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Title: Sea-Sickness And Migraine More Common During Menstruation
URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/6C16E.htm
Doctor's Guide
April 13, 1998


LONDON, England -- April 13, 1998 -- Female crew taking part in the 1997 British Telecom "Global Challenge" reported a high rate of sea-sickness and migraine during the race, which has six legs lasting from eight to 45 days.

Studies have shown that women have a higher incidence of migraine than do men and their attacks are often related to the menstrual cycle. Research has also shown that women are slightly more prone to motion sickness and it has been suggested that their susceptibility may follow endocrine rhythms.

Regardless of sex, evidence suggests a higher incidence of motion sickness people who suffer from migraine, but the issue is clouded by similarities in their symptoms. And few studies have looked at the problem of the diagnosis of car sickness, particularly in those at risk from migraine.

Dr. E A Grunfeld and colleagues, from London, sought to clarify these issues by studying symptoms in the 1997 British Telecom "Global Challenge", in which many sailors are sick at intervals throughout because of exposure to conditions of extreme motion sickness provocation.

In their report in a Research Letter in The Lancet this week, the researchers write that motion sickness and migraine in the women were mainly related to the menstrual cycle, although rough seas might be a trigger for migraine in some individuals who did not otherwise have attacks.

They found that the occurrence of headaches and sea-sickness followed a remarkably similar pattern, with the highest rates in the three days before and the first few days of menstruation. At ovulation, sea-sickness was rare.

Men were not exempt from motion sickness they suffered too, but not in a cyclical fashion, the researchers found.

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