Is There a Connection Between Migraine and Motion Sickness?

Woman with Headache and Motion Sickness

Source: Photo by Elina Krima from Pexels

As a young child and then as a teenager, every time I rode in the car, I had to ride in the front passenger side. I could not read a sign (there were no text messages or emails), look at photographs, or play games with my brother. Merely looking the wrong way made me so nauseous that I would have to have the driver pull over to get sick along the side of the road. This experience was a constant, beginning in these early years and continuing into my early 50’s.

Neither my parents, my doctors (nearly 45 years ago) nor I ever made the connection between motion sickness and my migraines. However, according to several studies and research since, including an article, “Migraine and Motion Sickness: What is the Link?”

Migraine is linked with various co-morbid conditions, the most prominent being motion sickness. Symptoms such as nausea, dizziness and headache are common to motion sickness and migraine; moreover, migraine sufferers have a heightened vulnerability to motion sickness. As both maladies involve reflexes that relay in the brainstem, symptoms may share the same neural circuitry (Cuomo-Granston, et al., 2010).

I envied my fellow passengers, then my brother and later, my husband, who could read a book in the car or grade papers for hours. I just tried to take enough Dramamine to sleep.

This problem, of course, also deprived me of experiencing roller-coaster or any festival/carnival rides that involved motion; I found myself queasy at just the thought of them. None of my friends could understand why I was such a “wimp” and wouldn’t go on those rides. I didn’t understand either why the problem occurred for me but not them.

As an adult, I told everyone that I couldn’t participate because the rides’ movements caused my neck pain, which could provoke an immediate full-blown migraine attack.

While this point was accurate, I underplayed the motion sickness aspect of the rides.

However, according to Judy George in her 2021 article, “Virtual Roller Coasters Link Migraine and Motion Sickness,” there is a clear connection:

Recent findings have shed light on the relationship between migraine and motion sickness, and provide insights into the generation of migraine attacks. Migraine patients experienced significantly more dizziness and motion sickness during a computer-simulated roller coaster ride than healthy controls….subclinical interictal persistence of disturbances in these brainstem pathways could not only increase vulnerability to recurrent attacks of migraine but also increase susceptibility to motion sickness.

In my early fifties, I could read in the car, look at photographs, and grade papers for hours—even in the back seat. Why? I’m not sure, as I continue to be a chronic migraine sufferer. Still, I can’t help but wonder if some of the preventative medications I take for migraine may also help with the debilitating problem motion sickness was for me.

There’s much research to do, but I continue to be interested in these connections. I’m still not getting on any roller coasters or trying deep sea fishing. Why push it, right?