Why are certain antihistamines used for nausea and vertigo? For example with motion sickness, is there a histamine response and the antihistamines counteract it?
In: Biology
You are correct! There are multiple receptor types at different areas of the body (your gut, area postrema in your brain, vestibular [balance] center in your brain) whose stimulus and coordination with each other are perceived as nausea.
In particular, the vestibular nucleus, which likely contributes to nausea when it senses motion but other sensory inputs don’t (like your eyes seeing a “stationary” inside of a boat cabin), uses H1 receptors for neuro transmission. H1 receptors are stimulated by histamine. So taking antihistamines specifically helps with motion sickness induced nausea, but is less effective for nausea from say, food poisoning.
Additionally, most antihistamines used for nausea are sedating and reduce anxiety — “side effects” that can independently improve nausea.
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