Why do some people get travel sick?
Next time you are on a ferry, have a look around. You’ll probably see some people relaxing and enjoying the view.
You’ll likely also see others clutching their stomachs while gasping for air on deck (the word “nausea” derives from the Greek word “naus”, relating to a ship).
Why is it that some people barely notice being cast about on ocean waves or being whooshed in the air on a plane, while other poor creatures can barely look at a map in a moving car without going green around the gills?
Travel or motion sickness can set in when there’s a disagreement between your visual system and the vestibular system in your inner ear that helps determine balance and orientation in space.
There’s some evidence from twin studies that the queasy tummy response to the conflicting messages has a heritable element, but there are plenty of other factors in the mix.
In a 2006 review in Autonomic Neuroscience, John F Golding points out that women are more susceptible than men to motion sickness, and children tend to experience it more than adults.
And, interestingly, if as an adult you have had migraine, think back and you may well recall that you were travel sick as a nipper.
But confirmed landlubbers shouldn’t feel too self-conscious: we are not the only ones. Golding states that “motion sickness is evolutionarily well preserved from man down to the level of the fish (ironically, fish can become seasick during aquarium transport).”
