When do you feel altitude

If you are going on a high-altitude trek, learn about altitude sickness, its symptoms, and how to treat it. Look out for other people in your group. You can learn more about altitude sickness at the International Society for Mountain Medicine website at www. If you are at a high altitude, your doctor may think you have this condition.

Your doctor will ask you questions about your symptoms and examine you. To rule out other conditions, your doctor may ask if you have been drinking fluids or alcohol or using any medicines, or if you have a cold or the flu. If you are hiking or camping, you and those with you need to know the symptoms of altitude sickness. People often mistake altitude sickness for the flu, a hangover, or dehydration. As a rule, consider your symptoms to be altitude sickness unless you can prove they are not.

The best treatment for altitude sickness is to go to a lower altitude. But if you have mild symptoms, you may be able to stay at that altitude and let your body get used to it. Symptoms often occur if you have just arrived at a mountain resort from a lower altitude.

If you stay at a high altitude, rest. You can explore the area, but take it easy. Limit any walking or activity. Drink plenty of water, but do not drink alcohol.

Do not go to a higher altitude until your symptoms go away. This may take from 12 hours to 3 or 4 days. For the headache, you can take an over-the-counter medicine, such as ibuprofen Advil, Motrin or naproxen Aleve. Do not give aspirin to anyone younger than Aspirin has been linked to Reye syndrome , a serious illness.

You may also use medicine to reduce feeling sick to your stomach or other symptoms. A doctor can give you acetazolamide. This speeds up how fast your body gets used to the higher altitude. Nifedipine Adalat XL and dexamethasone are also used for altitude sickness.

You may also be able to use oxygen or a specially designed pressure chamber to treat altitude sickness. Go to a lower altitude if your symptoms are moderate to severe, they get worse, or medicine or oxygen treatment does not help. A person who develops any of these symptoms should immediately stop ascending and rest until their symptoms have cleared.

They may also benefit from descending to a lower altitude. People with very mild symptoms may continue ascending but should go at a much slower pace. However, if a person experiences even slight symptoms, they should alert others. Those with more severe symptoms should rest, consume plenty of fluids, and avoid anything that may affect blood oxygen levels, such as smoking. Descending: Moving to a lower altitude is usually the best action to take if a person develops symptoms of altitude sickness.

Once acclimatized they may be able to ascend once more. Pure oxygen: Giving pure oxygen can help a person with severe breathing problems caused by altitude sickness. Physicians at mountain resorts commonly provide this treatment. A Gamow bag: This portable, plastic hyperbaric chamber can be inflated with a foot pump and is used when a rapid descent is not possible. Painkillers: Acetaminophens, such as Tylenol, can be taken for headaches.

Ibuprofen , an anti-inflammatory medicine, can also help. However, this medication may cause some side effects, including a pins and needles feeling in the face, fingers, and toes, excessive urination, and blurred vision in rare cases. Dexamethasone: This is a steroid hormone that can suppress immune activity and inflammation. It can reduce the incidence of acute altitude sickness and other complications. However, the medication has some possible side effects, including stomach pain , depression , and euphoria.

Nifedipine: This is a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker doctors commonly prescribe to treat high blood pressure. It is effective for treating fluid buildup in the lungs. This medication reduces the narrowing of the pulmonary artery, easing chest tightness and making breathing easier. More severe symptoms generally occur at over 12, ft. A lack of oxygen at high altitude combined with the subsequent changes in pressure within the blood vessels causes fluid to leak through tiny blood vessels into the brain, which leads to swelling.

Usually, HACE occurs when a person stays at a high altitude for at least 1 week. Your doctor will ask you questions about your symptoms and examine you. To rule out other conditions, your doctor may ask if you have been drinking fluids or alcohol or using any medicines, or if you have a cold or the flu.

If you are hiking or camping, you and those with you need to know the symptoms of altitude sickness. People often mistake altitude sickness for the flu, a hangover, or dehydration. As a rule, consider your symptoms to be altitude sickness unless you can prove they are not. The best treatment for altitude sickness is to go to a lower altitude. But if you have mild symptoms, you may be able to stay at that altitude and let your body get used to it.

Symptoms often occur if you have just arrived at a mountain resort from a lower altitude. If you stay at a high altitude, rest. You can explore the area, but take it easy. Limit any walking or activity. Drink plenty of water, but do not drink alcohol. Do not go to a higher altitude until your symptoms go away. This may take from 12 hours to 3 or 4 days. For the headache, you can take an over-the-counter medicine, such as ibuprofen Advil, Motrin or naproxen Aleve.

Do not give aspirin to anyone younger than Aspirin has been linked to Reye syndrome, a serious illness. You may also use medicine to reduce feeling sick to your stomach or other symptoms. A doctor can give you acetazolamide Diamox.

This speeds up how fast your body gets used to the higher altitude. Nifedipine Procardia and dexamethasone are also used for altitude sickness. You may also be able to use oxygen or a specially designed pressure chamber to treat altitude sickness. Go to a lower altitude if your symptoms are moderate to severe, they get worse, or medicine or oxygen treatment does not help.

Go down at least ft m. This will obviously limit exercise performance. Within the first few hours of altitude exposure, water loss also increases, which can result in dehydration. The increase in breathing that was initiated in the first few seconds of altitude exposure remains, and haemoglobin levels the protein in our blood that carries oxygen increase, along with the ratio of blood vessels to muscle mass.

Despite these adaptations in the body to compensate for hypoxic conditions, physical performance will always be worse at altitude than for the equivalent activity at sea level.

The only exception to this is in very brief and powerful activities such as throwing or hitting a ball, which could be aided by the lack of air resistance. Many people who ascend to moderate or high altitudes experience the effects of acute altitude sickness. Symptoms of this sickness typically begin hours after the altitude exposure begins, and include headache, nausea, lethargy, dizziness and disturbed sleep.