Elevation and brain damaage?

[Jay521]

Caught the following on the Outtherecolorado newsletter. I don't have the medical knowledge to analyze this and perhaps others do.

As I've had a mountain addition for a bit over 50 years, this could explain a lot of things to my wife who is absolutely sure I'm nuts.....

https://denvergazette.com/outtherecolor ... -164969521

[DaveLanders]

Interesting article, but no actual useful info for 14er climbers. The writer should have interviewed Dr Peter Hackett, a renowned high altitude medicine expert, who is based in Telluride.

[speth]

Interesting article, but no actual useful info

This is true for every Out There Colorado article.

[nyker]

Always wondered the same thing. The Scientific American article is more interesting, but a sample where n=35 is just too small a sample with too much variability to draw meaningful conclusions, especially where "one climber experienced this, two climbers experienced that, etc"). They also mention "professional climbers" ...does that refer to paid guides or just someone on an 8000m peak suggesting they must be a "professional"? It would be interesting to see results from a broader sample sizes, breaking out the sample into altitude ranges, ages of participants, fitness (however that's defined), some more comparable stats such as BMI, BP, HR, SpO2 %, what sort of rest they had beforehand, days of prior acclimatization and at what elevation, region of world, etc..

[Jorts]

Based on the amateurs presenting more damage than the professionals, it makes me think that proper acclimation is the key to preventing brain damage.

Which if you think about it, isn’t in anyway surprising. The people we see with HAPE, HACE and AMS are usually (not always) individuals new to altitude.

Kind of a relevant tangent, but the axiom is “live/sleep high, train low”. It’s not, “Visit high. Train even higher to ‘acclimate’. Summit regardless.”

[Monte Meals]

I'm 76 and still hitting the mostly 13'ers these days.

MY wife DEFINITELY agrees with Jay's wife !!!

^ " my wife who is absolutely sure I'm nuts..... "

[montanahiker]

I appreciate the misspelling in the post title, whether it's intentional or accidental.

[BB_ME]

Brain damaged Tibetans live at 15,000ft. Proof of brain damage? They live in Yurts and live with Yaks and choose to live at 15,000 feet.

[NovaDevi25]

Always wondered the same thing. The Scientific American article is more interesting, but a sample where n=35 is just too small a sample with too much variability to draw meaningful conclusions, especially where "one climber experienced this, two climbers experienced that, etc"). They also mention "professional climbers" ...does that refer to paid guides or just someone on an 8000m peak suggesting they must be a "professional"? It would be interesting to see results from a broader sample sizes, breaking out the sample into altitude ranges, ages of participants, fitness (however that's defined), some more comparable stats such as BMI, BP, HR, SpO2 %, what sort of rest they had beforehand, days of prior acclimatization and at what elevation, region of world, etc..

Yeah if anything it's a sample that results in "more study is warranted to examine this phenomenon."

[supranihilest]

The brain damage comes first which causes mountain climbing, duh.

[eskermo]

The brain damage comes first which causes mountain climbing, duh.

^THIS^

The reason we climb mountains to check off a box is because we are all mentally ill.

[HikerGuy]

The brain damage comes first which causes mountain climbing, duh.

^THIS^

The reason we climb mountains to check off a box is because we are all mentally ill.

Checkboxes are the best dopamine delivery the world. Check...bing, hit of dopamine. Check...bing, hit of dopamine.