|  | Public Health Safety | Environmental Health

Challenges of Living at a High Elevation

Living at high elevation can be a challenge, especially when you first arrive. Air is thinner at higher elevations, which means you need to breathe in more air in order to get the same amount of oxygen that you would at lower elevations. This has a number of effects, ranging from dizziness to general nausea. Most people adjust to high elevation fairly quickly.

  1. Acute Mountain Sickness

    • Mild acute mountain sickness results in headaches, nausea and feelings of malaise. These are seldom particularly serious, but they are -- literally -- a headache. AMS is caused by the air having less oxygen than your body is accustomed to processing. It can vary from mild to acute. If you have acute AMS, your headache will not be relieved by medication, and your nausea and lack of appetite will be more pronounced. The best cure is to wait it out until your body acclimatizes.

    Behavior Changing

    • When your brain is receiving substantially less oxygen than it needs, your behavior might change. More specifically, people who are not receiving enough oxygen might suffer from an impaired ability to process information. Confusion and irrational behavior both result as people have a difficult time processing the information they are receiving and also have a hard time making rational decisions based on that information.

    Edemas

    • If you go to too high of an elevation too quickly, you might experience either cerebral or pulmonary edema, which are oxygen leaking into your respective brain and lungs. If fluid leaks into your brain, it causes it to swell, which disorients you, changes your ability to make decisions, and even results in hallucinations and psychosis. If fluid leaks into your lungs, it decreases your lungs' ability to process oxygen because your lungs have less space to accommodate air. Either way, these are both challenging because they are so life-threatening, and both need to be treated through immediate descent. Interestingly, it is not clear why high elevations present this challenge, but both forms of edema have been correlated with high altitude.

    Management

    • Elevation presents a challenge in that your body needs to be managed differently than it would be at lower elevation. When you are at a higher elevation than you are used to, you need to manage your body by drinking a lot of water, avoiding caffeine and alcohol and eating a high-calorie diet.

Environmental Health - Related Articles