
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 31, 1990                   TAG: 9007310143
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BARBARA SOMERVILLE COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MOTION SICKNESS IS REAL AND CAN BE MINIMIZED

If you think you feel sick when an airplane is circling to land, it's not your imagination. Mismatched signals are confusing your brain. You are feeling the sensation, but your eyes see just the inside of the plane and you are not visualizing the turning movement.

The sense organs send the brain messages about balance and movement stimulation that is occurring around the body. When they overwhelm the brain's ability to unscramble the messages, you feel motion sickness, says Dr. Horst R. Konrad, chairman of the subcommittee on equilibrium of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery.

The sickness is the same whether you are riding a merry-go-round or ferris wheel, or you are in a car, plane or boat. Even animals get it if the motion is prolonged and severe enough, Konrad says.

Symptoms are dizziness, nausea, pale and clammy skin and vomiting. The upside is that susceptibility decreases with age and long exposure to the motion.

In the meantime, to minimize motion sickness:

Ride where your eyes will see the same motion that your body and inner ears feel. Look out the window and watch the plane circle into the airport. Sit in the front seat of a car and fix your eyes on a distant stationary object. When in a boat, get on deck and look at the horizon.

Do not ride facing backward.

Do not read in a moving car - the inner ears and skin receptors detect the motion around you, but your eyes concentrate on the pages of the book.

Don't watch someone near you who is feeling sick.

Avoid strong odors and spicy or greasy foods that may unsettle your stomach.

by CNB