Internet Travel Guide
Peter M. Geiser
1000 Travel Tips
Koen De Boeck
|
TIBET
The Internet Travel Guide
Peter M. Geiser
HEALTH
As every country, Tibet also has its special health problems. This
text does not mean to scare you away, but rather to warn you of
dangers that you can face with little problems if you take some simple
precautions.
A big problem is the high altitude with the thin air. Many people suffer
from Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), also known as Altitude Sickness.
Until your body has become accustomed to the thin air (much less
oxygen than normally), you may experience dizziness, nausea, headache
and difficulties with sleeping. Make sure you don't dehydrate (i.e.
drink a lot.) Avoid alcohol and tobacco.
The material is excerpted from TIBET TRAVEL ADVENTURE GUIDE, by
Michael Buckley, © copyright 1999, all rights reserved, reprinted with
permission.
Order the book directly from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk! (ISBN 1895907985, 272pp, 22 maps & plans, 6pp colour photos)
Altitude Sickness
When Sherpas say climbing is in their blood, they may mean it
literally. Sherpas have a physiology adapted to the high-altitude
environment--their blood has a higher red-cell count, and their lung
capacity is larger. Ability to adapt to altitude is thought to be in
your genes. That may mean you either have the high-altitude genes or
you don't. If you do, you can adapt quickly; if you don't, it will
take longer--or so the theory goes. At higher altitudes, air pressure
is lower, and the air is thinner. Although it contains the same
percentage of oxygen as it does at sea level, there's less oxygen
delivered in each lungful of air. So you have to breathe harder, and
your body has to convert to more red blood-cells to carry the oxygen
through the system.
Altitude sickness is something of a mystery. It does not appear to
depend on being in shapes: athletes have come down with it, and it may
occur in subjects who have not experienced it before. Altitude
sickness generally occurs at elevations above 2000 metres, becomes
pronounced at 3500 metres, and then requires adjustment at each 400
metres of elevation gain after that.
Terrain above 5000 metres (common enough in Tibet) is a harsh, alien
environment--above 6000 metres is a zone where humans were never meant
to go. Like diving at depth, going to high altitudes requires special
adjustments. To adapt, you have to be in tune with your body. You need
to travel with someone who can monitor your condition--and back you up
(get you out) if something should go wrong. Consider this: if you were
to be transported in a hot-air balloon and dropped on the summit of
Everest, without oxygen you would collapse within 10 minutes, and die
within an hour. However, a handful of climbers have summited Everest
without oxygen: by attaining a degree of acclimatisation, they have
been able to achieve this. A similar analogy could be drawn with
flying in from Chengdu, which is barely above sea level, to Lhasa, at
3650 metres. That's a 3500-metre gain in an hour or so. You need to
rest and recover. Coming by land from Kathmandu, you rise from 1300
metres up over a 5200-metre pass at Tong La--a gain of 4000 metres
over a few days (to soften the blow, it would be worth staying a few
days at Nyalam, which is 3750 metres).
The study of altitude sickness is still evolving. Recent studies
suggest that altitude sickness may be due to leaky membranes--which
are more permeable as you up in elevation. It was unknown if a person
could survive above 7500 metres without oxygen until 1978, when
Messner and Habeler summited Everest. Actually, a hundred years
earlier, in 1875, French balloonist Tissandier reached 8000 metres
after a three-hour ascent and lost consciousness: the balloon
descended and Tissandier survived but his two companions died. Messner
was told he would come back from Everest a raving madman, or, at the
very least, a brain-damaged automaton if he attempted the peak without
oxygen. Messner got his timing right, got to the top, and went on to
bag all the 8000-metre peaks without oxygen. Climbers like Messner,
however, will admit to impaired functions at higher elevations--and to
strange encounters. Messner recalls talking to his ice axe, talking to
his feet, talking to an imaginary companion and having hallucinations.
The Buddy System
When you go diving, you use the buddy system. You watch out for your
friend underwater, which is an alien environment and a potentially
dangerous one. You could draw close parallels in Tibet: high altitude
is a dangerous environment. If someone gets altitude sickness, he or
she becomes confused or disorientated, and cannot make the right
decisions. Someone else has to take those decisions. Back yourself up
in Tibet with at least one buddy. And be prepared to watch out for
others in a Landcruiser group if someone falls sick.
Other health problems
Of course the cold weather makes it very likely that you get a cold and
a cough. Take care to get enough vitamins.
There is the same stomach bug named giardia that is also found in Nepal.
Take enough anti-gardia drugs like Flagyl or Tiniba with you, they are
hard to find in Tibet.
Don't drink tap water. Even in the smallest guest houses in the remotest
villages there are thermos bottles with boilt water. It is used to drink
tea.
There are many dogs in the streets and near the monasteries. There are
reports of foreigners beeing bitten.
Back to contents
The Internet Travel Guide
http://www.datacomm.ch/pmgeiser
Copyright © 1995 - 1999, Peter M. Geiser
|