How do you prevent the effects of altitude?
If you are going to conquer the summits the lack of oxygen may make you suffer, here are our tips on how to prevent the effects and therefore avoid "mountain sickness".
Explanations and symptoms
With altitude, the level of oxygen available in the air decreases. The reduction in air pressure and lower oxygen levels can cause the body to suffer: this is called mountain sickness (or Acute Mountain Sickness also called AMS).
It can occur when climbing in altitude too quickly or the passage of an altitude plateau poorly tolerated by the body. You may have symptoms in the form of headaches or hyperventilation and difficulty in making the slightest effort ; but can also go as far as cerebral or pulmonary edema.
The phenomenon does not generally start below 2000 meters, but certain factors (genealogy, age, physical condition, etc) can favour this phenomenon.
Solutions
You should then take the time to acclimatise. In a few days, the body starts the production of additional blood cells and the body then regains its vitality.
Have you heard of football teams training in the mountains before a match season? The altitude having the beneficial effect of producing more red blood cells, the teams come back in better physical condition, with a boosted metabolism.
Be careful, you have to be careful and listen to your body, if the symptoms persist it is better to descend to a more comfortable altitude.
All about hiking and camping
It's true that when we start hiking, we can sometimes have some apprehensions. What are your thoughts about hiking? How do you set up a campsite? What do you need to take with you? What do you eat? How to hike safely What about the children, how do you keep them occupied?
Here, you will find the essentials you need to explore the paths freely, while taking care of nature.
Cloé
Hiking lover at Quechua
