Researchers tackle motion sickness on land, sea and air

Our catamaran was headed to the Hawaiian island of Lanai last month, and the crew was on deck doling out warm cinnamon rolls. But my sister Maureen was more interested in my wrists.

“Do you have your bands on?”

She was talking about acupressure wristbands that she had bought, items marketed as a remedy for motion sickness. Apparently she remembered our family car trips from childhood, when I got sick before we passed the city-limit sign, or perhaps the time when, as an adult, I vomited on a date’s sailboat. She was determined not to let motion sickness spoil this day.

I was skeptical but put on the bands. I pressed the plastic discs that connected with some acupressure point whenever I started to feel queasy. And I reached land without losing my lunch.

Boat rides, road trips, roller coasters and other staples of summer can spell big trouble for people prone to motion sickness. But recent studies of acupressure, antihistamines and psy- chological approaches have yielded new information on the age-old ailment.

Motion sickness occurs when you get conflicting messages from different body systems, says Dr. Stephen Ross, vice chairman of the family medicine department at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and associate clinical professor of family medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine.

“Signals are sent to the brain from the inner ear and the eye to control balance,” he says. If you’re on a plane riding through a storm, for instance, your eyes don’t detect all the motion that the rest of your body feels.

Mentally preparing for severe motion sickness might help quell that queasy feeling, says Robert M. Stern, a professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and a motion sickness researcher.

In one study Stern and his colleagues, including lead author Manda Williamson, took 80 people moderately susceptible to motion sickness and seated each on a stool facing a rotating drum, which simulated motion. Subjects who expected to get ill actually got less sick than those who expected to be fine. The report is in this month’s Journal of Psychosomatic Research.

The over-the-counter antihistamine chlorpheniramine (found in Chlor-Trimeton, Aller-Chlor and other remedies) also might help ease motion sickness, according to a study in May’s Journal of Vestibular Research.

Dr. Jay Buckey and Donna Alvarenga, researchers at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, N.H., studied 18 people susceptible to motion sickness. The subjects were given 4 or 12 milligrams of chlorpheniramine or a placebo pill 3 1/2 hours before they were exposed to simulated motion in a lab. Subjects said the antihistamine delayed the onset of nausea. (Travelers should ask a doctor before taking the drug because it is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for motion sickness.)

Ginger capsules or dried ginger root have yielded mixed results, as have wristbands that apply pressure to the acupuncture point associated with nausea relief, says Stern, who studied one band for its manufac- turer. Ross sometimes prescribes a patch, applied behind the ear, that dispenses the drug scopolamine through the skin.

“Don’t go more than two hours without a light meal or a snack, high in protein and low in fat,” Stern says. Research in progress indicates that protein may help create regular stomach activity and reduce nausea.

Over-the-counter remedies such as Bonine (meclizine hydrochloride) and Dramamine (dimenhydrinate) are also worth trying, experts say.