Acute mountain sickness

Introduction

It is a well known fact that high mountains and highaltitudes may cause some people to not feel so well, because the higher thealtitude is, the bigger the shortage of oxygen will be. This leads to theoccurrence of the medical condition known as altitude sickness. This medicalcondition is not yet fully understood. The altitude of 2500m is the samebarometric pressure which is used for the pressurizing of the airplane cabins.In spite of that fact, there are still some people who tend to experience morebreathlessness than normal and a vision which is impaired to a certain degree,but only when they are 1500m or more above sea level. Once the person reachesan altitude of 2500m, the symptoms become much more noticeable. Altitudesickness is actually an umbrella term which can be used for any sort of medicalcondition related to altitude. There are three different forms of altitudesickness, and if a person spends prolonged periods of time at high altitudes,he or she may develop an illness called chronic mountain sickness, which ismedically referred to as Monge’s disease.

Acute Mountain Sickness

Acute mountain sickness is the most common type of illnesstriggered by high altitudes. It is also sometimes referred to as altitudesickness, and in most cases it is a mild, self-limiting illness. The mostcommon symptoms of acute mountain sickness include headaches, nausea andvomiting. Some cases may include poor sleep, dizziness lethargy and all the symptomssimilar to a rather bad hangover. Any person who reaches an altitude of 2500mmay suffer from acute mountain sickness. The first symptoms usually startappearing only after a person has spent a few hours at a high altitude. It iscompletely impossible to predict which people do get affected by acute morningsickness and which do not. The higher the altitude is, the more likely it is fora person to experience acute mountain sickness. All persons who suffered fromacute mountain sickness before are more likely to suffer from it again, everytime they reach such a high altitude. It is not yet fully understood whatexactly causes acute morning sickness, but the cause is definitely associatedwith the shortage of oxygen. One shouldascend at a sensible rate so that the body can gradually adjust to thealtitudes. Acetazolamide and painkillersmay be of help to a certain extent.