Hormonal Changes after Parabolic Flight: Implications on the Development of Motion Sickness.

Abstract

Twenty-two different humoral parameters including stress-, gastrointestinal- and volume-regulating hormones were measured before and within 45 min. after parabolic flight maneuvers of twenty healthy adult subjects. We compared hormonal data of motion sickness-affected participants with those unaffected. Changes in cortisol and vasoactive intestinal peptide plasma levels were significantly different between the two groups with increasing plasma levels of both hormones during motion sickness but decreasing levels within the control group. Growth hormone and prolactin plasma levels increased by 400 % and 115 % within the motion sickness-affected group and to a smaller degree within the control group, while ACTH levels were almost unchanged within both groups.