These can be life threatening conditions and you need to descend to a lower elevation until conditions improve IMMEDIATELY, even if you only have 300 m more to climb. At its worse, you may experience High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE) where you will become short of breath, or High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE), where you become confused. Īltitude sickness is the mildest form of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), which can become serious and even life threatening. You may have difficulty sleeping, and/or become dizzy. As you continue to climb, these symptoms can get worse, particularly if you try to climb too fast. What are the Symptoms of Altitude Sickness?Īt first, you may feel a mild headache and a bit queasy. Altitude’s lower humidity combined with your increased heart and breathing rate means you are losing more moisture vapor with every exhalation. Dehydration also can play a major effect, so be sure to drink plenty of water or sports drinks and avoid alcohol. You are likely to experience negative effects of altitude if you try to climb faster than your body can adjust to the new pressure. There are ways to help mitigate your bad side effects discussed further below. You can be at peak conditioning, yet still suffer, or be completely out of shape and feel fine. Your physical condition is NOT an indicator of whether or not you will experience ill effects from altitude sickness. While many people begin to feel the effects of high altitude at around 8000’/2438m, there are some who start to feel the effects at 5000’/1524m. Who Gets Mountain Sickness aka Altitude Sickness? All this extra work means your body has to work that much harder to do basic functions like walking, digesting food, thinking straight, etc. Making more red blood cells also means more plasma, the non-cell part of the blood that prevents your blood from getting too thick. More oxygen means your muscles can convert your stored carbs into energy faster and more efficiently. This is your body’s O2 shuttle system, so more red blood cells means you can carry more O2 from your lungs to your muscles and the rest of your body. So your kidneys tell your bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. Your body senses the reduced O2 levels at altitude. Because it is harder to get oxygen into your lungs, your body compensates by breathing harder and more rapidly, which also increases your heart rate. Since there is less oxygen in the air that you are breathing, the available O2 molecules are more spread out, meaning you have to take in much more air to get the O2 you need. What is Altitude Sickness? What causes it?Īs you head further up from sea level, the air pressure decreases, which makes your body work harder to take in the more limited oxygen(O2). If you plan an adventure up high, taking steps before and during your experience can make a huge difference in your enjoyment. You don’t have to be an athlete to benefit from altitude training.
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