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Originally Posted by Huckwheat
Smoking does help in a perverse way...your screwed up lungs require that you move at a very measured pace, reducing the risk of ascending to fast.
My personnel best is puffing butts at Alpamayo base camp......somewhere around 17,500.
This is interesting and I did not see it before.
I got it bad from a trip from PA to A. Basin in HS and ended up with a ride back down to Denver. Was puking, all that jazz, it was not fun.
Then after living in Logan, UT for over 6 years, 4500 feet or so, I was at the Bird at one of the Mini's and while up in Mineral I got real dizzy, could not drink water, head felt like it was going to explode and Meats of Evil was with me and I think I was talking funny or having trouble, I was very out of it. He got me out of there and down to Little Cloud chair and I started feeling better. So even 11K gets me sometimes.
Good thread Kellie!
I thought I'd throw in what I can remember on this for some of our medically oriented maggots.
The frequent urination is due to how the body reacts to ascent to altitude. Ie., increased BP, increased PR (also increased and deeper RR). Medically trained maggots should note that those are similar vital trends for compensated hypovolemic shock. In fact, that is how the body is reacting. The brain cannot figure out why it is losing perfusion except that it must be losing blood. IIRC it has to do with the partial pressures involved with O2 binding to hemoglobin called the HSC (hemoglobin saturation curve). Your body is able to compnsate in that way for lower SpO2 caused by the lower PPO2 until you can produce more 2,3-BPG to shift the HSC curve to make O2 transport efficient given the new partial pressures you are living in.
This is a fancy way of saying that because your blood is carrying less oxygen, your body moves the blood faster to make up for it (just like compensated shock). If you move more blood through your kidneys at higher pressure you will filter out more water (that is the way the kidneys work). That makes you urinate more. This leads to dehydration. This is why you drink more to counteract the altitude driven diurises. That is why we can give IVRT (intravenous rehydration therapy) to HAPE patients whereas any other pulmonary edema pt would not recieve that kind of fluid therapy. (The PE in HAPE seems to be a result of pulmonary arterial hypertension, there also seems to be a genetic link to NO production, and a new Italian study (of questionable mores) shows that naturally produced inflamitory agents also play a factor).
Yes, Diamox has diuretic effects. It is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor. You can get dehydration and make things worse if you do not adequately hydrate while taking it. It is usually prescribed prophylactically.
So others have mentioned AMS, HAPE, HACE, HAFE.
Something people haven't mentioned is that many doctors now believe AMS to be a mild form of HACE. (Decadron is also used as a med in conjuction with or instead of (for people with sulfa allergies) with Daimox).
Another high altitude illness is HARH, high altitude retinal hemmorages, a usually reversable (but sometimes permanent) ailment that can cause blurry vision or blindness in the affected eye. You usually don't see this excect in expeditions setting camps above 14K.
I used to suffer from LACE until I moved above 9000ft. :D
Those symtoms are also associated with attending an Ashley Simpson "concert"
http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/drinks.htm
lots of good hydration info.
I had a good friend die of HAPE in Peru ten years ago. He spent a month climbing with his wife on peaks up to 19k or so. Then went to Lima (sea level) and she flew home. He rapidly returned to climb a peak of 20k and got caught in a storm at 19k, he died that night.
There is a studied phenomenon of people who live at high altitudes (above 14k) who then travel to lower elevations and return quickly, only to find themselves more prone to AMS. I believe this is what happened to my friend. As he was acclimated to the higher peaks, went to Lima, then charged back up.
Unfortunate, to say the least.
LAN - what's missing in that quote is that presumably one is drinking so much water as to pee every 45-hour. The idea is, if you're not peeing that often, you're not hydrating enough.Quote:
Originally Posted by LAN
When I was at Telluride this year I hada score of 7, but I am not sure if it was AMS or the flu..... Either way I was sicker than shit trying to hike and take photos......
It doesn't even have to be that high. It is common to see return to altitude AMS in populations above 9000ft. Strangely you even see a higher incidence of HAPE in children who live at altitude, descend and return than in children who live at low altitudes and ascend.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trackhead
Another fun one is reverse altitude sickness where people who are fully aclimated feel tired at lower altitudes, especially after exercise.
This thread needs a bump. I need to be more aware of this.
I went up to breck last Sunday, from St. Louis, hiked peak 6 on thur, no big deal I thought, I’m in the best shape in yrs. And I had 4 days behind me, I did it twice and knew to go down, just cause I was spent. I ate lunch and lost my glasses for no reason, I barely moved from table. (I was out of it) Dude who sat with me told I was under estimating what that takes out of my 52 yr old ass. 6 hrs later I’m in a daze, fore arms were tingling, I almost told my waiter to call an ambulance, didn’t know if it was a stroke or what.
I definitely was not eating and drinking enough all week.
Back home, with a chest cough now. Will monitor.