some altitude experiences

Just a quick summary which might be of interest to those people discussing altitude issues - my family and I went to the mountains for 10 days. my husband went to the top (3200m) and got some altitude sickness symptoms and I'm grateful that he chose not to continue with his planned 5 day hike, I think it was wise. when I fetched him the next day from 2500m, his face was swollen and blotchy, and he was very, very tired. he said he was confused the night before at the top, and very breathless. I had given him coffee, aspirin, and other peaty things to take, but he didn't at the time. I immediately gave him some Coke to drink and 600mg aspirin. his colour and energy and puffiness rapidly improved, but also we were descending by then, to about 2000m where we stayed the rest of the holiday. he was also very stiff, and that rapidly improved. I gave him B1 (200mg) niacinamide (200mg), coffee, and more Coke. The other hikers came down 5 days later as planned, one had had a headache for 3 days, the other - a very fit active guy - spoke of how 'you don't really need much food up there'. I looked at him with disbelief - all that climbing and hiking rough terrain in howling winds and cold and heat - and realized he meant he had little appetite.
I was very puffy before we even left for the mountains, as the thyroid supp seemed to raise estrogen levels. I was amazed at how well Coke worked for me - no OJ available so I replaced it with Coke and the puffiness went and I felt much better. I've never been a fan but I felt markedly better for drinking it, and I got the feeling that it is something my body really appreciates, so I will include it in my normal diet from now on. Also I had aspirin, 900mg. Aspirin really works for me and I tolerate it fine, though I did notice some indigestion and slight heartburn while I was there, perhaps due to no OJ.
In the mountains I had a slight chesty wheeze when I went for walks. I think the altitude change was not that big in my case - we live at 1730m and I think we were at about 2000m for the holiday. I took Haidut's T3, also thyroid supps (will update that log later), B1, B3, pregnenolone, went for a daily 15minute (steep) walk, and came back home feeling distinctly stronger and having lost a teeny bit of weight (not that I weighed myself - family report only!). When I went for a walk back home, the day we returned, I noticed the immediate return of a symptom that is always with me these days, but disappeared on holiday - a tight and bloated feeling in my abdomen. Like I've drunk litres of water.

Thanks for your interesting observations.

Dr. Paul Cheney MD, PhD (physics) has been working with "CFS" patients for 30 years. He compares many "CFS" symptoms to altitude sickness. He has done testing on these patients to check blood O2 saturation and has determined that they don't offload O2 from the blood as a normal person would. I think all diseases share these characteristics.

Most Everest climbers have to be in top condition, yet a good number of them have to turn back at one of the camps before they summit to the top even with supplemental oxygen. A few do make it however. Maybe healthy people have a great capacity to keep their CO2 demands up high enough to offload enough O2.

Also, the gut bloating at the lower altitude that you are used to is interesting too. Was your gut feeling better at the higher altitude only to feel worse when you went back home?

Yes it was. I so hate that feeling that my stomach precedes me by a mile (actually, it does ... ) and it feels like it actually arches my spine in the process. Isn't estrogen wonderful?!

sueq said:

Coke and the puffiness went and I felt much better. I've never been a fan but I felt markedly better for drinking it, and I got the feeling that it is something my body really appreciates, so I will include it in my normal diet from now on. Also I had aspirin, 900mg. Aspirin really works for me and I tolerate it fine...

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The Coke and aspirin combo does wonders for me: soothes stomach and intestines, increases body temp. and improves overall mood. I have known this since I was a child...makes me sad I that I left it out of my life for so many years, definitely one of my favorite parts of Peating.

I feel the same way about avoiding fruit all those years, and drinking less milk. One thing that attracted me to RP was that almost all the foods were my childhood staples and favourites. With the exception of the dreaded daily carrot! Right down to the aspirin. I recently rediscovered an over the counter cold remedy that is 800mg aspirin, 40mg caffeine and about a teaspoon of sugar. I always wondered why the caffeine did not prevent me sleeping. Now I know, and I'm back to reading labels on unfashionable cold remedies to rediscover hidden gems like that.

mas said:

Thanks for your interesting observations.

Dr. Paul Cheney MD, PhD (physics) has been working with "CFS" patients for 30 years. He compares many "CFS" symptoms to altitude sickness. He has done testing on these patients to check blood O2 saturation and has determined that they don't offload O2 from the blood as a normal person would. I think all diseases share these characteristics.

Most Everest climbers have to be in top condition, yet a good number of them have to turn back at one of the camps before they summit to the top even with supplemental oxygen. A few do make it however. Maybe healthy people have a great capacity to keep their CO2 demands up high enough to offload enough O2.

Also, the gut bloating at the lower altitude that you are used to is interesting too. Was your gut feeling better at the higher altitude only to feel worse when you went back home?

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So is this basically stating that altitude isn't good for diseased or sick people?

I young man I knew only slightly died of altitude sickness before anyone worked out what was wrong and got him down.
I have heard that many people who would suffer if they travel up fast can acclimatise to high altitude if they walk up over several days.

How high was he? I thought altitude sickness was the first thing people consider when someone gets sick at altitude. But if his symptoms included confusion he might not have been able to communicate well with the others. My husband's confused state of mind worried me and I'm very grateful he remained clear enough to realize he needed to go down again as fast as he could next morning. But if he wasn't thinking clearly he might have tried to carry on and got much worse without anyone knowing to begin with. Everyone was staggering around in the wind, it was hard to talk etc. Those things could mask his condition.
I've also read that slow adaptation can help. My husband's group went up fast. They drove to 2500m and immediately hiked to above 3000m in an afternoon.

sueq said:

How high was he?

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I don't know the altitude, and don't know all the circumstances. I think he had been travelling around, and was staying in a town at altitude.