High Altitude Acute Mountain Sickness Causes Pulmonary Edema Symptoms, High Altitude Training

Taking your body from a low to high elevation too fast runs you the risk of high altitude acute mountain sickness. Typically occurring above 8,000 feet.

Altitude sickness occurs because of the reduced air pressure and lower oxygen concentration, a natural occurrence in mountains. And severe mountain sickness can cause life threatening pulmonary edema symptoms.

The chance of getting acute mountain sickness and its severity depends on:

  • level of exertion
  • speed of your climb

If you live at or near sea level, then you are more prone to high altitude sickness.

Symptoms of mild to moderate pulmonary edema caused by high altitude acute mountain sickness include:

Symptoms generally associated with more severe altitude illness include:

Brain swelling, or cerebral edema, may also occur, causing confusion, coma or even death.

Without an appropriate response, high altitude sickness can be fatal. If you experience only mild symptoms and you are healthy, you may be able to stay at a reasonably high altitude and let your body adjust. But don’t exercise, rest until you feel better.

With moderate altitude sickness symptoms, go back down to a lower elevation (1,500 at least) as rapidly as possible until your symptoms subside. For severe symptoms, descend immediately and seek assistance from a health care professional.

High altitude pulmonary edema symptoms might develop without training your body to become acclimated. Even if you’ve trained at high altitudes in the past, you’ll need acclimation training again.

Training for “above 8,000 feet” high altitude requires adaptation time. Your body begins to adjust to a decrease in oxygen right away, but it takes several days for a complete adjustment.  Above 8,000 feet, you should only ascend about a 1,000 feet per day. The closer you live to sea level, the more training time you’ll need at a new height.

Portable hyperbaric chambers have been developed for altitude training at lower elevations. Also, there is promising preliminary evidence favoring the use of ginkgo for mountain sickness.

Some diseases make going to a high altitude very dangerous.  So if you are suffering from any of these conditions you should discuss going up with your health care professional before ascending to new heights:

Most cases of altitude sickness fall into the mild category.  However, don’t ignore your symptoms.  Even healthy folks are dying from high altitude acute mountain sickness each year.

Breathing Health Blurbs:

« »