at what altitude does it get hard to breathe
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Information from Your Family Physician
High-Distance Affliction: How to Avoid It and How to Treat It
Am Fam Md. 1998 April 15;57(viii):1924-1926.
See related article on high-altitude disease.
Every year millions of people get to the mountains for backpacking, skiing, mountain climbing and other activities. If you lot're planning a trip to altitudes over 8,000 feet, before you go, talk with your doctor nigh high-altitude affliction, or mount sickness equally it is often called.
What causes high-distance illness?
The low amount of oxygen in the air at loftier altitudes causes high-altitude disease. The amount of oxygen in the air goes down equally you climb higher higher up ocean level and becomes very low at altitudes in a higher place 8,000 anxiety. If you travel to a high altitude, y'all may feel sick considering the air has less oxygen in it. If you lot stay at a loftier altitude for a long time, your body gets used to the low oxygen level, and y'all don't get ill from it.
There are three principal types of high-altitude affliction: (ane) astute mountain sickness (too chosen AMS), (2) high-altitude pulmonary edema (also chosen HAPE), which affects the lungs, and (3) high-altitude cerebral edema (too called HACE), which affects the brain. These illnesses can exist serious, but they can too exist prevented.
How can I forbid high-altitude affliction?
You tin practise two important things to prevent high-altitude illness: (1) accept your time traveling to higher altitudes and (ii) sleep at an altitude that is lower than the altitude you were in during the day. For example, if you lot ski at an elevation of 10,000 anxiety during the mean solar day, slumber the night before and the night after at an pinnacle of 8,500 feet.
When you travel to a high altitude, your torso will begin adjusting correct away to the amount of oxygen in the air, but information technology takes several days for your body to adjust completely. If you're good for you, you can probably go safely from ocean level to an distance of 8,000 feet in a few days. Merely when you reach an distance above eight,000 feet, don't go up faster than 1,000 feet per mean solar day. The closer yous live to bounding main level, the more time your body will need to get used to a high altitude. Plan your trip so your body has time to become used to the high altitude before you commencement your physical activeness.
How do I know if I am getting a high-distance illness?
Some of the kickoff signs of high-altitude illness are headache, lightheadedness, weakness, problem sleeping and an upset tum. If you have these symptoms, stop going up to a college distance or go back downwardly to a lower altitude until your symptoms become abroad. More than severe symptoms include difficulty breathing while you're resting, coughing, confusion and inability to walk in a straight line. If you go these symptoms, go to a lower altitude right away and go help from a doctor.
What should I do if I get high-altitude illness?
The best treatment for any of the three high-distance illnesses is to go down to a lower altitude right away. Only if y'all have only mild symptoms, yous may be able to stay at that altitude and allow your trunk adjust. If you do this, don't practise at all, merely residual until you experience amend.
If you have severe symptoms, go down 1,500 to 2,000 feet right away to meet if your symptoms get better. Keep going down until your symptoms get away completely.
A medicine chosen acetazolamide (brand name: Diamox) can be used to treat high-altitude illness. When you lot talk with your md about your upcoming trip, enquire nearly getting a prescription for this medicine to take with you in example you get mountain sickness. If you lot offset to have symptoms of loftier-altitude illness, you can take 125 to 250 mg of the medicine past mouth twice a day.
Don't ignore signs of high-altitude illnesss. People can die of high-altitude disease if they don't recognize the signs or if they don't believe their illness is caused by the high distance. When you accept signs of high-altitude affliction, don't go to a higher altitude until you feel meliorate and your symptoms accept completely gone away.
Is it safe to go to a high altitude if I have a chronic illness similar heart affliction or lung disease?
It might exist safe. The answer depends on the type of chronic illness you accept and how severe it is. Most people with chronic illnesses such as eye or lung illness can safely spend time at a high altitude if their disease is nether good command. People with coronary artery illness, mild emphysema or high blood pressure aren't at greater take chances of high-distance disease than people without these diseases. They also don't risk making their disease worse by traveling to a high altitude. Being overweight does not increase the risk of getting loftier-altitude illness.
Only some diseases make going to a high distance very dangerous. People with sickle cell anemia shouldn't go to a high altitude. A loftier altitude is also unsafe in people with severe lung disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and severe emphysema, and in people with astringent heart affliction. If you lot have a chronic disease, inquire your doctor if information technology's safety for y'all to travel to a high altitude.
Is going to a high altitude unsafe during pregnancy?
There isn't much data about the risk of high-altitude illness during pregnancy, then it's difficult to say if going to a high altitude is safe for pregnant women. Some experts recommend that significant women not travel to an distance above 8,000 feet. If you're pregnant, ask your doctor for advice before you travel to a high distance.
What virtually children and high altitudes?
It's usually safe for children to go to high altitudes, but they're more likely to go high-altitude illness because their bodies have a difficult time adjusting to the low oxygen in the air. A child may not be able to recognize the symptoms of loftier-altitude illness, so parents and other adults must carefully watch for whatsoever signs of high-altitude illness in children.
Source: https://www.aafp.org/afp/1998/0415/p1924.html
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