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Peter M. Geiser


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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.

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