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Watch out for queasy skiers on the slopes
February 06, 2002IF SKIING leaves you feeling a bit green around the gills and wishing you`d never left the comfort of the chalet, then you may be suffering from ski sickness.
"It`s basically a form of motion sickness," says Rudolf Haeusler, an ear surgeon at the University of Berne in Switzerland. Like seasickness it can leave you feeling dizzy and nauseous, and can even make you vomit.
Haeusler attributes the effect to conflicting sensory stimuli that are characteristic of skiing. The unusual slaloming motion, for example, produces rhythms similar to those experienced on a rocking boat. People tend to turn every two or three seconds, a frequency range known to induce sickness. And the lack of definition in a view of white snow can make it hard to tell where the ground is, he adds, confusing the visual system. This can be especially bad in low cloud.
Other factors affect our vestibular balance system, including the sensation of wearing tight ski boots and the rapid pressure change in the ears during fast descent. Alcohol can exacerbate the effect, so having a drink at lunch might not be a great idea.
Haeusler tested 11 people who had suffered from the effect and found nothing unusual about their balance systems. He says ski sickness can affect anybody, though people with visual impairments such as short-sightedness may be more prone to the effect. From a straw poll of several hundred skiers, he estimates that typically about 5 per cent of the population experience it.
Fortunately, drugs for treating motion sickness appear to get rid of the problem for most, says Haeusler. And, unlike people stuck on a boat, skiers can always just pull over and stop.
Author: Duncan Graham-Rowe
More at: Science and Sport (vol 16, p 272)
http://www.newscientist.com">New Scientist issue 9 February 2002
PLEASE MENTION NEW SCIENTIST AS THE SOURCE OF THIS STORY AND, IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO : http://www.newscientist.com"> http://www.newscientist.com
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