altitude sickness
 

Anyone know anything about altitude sickness? One of my girlfriends recently moved from Wilmington, NC (a beach town) to the mountains and she's had *terrible* headaches. Almost every day. Her new theory is that they're caused by the altitude, since they get better when she goes home to visit.

Tried googling this but I just found websites for flying, hiking, etc (short term solutions) so I was hoping somebody'd know...

has she rulled out allergies? allergy season can be killer in NC, especially in the mountains....and if you arent used to it (as she probably isnt being from willmington....they arent hit that hard), its hard to figure out what it is because you dont expect allergies to be that bad. tell her to take some otc claritin and see if that helps her at all.


people do get altitude sickness....but thats more common going from beach towns to rocky mountain towns. the Appalachians just arent that high, and usually altitude sickness cures its self after a week when your body has gotten used to less oxygen

I haven't gotten sick from altitude alone. I tend to get migranes when my blood sugars get too low. Usually they go away after some asprin and food. I went up to the mountains a couple weekends ago (I live in a valley) and became hypoglycemic. Not only did my headache not go away, it was accompanied with nausia. And it took FOREVER to get rid of. And my blood sugars were fine.

I'm thinking it took longer to heal and my symptoms were accelerated because of the altitude. So it could be possible... because the air is thinner.

That's true. If the headaches have lasted longer, it's very likely not due to altitude.

Have her try iron supplimnets. I get altitude sickness when I go skiing in the rockies and it helps. Of course, up there on top of the mountain, you are at 10,000 to 13,000 feet or so. THe applications are significantly lower. From what I could find online the towns (in the mountains) in far western NC average 3,500ft to 4,500ft in elevation, with Mt. Mitchell being the highest point in NC (and east of the mississippi) at 6,600 ft. (Which is higher than Denver, CO... interesting).

Going from zero feet to 4,000 could cause someone to be sick, but its not super high. Have her try the claritin and the iron. Hopefully she will feel better.

My Roommate incidentally got HAPE last week....High Altitude Pulmonary Edema...we stayed about 3k feet above Breckenridge, CO so it was around 13k ft and a low fron came in which the Doc said essentially adds another 3k feet...so it was kind of like we were at 16k ft. He had to be rushed into the Doc & put on compressed Oxygen b/c his oxygen level in his blood was around 73%...yours or mine should be around 96%...the difference being nitrogen for him...and so he was spitting up blood & some yellowish substance (not mucus or bile, something else). It's super deadly...so lesson: check the altitude of your condo when going to the rockies...his medical bills were right around a $1K for that little trip, but he's alive and paying rent, so that's good.

-cory

When I moved from about sea level to 8200 feet, I just felt a little winded at first and maybe a bit dizzy from time to time for the first month, but I didn't have headaches -- not to say it isn't possible.

In South America they give you cocaine tea for altitude sickness . . . . just saying.

i've been told it takes some time to adjust. for me, that's been the case.
amazing race had folks drinking some form of tea to adjust to the altitude.

Wow, I want to go there.

But not surprizing. Remember that Denver is not in the mountains, but rather at the very edge of the Great Plains. There are lots of places in the Eastern mountains that are higher than Denver.

The timing of effects of altitude are something that the medical community can't agree on.

During the NFL Playoffs a few years ago, one of the teams decided to come here three or four days early in order to "aclimate."

Some doctors argue that was a bad decision because it takes a day or two to notice the effects of the altitude -- thus this team did itself more harm than good. Many doctors thing it's better to come in as late as possible and get the heck out of town before the effects are more noticable.