Brief by Allen Best
Health – February 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
One consolation for aging is that people over 50 are less susceptible to altitude sickness.
Why is that? The Telluride Watch explains that as people age, their brains shrink, requiring less oxygen.
But, for those who do get the severe and often fatal forms of altitude sickness, cerebral and pulmonary edema, there is a curious remedy: Viagra The drug that is prescribed for impotency can also promote oxygenation through increased blood flow.
The source for this is not a drug company’s PR flak, but one of the nations premiere high- altitude physicians, Peter Hackett. Renowned among mountain climbers for his work on Denali, as Alaska’s Mt. McKinley is often known, he now practices medicine in Telluride.
To reduce the chances of altitude sickness, Hackett urges visitors coming from sea level to acclimate along the way. That is, if youre going to spend a few days in Leadville at 10,200 feet, spend the first night in some place like Salida at 7,000 feet.
Who gets altitude sickness seems to be determined largely by genetics. However, high- caliber athletes are more prone to suffer from it than non- athletes. So are women and, especially, pregnant women because of their high levels of estrogen and progesterone.
