A cure for travel sickness appears to be on the way, but it may be between five and 10 years before members of the public can buy it.

Travel or motion sickness is common. Many people have experienced feelings of queasiness when travelling, however around three in 10 people suffer more severe symptoms, such major nausea, dizziness and cold sweats.

The cause is still unknown but some scientists believe it is related to our brain receiving confusing messages from both our eyes and ears when we are moving.

Now UK scientists have shown that a mild electrical current that is applied to the scalp can reduce responses in the part of the brain that is responsible for processing these motion signals.

This appears to reduce the impact of confusing messages that the brain may be receiving, thereby preventing the problem that causes travel sickness symptoms.

According to the scientists from Imperial College London (ICL), this is a safe and effective intervention that is likely to be available to members of the public in the future.

"We are confident that within five to 10 years, people will be able to walk into the chemist and buy an anti-seasickness device. It may be something like a tens machine that is used for back pain. We hope it might even integrate with a mobile phone, which would be able to deliver the small amount of electricity required via the headphone jack. In either case, you would temporarily attach small electrodes to your scalp before travelling, on a cross channel ferry, for example," explained Dr Qadeer Arshad of ICL.

As part of this research, participants wore electrodes on their heads for around 10 minutes. They then sat in a motorised rotating chair that simulates motions that are known to make people feel ill, such as sitting on a boat.

Those who wore the electrodes were less likely to feel nauseous and appeared to recover quicker.

"The problem with treatments for motion sickness is that the effective ones are usually tablets that also make people drowsy. That's all very well if you are on a short journey or a passenger, but what about if you work on a cruise ship and need to deal with motion sickness whilst continuing to work?

"We are really excited about the potential of this new treatment to provide an effective measure to prevent motion sickness with no apparent side-effects. The benefits that we saw are very close to the effects we see with the best travel sickness medications available," noted Prof Michael Gresty of ICL.

The scientists have already begun talking to people in industry about developing this device. They added that the currents used with the device ‘are very small and there is no reason to expect any adverse effects from short-term use'.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Neurology.