Simple Measures Prevent Motion Sickness

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Downing a protein bar and keeping your face cool may be all it takes to prevent motion sickness, according to research presented at Digestive Disease Week in Atlanta, Georgia.

Motion sickness, caused by conflicting signals sent to the brain from the various senses, affects only about 1% of travelers under calm conditions, but as many as 100% when severe turbulence occurs. Few effective options are available for preventing motion sickness in those who wish to avoid the possible side effects of nausea-preventing drugs, Dr. Max E. Levine from Penn State University in University Park, Pennsylvania, told Reuters Health.

This lack of treatments prompted Levine and associates to examine factors that influence the development of gastric tachyarrhythmia, a laboratory model of motion sickness induced by watching a striped, revolving drum.

In the first experiment, the researchers compared stomach responses and motion sickness symptom scores of volunteers who applied a cold pack to their foreheads before the test and those who did not.

Volunteers who used the cold pack did not have the increase in stomach activity experienced by those who did not use the cold pack, the report indicated, and their symptom scores tended to be lower.

In the second experiment, people were tested either fasting, after a protein meal or after a carbohydrate meal.

Those who ate a protein meal had the least stomach hyperactivity and the lowest motion sickness symptom scores, the investigators found. Carbohydrate meals helped to control stomach activity but did not control motion sickness symptoms as well as a protein meal.

Of all the approaches, eating a small meal seemed best. ``At this point, I'd have to say the protein meal and even the carbohydrate meal was more effective for reducing both tachyarrhythmia and the associated symptoms,'' Levine concluded.

``I guess the take-home message from the studies is that there are effective non-pharmacological ways to reduce nausea and motion sickness severity,'' Levine added. ``Eating a small meal to get the stomach behaving normally and applying a cold object to the facial region may make people much more comfortable if they have trouble with motion sickness.''

Reference Source 89

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