Does sniffing an alcohol swab help nausea?
Verdict: Untested
For nausea in an emergency room, the evidence is genuinely good — inhaled isopropyl alcohol outperformed oral ondansetron in randomized trials. For motion sickness specifically, nobody has tested it at all.
What it's claimed to do
An emergency-department trick that has spread into travel advice: hold an opened alcohol prep pad under your nose and take a few breaths.
- YesTested for motion sickness and it held up.
- ProbablyReal trial support, but modest or from a single study.
- MixedTrials disagree — some found an effect, better-designed ones did not.
- Untestedthis remedyNo one has tested this for motion sickness. It may still be sensible.
- NoTested for motion sickness and it did not beat a placebo.
Levels describe the state of the published research on motion sickness specifically — not on nausea in general, and not how well something worked for any individual. “Untested” means no trial has looked; it is not the same as a remedy having been tested and failed.
What the research actually says
This is the most interesting entry on the page, because the evidence is strong and it is about the wrong condition. Beadle and colleagues randomized 84 emergency-department patients with acute nausea and vomiting to inhaled isopropyl alcohol or inhaled saline, and found substantially greater relief in the alcohol arms — a reduction of about 30 mm on a visual analogue scale at 30 minutes against 9 mm for ondansetron. April and colleagues followed with a larger trial comparing inhaled isopropyl alcohol with and without oral ondansetron against placebo plus ondansetron, and again the inhaled alcohol arms did better at 30 minutes. Neither trial reported adverse events. What neither trial did was test anyone who was seasick. Emergency-department nausea is a mixed bag of gastrointestinal, metabolic and other causes, and there is no good reason to assume a treatment that works there transfers to nausea generated by sensory conflict — the acupressure literature is a cautionary example of exactly that gap. So the honest position is: promising, mechanistically unclear, and untested in the population reading this page.
The studies, in full
Annals of Emergency Medicine 68(1):1-9.e1 · PMID 26679977
Participants: 84 emergency-department patients with acute nausea
Inhaled isopropyl alcohol produced markedly greater nausea relief than inhaled saline placebo at 30 minutes — around a 30 mm reduction on a visual analogue scale, against 9 mm for ondansetron. No adverse events reported. The population was emergency-department nausea, not motion sickness.
Read the source →Safety & what to watch for
- Inhale the vapor only. Isopropyl alcohol is toxic if swallowed — never drink it or put it in your mouth.
- It is flammable. Keep it away from flames, and do not use it around anyone receiving supplemental oxygen.
- Brief sniffs are what was studied. Prolonged, deliberate inhalation of solvent vapor is a different and unsafe activity.
- Not for use in or around the eyes, and not something to hand to a small child.
- The trials are in emergency-department patients. Applying this to motion sickness is an extrapolation, and we cannot tell you it will work.
If you want to try it
- If you want to try it, the studied approach is simple: open a standard 70% isopropyl alcohol prep pad, hold it an inch or two below the nose, and take a few normal breaths.
- Because it is untested for motion sickness, it makes more sense as something to try when the evidenced options have not been enough than as your plan A.
- Prep pads are cheap, sterile, individually wrapped and flat, so carrying a couple costs nothing.
- If you feel light-headed, stop. That is not the intended effect.
Something with better evidence: Does controlled breathing help motion sickness — verdict probably, and it costs nothing to try.
Looking for something drug-free?
Try Dizzout Free
We make a free, drug-free app that plays calibrated sound through headphones you already own. We hold it to the same standard as everything on this page: it is not a medication, it will not suit everyone, and if a forward view and slow breathing are enough for you, use those first.
Frequently asked questions
Why would sniffing alcohol stop nausea?+
The mechanism is not established. Proposed explanations include an effect on the olfactory system and the fact that the technique compels slow, controlled breathing — which is itself one of the better-evidenced measures for motion sickness.
Does it work for seasickness?+
Unknown. The randomized trials were in emergency-department patients with nausea from mixed causes. No study has tested it on motion sickness, and the acupressure literature shows treatments do not always cross between nausea of different origins.
Is it safe?+
In the trials, brief inhalation of standard alcohol prep pads produced no reported adverse events. The important safety points are that it must never be swallowed, it is flammable, and prolonged deliberate inhalation of solvents is unsafe and not what was studied.
Check another remedy
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When it isn't motion sickness. Severe or lasting dizziness, a spinning sensation at rest, hearing loss, ringing in one ear, double vision, a bad headache, chest pain, fainting, or vomiting you cannot stop are not motion sickness. Seek medical care rather than a travel remedy.
Dizzout is not a medical provider and nothing here is medical advice. These pages summarize published research so you can weigh it — they cannot account for your health, your medicines or your pregnancy. Talk to a doctor or pharmacist before starting any supplement or medication, especially if you take other drugs, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are buying for a child. Evidence summaries reflect the published literature as of July 2026 and describe findings in groups of people, which cannot predict your individual response. Product and brand names are trademarks of their respective owners; Dizzout is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.