When in doubt, go higher.

[mikefromcraig]

Additionally, The Rocky Mountains emit low levels of radiation (bust still 3 times more than flat areas) that correspond to 26% lower cancer rates than flat areas.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9753369/

[artemavovk]

Jedi figured this out "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away"

[Gulf_Coast_Hiker]

My intro to CO was via the PPA/PPM. Matt C is the king, and his site says it the best:

[justiner]

Additionally, The Rocky Mountains emit low levels of radiation (bust still 3 times more than flat areas) that correspond to 26% lower cancer rates than flat areas.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9753369/

Melanoma rates are higher - CO has one of the highest death rates in the country.

Gets worse the higher you go of course,

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/study ... ound-crews

[FireOnTheMountain]

That's why Covid was never an issue for mountain towns...

Lol say what now

[justiner]

That's why Covid was never an issue for mountain towns...

Lol say what now

I raised my eyebrow at this, but I did find this paper about it,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7808593/

Feel free to read, it's pretty dense (as to be expected). There does seem to be a statistically relevant causation between living at high altitude and people catching Covid less. The, "Why" is a, "more research needed" type of thing - there's a lot of things going on, but a few reasons could be low humidity and less air pressure = harder to pass viruses around. Being generally more isolated could also be a factor. Another factor could also be that people in mountain towns just having generally better metabolic health since they're in a mountain town for mountain hobbies (or because like I wrote before: it's self-selected, very poor metabolic health means you're not at 9,000' living your best life). Or maybe it's because they're getting more Vitamin D because of the increased sunlight - or many, many other factors.

Although if you will remember, one of the therapies that happened when people got Covid bad in mountain towns was to get them out of mountain towns, as the healthcare facilities couldn't handle the load, and the theory that giving the patient access to air with a greater amount of O2 molecules is probably beneficial.

Actually an interesting discussion, as it does also revolve around hypoxic states. Being chronically in a hypoxic state is not where you want to be.

I got into - and still have been wading in, lots of theories and practices re: breathing, as I most likely have sleep apnea and being an endurance athlete, could set me up for something as bad as an early life heart attack (say WHILE I'm up hiking a mountain), which is scary. Getting that in control has been one of the most beneficial things I've been able to do recently in my life.

[Dave B]

I got into - and still have been wading in, lots of theories and practices re: breathing, as I most likely have sleep apnea and being an endurance athlete, could set me up for something as bad as an early life heart attack (say WHILE I'm up hiking a mountain), which is scary. Getting that in control has been one of the most beneficial things I've been able to do recently in my life.

As in you've already seen a benefit? I'm interested in this area as well as I don't technically have apnea but sinus issues that mess with breathing while asleep. I tried a brief stint of practicing Buteyko (not to be confused with the Budyko curve, holla at ya hydrologists) but like so many other things I try to make a practice of (e.g., meditation, yoga, not being an a**hole) life gets in the way before it becomes habit.

I also finished reading James Nestor's "Breath" and while the book was interesting it kind of had the guru-science-overly-prescriptive-this-one-hack-will-fix-any-problem-ever schtick. I'm surprised he hasn't been on Huberman Lab yet, seems a perfect fit.

I ordered, but never read, "The Oxygen Advantage" which is supposed to pretty good as well.

[justiner]

As in you've already seen a benefit? I'm interested in this area as well as I don't technically have apnea but sinus issues that mess with breathing while asleep

It took about 3 weeks to get used to a cheap snoring retainer in my mouth (not to be too graphic, but expect a lot of extra saliva if you go this route until you get used to it) and what I would assume my body just getting back to having a reasonable amount of sleep actually happening, rather than waking up dozens of times a night choking. After that, something akin to brain fog has honestly lifted. Concentration is back at a higher degree, and I feel generally better. I'm used to deprivated myself from sleep doing my thing, so it was a bit of a surprise to me that I had fallen into being that way all the time and thinking that was my normal state. I would think this is similar to experiencing the new normal of a newborn - that feeling of operational, yet still just wrecked.

Sleep apnea is a huge stress to the heart - similar to how you stress yourself when doing any endurance sport - that adds up if you're experiencing both - and to a very negative degree. I must have gotten to a point where I was basically starting to break from never being able to recover 100%. I look forward to this summer. Sleep Apnea isn't super rare in athletics and is exasperated by altitude. This old Men's Health article sounded the alarm for me (as did the person I shared a bed with):

https://www.menshealth.com/health/a1953 ... lling-you/

I ordered, but never read, "The Oxygen Advantage" which is supposed to pretty good as well.

I have that on my desk from the library - I can't say I've dug into it all that much. I get a little reserved as there are a few promises of the book that I think are a bit far-fetched to really be delivered, but you've got to sell your book somehow I'm guessing and breathing exercises are unsexy, simple, and free (for the most part).

I grabbed it not for my sleep apnea but for asthma-like symptoms (exercise induced being the theory). Happy to report though that handling my sleep apnea seems to have helped my asthma symptoms, which is just wonderful. The idea of keeping your breathing under control over long periods of time seems pretty sound. I'm a little more skeptical on the idea of carbon dioxide tolerance and that being something you can improve upon - but then again, I test poorly for it, even though I at least think I'm an aerobic conditioned stud.

n of 1 for everything above of course.