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Avoiding travel sickness

Travel advice

To reduce the risk of travel sickness, eat lightly before and during your journey and avoid alcohol or stimulants such as coffee or tea. Choose a place where there is less motion for example near the wings of a plane or in the centre of a boat or a bus. In the car, try to refrain from reading and smoking. Keep an upright posture and incline your head-rest backward, avoiding any circular motion of the head. During travelling, if you feel the first signs of travel sickness coming on, fix your gaze on something stable far in front of you, or try to go to sleep. If none of this works, then your doctor can prescribe you medication to suppress the feelings such as weak sleeping pills or anti-nausea pills. Amongst the precautions to take are:

? To make sure that the driver of a vehicle has not taken any of the above ? Not to consume alcohol while taking any medication ? To take it before travelling for it to be effective: vomiting will negate any possible positive effects

To avoid or reduce sharp ear pain while flying (due to the cabin pressure) you should breathe through your nose while at the same time blocking your nostrils in order to unblock the Eustachian tube. If suffering from a cold or a blocked nose, try to get hold of, or ask an air steward/stewardess for a nose spray which should be taken before take-off and just before landing. During long-haul flights, stretch your legs by walking up and down the cabin a few times, make pedal movements with your feet and tense your thigh muscles without moving your legs; these exercises are particularly recommended for those suffering from arthritis and back trouble. Anyone who, at take-off, landing or turbulence, suffers from anxiety is advised to bring this to the attention of a member of staff trained in this type of situation.

All travel advice

In brief