I was listening to an old No Such Thing As A Fish podcast and they were discussing the theory that motion sickness might be and old response to stop our ancestors from climbing too high in trees, and the swaying motion from the weak branches would bring on motion sickness. In situations like this, or any other situation where it occurs, what purpose does throwing up serve? Why is this the body’s response to these situations and not something else that doesn’t waste precious resources and nutrients?
In: Biology
That is not what most people think that seasickness comes from. Fear of heights does come with some symptoms but these does not match seasickness at all. However the symptoms of seasickness is a perfect subset of the symptoms of neurotoxin poisoning. The theory is that if you are poisoned then your neural signals will get disrupted causing the signals from your balance organs and your eyes to disagree with each other as to which orientation you are in. The body will pick up this as a sign of poisoning and will therefore respond with vomiting, nausea, tiredness, etc. in order to get rid of the toxin and reduce its effects and impact. When you are seasick it is because your eyes and balance organs will signal different orientations even though this is perfectly normal and you have not been poisoned. But the body still responds the same way.
When you get sea/travel sick, it is due to what your eyes seeing (little/no movement) conflicting with what your inner ear is saying (movement). You are traveling – and your balance systems know this – but your eyes are telling you everything is stationary (because you are looking at the inside of the vehicle).
This incongruence _also_ happens with some poisons, so our bodies default reactions when it senses this incongruence is “you’ve been poisoned – get everything out of the system ASAP”. This reaction evolved long before we had the kind of travel that would mimic the symptoms, and there isn’t really and advantage (evolutionarily speaking) to getting rid of it, so the reaction remains.
Throwing up is a very uncomfortable response to something that could potentially be deadly. I’d rather throw up than die
How would getting dizzy way high up in the tree help anyone? You would miss a branch and death, would be the other way around any motion sickness would be bread out in a few generations.
That’s a crackpot theory if i ever hear one.
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