’s not worried about the likelihood that he will be deluged with requests. “Our mission is to provide our customers with the highest value and quality of products in order to make their life better, ” he says.
