Have a pleasant journey

Press, 28 December 1988, Page 33

Have a pleasant journey

JULIA SPAIN

offers some tips on

how to avoid travel sickness.

If you can’t take a holiday boat ride or a trip to the bach without your stomach turning turtle, you have plenty of company. Millions of us suffer from that old holiday spoiler — travel sickness.

It happens to the most experienced sailors. Lord Nelson was seasick regularly, and Prince Charles admits to bouts of this very distressing ailment.

Astronauts wear a couple of small discs behind their ears. They contain an anti-travel sickness drug which is gradually fed into the bloodstream.

This is being developed for the rest of us, and

should be available within the not-too-distant future. What causes motion sickness? Deep inside the ear are the organs of balance. These are three little canals lying at different levels. Connected to the canals are two tiny pockets which contain tiny “pebbles.” These “pebbles,” or organs of stability, when shaken up, transmit distress signals to the brain. A message then goes to the stomach which reverses its normal ac-

tion, causing vomiting. An excellent way to avoid the body’s spirit level being disturbed is to keep looking at the horizon so that your eyes can help the inner ear. That’s why sailors, scanning the horizon are seldom sea sick, and why a car driver rarely gets motion sickness while his passengers may be feeling very uncomfortable. Poor ventilation, jerky or stop-go driving, soft suspension, greasy meals and close reading — like map reading — all help

to make passengers feel queasy. If you have children sitting in the back of the car, make sure they are sitting high enough to see out. Discourage reading as a head down doesn’t help. Suggest games that keep their eyes looking ahead rather than sideways at fast-moving vehicles, or images of any kind.

Babies don’t tend to suffer, for their organs of balance don’t form properly until they’re around two years of age.

Travel sickness remedies work by blocking the signals that cause queasiness. But for some people they may have side ef-

fects, so it’s best to check with your doctor first. According to doctors at America’s Brigham Young University, experiments with students prone to travel sickness show that half an ounce of ginger just before you travel is very effective in preventing the complaint. Ginger has no side effects, nor does it make you drowsy. Avoid fizzy drinks, but there’s no harm in having a few boiled sweets handy. Don’t starve yourself before you go; have a reasonable snack or light meal.

—Copyright Duo