Race sponsored by latest seasick remedy

The biennial race from Newport, Calif., to Ensenada, Mexico, will thisyear be hosting more than 550 yachts and have more than 4,000 participants. Reportedly the largest yacht race in the world, the 125-mile Newport to Ensenada Race, which this year starts on April 28, has been run since 1948. It’s hosted by the Newport Ocean Sailing Association (www.nosa.org).is sponsored by ReliefBand, a product that is the latest in anti-seasickness technology. The battery-operated band, which functions by a technology dubbed Nerve Stimulation Therapy, sends mild electrical currents to the brain via the wrist, which reportedly reduce the effects of nausea. “The pulse stimulates the nerves in the wrist so that there is a reduction or elimination of nausea,” said Greg Johns, director of consumer marketing for Woodside Biomedical, the Carlsbad, Calif.,-based company that, under its former name Maven Laboratories, developed the technology in 1995. “A user can actually feel it working.”The device is available without prescription and can be used either before motion sickness is expected or, unlike motion-sickness tablets, even after the effects of nausea have started. Either way, it’s sure to beat other questionable remedies like stewed tomatoes and ginger root.