Altitude Sickness Part Two

Our body is awesome, and has an interesting way of adjusting to our needs and the situations we put them in. A red blood cell is formed when the need for more of them arises. When you start at a low altitude where oxygen in the air is plentiful, your body decreases its need to produce erythrocytes (red blood cells). As soon as you go up in altitude, your respiration rate and heart rate increase, even at rest, to pump the few blood cells you have in order to oxygen to your tissues. Hypoxia (when the body's tissues become low on oxygen absorption) starts the process of forming new red blood cells. A hormone produced in the kidneys called erythropoietin is released, which alerts the active red bone marrow to produce more erythrocytes from erythropoietic stem cells found there. This process of creating new red blood cells can take up to 4 days before being released into the blood stream, and the new cells can live up to 120 days. Blood cells are constantly being created and replaced.

With a higher count of red blood cells, you can handle altitude a little better because it becomes easier to deliver oxygen to the tissues.  Blood doping is a frowned upon and widely banned practice used by some athletes to increase their ability to perform at altitude. What I hope to accomplish before starting the trail on July 3rd is to increase the level of hemoglobin (oxygen carrying molecules found in red blood cells) naturally so that I can handle high altitude without getting or feeling sick. To do this, I plan to hike outside of Fort Collins as often as possible and spend some good quality time at higher altitude (say, 12000 feet).

A few more facts:
Not everyone will fall victim to altitude sickness. Genetics plays a bigger role in determining your susceptibility to altitude sickness than physical fitness. I got screwed here.

Denver, CO only has 83% of the oxygen available at sea level

According to the Altitude Research Center at The University of Colorado (altitude.org), Denver has only 83% of the oxygen available at sea level. By comparison, Kilimanjaro at more than 19,000 feet has around 49% and Everest is 33% (oxygen tanks are considered standard gear if summiting).

Signs/symptoms of altitude sickness can easily be confused with fatigue, migraine and nausea.

Prolonged altitude sickness/exposure can create bigger problems such as cerebral edema, swelling of the brain resulting in confusion, problems with coordination and delirium. Worse yet is pulmonary edema, or fluid accumulation in the lungs, which can end in sudden death.

Questions? Feel free to comment below.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_high_altitude_on_humans
http://www.altitude.org/home.php
http://faculty.ucc.edu/biology-potter/life_cycle_of_the_erythrocyte.htm
http://www.wsj.com/articles/climb-every-mountain-without-altitude-sickness-1435599091
http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/blood-doping