High Altitude Sickness

Hollywood movies show high altitude sickness affecting climbers of Everest and the cavalry has to save them. The big mountain patrollers will tell you a more common scenario. Visitors will fly in the from a near sea level town like New York or Chicago. They’ll have a drink or two on their flight. When they arrive It's mid afternoon so they figure it's to late to get a lift ticket for the day. They may already be experiencing a slight head ache. They have a light dinner and go to the bar with their ski buddies staying up way too late having drinks, planning on getting up early to make first tracks. Getting up early the next morning so he can make first tracks, he feeling worse, thinks it's a hang over and has a light breakfast with his morning coffee. He takes the tram, or gondola, to the top. Once on top, he has flu like symptoms and isn’t able to ski down.

The higher you are above sea level, the less oxygen there is in the air. The oxygen level becomes very low at altitudes above 8,000 feet. This is why there are oxygen masks on airplanes. The thin air causes problems for people who normally live at lower levels because their bodies aren’t accustom to working on so little oxygen. If you stay at a high altitude for a long time, your body gets used to the low oxygen level, and you don’t get sick from it.

There are 3 types of high-altitude illness:

* Acute mountain sickness
* High-altitude pulmonary edema (also called HAPE), fluids fill the lungs
* High-altitude cerebral edema (also called HACE), swelling of brain tissue from fluid leakage

The higher the altitude, the greater the effects. Symptoms usually begin within 48 hours of arriving at high altitude. If you have heart or lung disease, you may experience symptoms at lower altitudes.

Symptoms include:

* Headaches, breathlessness, fatigue
* Nausea or vomiting
* Inability to sleep
* Swelling of the face, hands and feet

Your heart rate and breathing increase as the body tries to send more oxygen to its tissues and extremities. At very high altitudes, body fluid can leak into the brain (called brain or cerebral edema) or into the lungs (pulmonary edema). Both these conditions are serious and possibly life-threatening.

There are Primarily 2 things you can do to prevent high-altitude illness:

1. Take your time traveling to higher altitudes. It can take several days for your body to adjust completely. When you reach an altitude above 8,000 feet, don’t go up faster than 1,000 feet per day. The closer you live to sea level, the more time your body will need to get used to a high altitude. Plan your trip so your body has time to get used to the high altitude before you start your physical activity. As mentioned in our scenario our victim flew to the mountains. If you’re able to drive, you’re giving your body more time to adjust.
2. Stay hydrated. It's more and more common to see skiers and snowboarders with hydration packs. Skiing, or any exercise in the cold of winter burns more calories than during summer temps because you body needs to stay warm. Remember, alcohol is a dehydrator so its effects are magnified at high altitudes. Drinking water will help reverse the effects of alcohol.