Having regular small protein snacks, avoiding grains and sugars (following the food choice program) and keeping your face cool may be all it takes to prevent motion sickness.

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.

This lack of treatments prompted investigators 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.

Digestive Disease Week Atlanta, Georgia May 25, 2001