Altitude sickness risk factors · Risk factors in Altitude sickness
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Risk factors in Altitude sickness
Risk factors in Altitude sickness
Altitude sickness tends to affect men more than women, especially men between the ages of 16 and 25, for unknown reasons. It is important to remember that just because you are young and healthy, and haven't experienced altitude sickness in the past doesn't mean you are immune to it on future climbs. Physical fitness is not necessarily a good indicator, and neither are strength or good health. You may react badly to altitude despite being fit, young and healthy. In fact, the fit, young and healthy have a hidden risk: their general physical capacity leads them to believe that they should handle altitude just fine, which is not always true.
Bad health, on the other hand, is a risk factor: particularly cardiac or respiratory problems. Healthy hearts and lungs have a hard enough time getting oxygen to your tissues at high altitudes. Naturally, if you have physical problems that make exertion difficult for you, you have reason to think carefully about exertion at high altitude, where it is much harder!
Scuba diving increases risk of decompression sickness. If you have recently been diving and have not fully gotten rid of the nitrogen in your blood, you should not ascend to a higher altitude (or travel in a plane). See scuba diving for recommendations on how long to wait.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Altitude sickness
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Altitude sickness - updated Apr 2024
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Altitude sickness Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.