European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 19, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                To get it or health unlocking the keys to motion sickness new research May soon Lead to effective remedies by Rick Weiss the new York times i i can happen in the Back seat of an automobile or in the first class Cabin of a trans Atlantic flight. Wherever it strikes an estimated 90 percent of american adults at some Point in their lives meet that Bane of travel motion sickness. For the 10 million to 15 million adults who encounter it regularly when they travel dream vacations turn into nightmares. And the syndrome s debilitating symptoms Are a constant threat to pilots Navy Crews and astronauts. But now help is on the horizon. Using contraptions that even an amusement Park Lunatic would have trouble enjoying scientists have recently identified Many of the perceptual neurological and hormonal components of this loathsome gastric disturbance. I he research could pay off with new drugs not Only for motion sickness but also for morning sickness in pregnant women and for nausea in cancer patients on chemotherapy while Many scientists now agree on an evolutionary explanation for Why motion often leads to nausea recent studies indicate that some people Harbor genes that make them particularly susceptible to motion induced queasiness. And in research that has particular Appeal to drug shy tourists scientists will report this summer that a technique resembling acupuncture without Needles is a very effective Means of preventing motion induced nausea most of the latest research is still too  have an Impact on this years summer vacation. And while several drugs Are available to prevent motion sickness Many a Veteran traveler will testify that there is plenty of room for improvement. The most effective drugs have a tendency to make people drowsy and can cause blurred vision dizziness nausea and vomiting a the very symptoms they Are meant to prevent Quot there Are embarrassingly few Good drugs Lor motion sickness Quot said or. Kenneth a Koch a gastroenterologist who specializes m the syndrome at Hershey medical Center in Pennsylvania. Alt trough associated today with modern modes of travel motion sickness is an age Oid problem the word nausea has roots m the ancient greek word for ship and Hippocrates linked motion sickness to jostling of the guts. Napoleon is said to have abandoned plans for a dromedary corps in Egypt after being advised of the til effects of the Camel s gait on the rider s stomach. But motion sickness turns out to be More in the mind than in the stomach. The problem said Koch is one of a sensory mismatch in the brain in which the vestibular system of the inner ear sends messages about body position and movement that contradict information relayed by the eyes. Inside the Cabin of a rocking boat for example the inner ear detects changes in linear and angular acceleration As the body bobs with the movement of the boat. But since the Cabin moves with the passenger the eyes Register a relatively stable scene. Agitated by this perceptual incongruity the brain responds with a Cascade of stress related hormones that can ultimately Fead to nausea and vomiting similarly astronauts in orbit can see that they Are Drifting about in the Cabin of their spacecraft. But their inner ears which cannot detect motion without Gravity remain convinced that the body is perfectly still. To study the physiology of motion sickness under controlled conditions Koch has worked with a Penn slate psychologist or. Robert m. Stern and others using a device that induces an illusion of motion. Subjects sit on a Stool inside a Large vertical drum a has Black and White vertical stripes painted on the inside. The drum rotates around the individual about once every six seconds and in less than a minute the person develops a visual sensation that it is he or she rather than the drum that is moving. At the same time the inner ear and various pressure receptors in the body Tell the brain that the body is sitting still. By asking subjects to report their feelings during a period of up to 15 minutes and by measuring euro endocrine activity and gastric muscle stimulation with catheters and fixed electrodes scientists have created a detailed picture of the events that Fead up to the headache the sweaty Palms the disequilibrium and the rising thickness at the Back of the Throat. They have found that even before feelings of nausea Nuse the physiological responses of those who will get sick differ from those of people who Wilt not. Those who will develop motion induced nausea secrete increasing amounts of the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine Early in the Onset of a motion Experiment. After a few More minutes Levels of another hormone Vaso pressing climb to very High Levels in the blood and electrical rhythms in the stomach Muscles Quot go bonkers Quot Koch said. Instead of the usual three Waves of electricity that typically lumber from the top of the stomach Down to the Small intestine each minute the rate accelerates to As High As nine per minute. Ultimately said Koch Quot the body says a of we can to take this anymore. We have to do  a the stomach engages in that All too familiar series of vigorous convulsions known in scientific vernacular As Quot reverse  a in contrast people who do not get sick in motion experiments show steady hormone Levels and no increase in electrical pulse rates within their gastric Muscles. The precise links Between these physiological abnormalities and feelings of nausea Are unclear but they Are so closely associated As to suggest that drugs capable of blocking the hormones might prove better than medicines available today most of which were found decades ago by trial and error and have mechanisms of action that remain essentially mysterious. In Light of the recent findings with Vaso pressing Koch said a compound that could temporarily Block that hormone s activity might make an excellent anti nausea drug. That approach recently bore fruit in cancer research with a drug called Onda Setron said or. Alan Joslyn associate director of anti Emesis at Glaxo inc., a pharmaceutical concern in research Triangle Park . The drug which was approved by the food and drug administration last year reduces chemotherapy induced nausea by blocking the effects of serotonin a hormone produced in excessive amounts by patients taking the cancer drug Cis Platin. Scientists have yet to learn whether serotonin Levels Rise in people with motion sickness or to what extent different causes of nausea like pregnancy or chemotherapy have common chemical bases. But they suspect that there Are enough similarities among various kinds of nausea so that a drug effective against one will prove useful for some others. For example the National institutes of health provides major research financing on motion sickness on the theory that it shares a common basis with the chronic balance disorders that afflict Many Blind and deaf people. Scientists can Only speculate about Why the body s ultimate response to motion sickness is to vomit. One popular theory is based on the observation that the dizziness and blurred vision caused by contradictory signals reaching the brain closely resemble the symptoms of food poisoning. Quot the body probably thinks my god i be just ingested some toxin,1 Quot Stern said. Then in an Effort to prevent any further absorption the stomach ejects the presumed offending material. Susceptibility to motion sickness clearly varies from Page 14 a the stars and stripes tuesday the dizziness and Blurry vision associated with motion sickness reflect the brain s confusion when it receives contradictory messages from the eyes and the balance Center of the inner ear one sensory system perceives motion but the other does not. Many researchers believe that this disturbance causes vomiting because dizziness and blurring Are also symptoms of food poisoning and As such prompt the body to produce the same response nausea. The new York times. Fual Alujn by Fejt Grey son to person and at least one series of studies Cates that the difference May be genetically termed. Or sen i he a psychology professor now at Meboldt stale College in Areata. Calif has found King race related differences in susceptibility log it Tion sickness. While 50 percent to 60 percent of Biack and White ejects Felt nauseated within 15 minutes in the optical a pm nearly Al of the subjects born in China fell ill and they did so sooner and with More severe symptoms. Results were similar in subsequent experiments that compared american Blacks and Whites with americans of chinese descent. He suspects the difference is because of an especially sensitive  system m the asian brain that rationale is consistent with previous findings by others that asians compared with Blacks and Whites Are extremely sensitive to certain drugs that act on the Central nervous system and require much smaller doses to a i me the same therapeutic effects Given their added susceptibility to motion sickness it is perhaps fitting that the chinese can take credit for one of the More promising approaches to ifs prevention for thousands of years chinese acupuncturists have treated nausea by inserting their Needles on the inside of the forearm about one and a Quarter inches above the wrist in a spot known As p6 or the Noi Guan Point and in the past several years at least two companies have marketed wrist bands with hardened lumps Woven into them that Are designed to apply pressure to the Nei Guan Point. Although positive anecdotal reports abound preliminary results from scientific studies have called the bands usefulness into question Stern said. But in a controlled collaborative study Lobo published in the june Issue of gastroenterology he Stern and Koch report that the incidence and severity of motion sickness was lower in people who received a Small continuous electrical current applied to the Nei Guan Point than in subjects hooked up to Sham stimulation devices. The device which generates enough current to cause a mild tingling sensation and is connected to the acupuncture Point by a couple of wires is too Large to be taken As carry on baggage. A Patent has been issued for a Battery operated version that can be worn on the Arm said Stern but whether the product will Ever reach the Market is Uncertain. Travellers planning a voyage of several Days can take heart from research showing that adaptation to motion sickness does occur a brain befuddled by the Lack of agreement Between Eye and ear has the capacity to regain equilibrium by making an executive decision to believe either one sensory Organ or the other. Experiments performed by or Millard Reschke a senior scientist at the Johnson space Center in Houston indicate that astronauts who have recently completed a trip in the space shuttle have Learned to rely increasingly on the visual system to determine body orientation this May explain Why even the sickest shuttle astronauts generally feel belter by the third or fourth Day in space said or. Frank Sulzman chief of nasal a life support Branch in Washington. Missions Are generally scheduled for a minimum of five Days in part to ensure that the Crew will be feeling Well enough to accomplish the relatively Tricky business of Landing. While no Mission has Ever been seriously threatened by space sickness Nasa has a Strong interest m learning How to prevent Zero Gravity nausea Sulzman said Quot As you can imagine cleanup can be Tough in space Quot he said 9. 1s92 the stars and stripes a Page 15