Vim & Vigor - Winter 2009 - (Page 3)

by carla carwile for your health rx for altitude sickness spending a day in denver can spare visitors the discomfort of adjusting to a higher altitude H Have friends coming to Colorado to enjoy the mountains? Encourage them to spend their ﬁrst day in Denver, says St. Anthony Hospitals emergency medical services’ lead team. That’s more than good hospitality; it’s good health. Simply staying at lower elevations (lower than 7,000 feet) for one day prior to visiting higher elevations may help your guests gain much-needed acclimation time, signiﬁcantly decreasing their risk of altitude sickness. It’s estimated that 25 percent of people visiting Colorado’s higher altitude areas experience the headaches, nausea and insomnia of altitude sickness to some degree. And while only 3 percent will require hospitalization, losing 24 to 36 hours of slope time is no way to spend a holiday. ❋ what causes altitude sickness? Tom Resignolo, EMT-P, EMS director at St. Anthony Summit Medical Center in Frisco, explains. “The higher altitude causes you to breathe stronger, harder and faster. This is known as the hypoxic ventilatory response, or HVR. Your body senses the decrease in oxygen levels in the blood—known as hypoxemia—and sends signals to increase respiratory effort and make more new red blood cells to carry more oxygen. “Breathing harder also changes the pH of your blood—a process called alkalosis—which causes your kidneys to increase urine output trying to rebalance things. As you urinate more and breathe faster, you tend to become dehydrated in the low-humidity environment.” ❋ prescriptions for prevention There are preventive prescription medications, such as Diamox—a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor—that can be taken prior to coming to the high country. “Diamox is taken before For more facts on altitude sickarriving at [high] altitudes ness, visit stanthonycentral.org and functions as a diuretic and click “Health Library.” to adjust the pH level in advance,” Resignolo says. There are some side effects, he adds, including one that changes the taste of any carbonated beverage, alcoholic or non-alcoholic. “You’re actually tasting the carbon dioxide.” Should your “ﬂatlander” friends decide to try the preventive medication, “they should avoid alcohol, narcotics, sleep medications and the benzodiazepines, which have a tranquilizing effect and depress the respiratory response,” Resignolo says. The simplest solution, however, remains the day-in-Denver option, coupled with proper sleep. “One of the old adages for being active in the mountains is to ‘climb high but sleep low,’” Resignolo says. “You can go really high if you come back down to a lower elevation and get a good night’s sleep.” climb higher go vim & vigor · wi nter 2009 http://www.stanthonycentral.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Winter 2009

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2009
Contents
Opening Thoughts
For Your Health
Close Call
Model Behavior
Is It a Sign?
Your Heart: The Owners Manual
Independence Days
The Right Stuff
Watch and Learn
Up to Speed
Pedi-Cures
It Ain't Brain Surgery
Centering Preganancy
Somebody Special
From Here to Hanoi
Community
Ask the Experts

Vim & Vigor - Winter 2009