Acute Mountain Sickness

Acute Mountain Sickness General Information

Acute Mountain Sickness has the biggest percentage of all types of altitude sickness at frequency and it affects all mountain travelers, hikers, climbers or skiers who ascend too fast and reach very rapidly an altitude of about 2,500 meters or more. People present different resistance to this sickness, namely, to a healthy person the symptoms may appear around 1,500 meters. People also call it high altitude pulmonary or Cerebral edema, altitude anoxia, mountain sickness, altitude sickness or just AMS. This sickness is pathological and it occurs after a combination of intense and acute exposure to a low pressure of the (caused by the high altitudes) and a concentration of oxygen that is reduced. Acute Mountain Sickness can develop into HACE (high altitude Cerebral edema) and HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema). If you travel in aircraft you will not be affected by altitude sickness due to the fact that the modern cabins of the airplanes are properly pressurized. If the exposure continues after the sickness appeared, it can cause another illness of this type, but much rarer, Monge’s disease or chronic mountain sickness. Acute Mountain Sickness can develop from a mild form to a much more threatening one as it involves the heart, muscles, nervous system and lungs. If are not treated on time, all these could lead to the individual death. You can easily prevent getting altitude sick by climbing slowly and enjoying the view.

Acute Mountain Sickness Symptoms

Acute Mountain Sickness Treatment

Even if the symptoms of Acute Mountain Sickness manifest only when you are at a high altitude and then resolve if you return to a lower one, you should contact a medical professional as soon as you are near a hospital. If you are at a high altitude and you start coughing up blood, having severe breathing problems and loosing your consciousness look for an emergency medical assistance by calling to a local emergency number. In the case that you can not get in contact with an emergency help, descend as quick as you can and always accompanied by someone. If the descending is not possible and the Acute Mountain Sickness becomes more severe a Gamow bag (a portable pressure bag made of plastic inflated with a foot pump) will be used to reduce the real altitude with about 1,000 meters. In some isolated locations, the emergency evacuation may not be possible delaying the treatment what will lead to some complications. A specialist will listen to the chest with the help of a stethoscope. The auscultation will reveal may be a pulmonary edema that results from some sounds that are named crackles in the lungs. Then, he will recommend you an X-ray for the chest. Obviously, the main quick treatment that cures rapidly and efficiently any sign of Acute Mountain Sickness in all its forms is the actual climbing down (descend) from a high altitude to a more lower one. As soon as you are in a safe place at a safely attitude for you, a health care provider should be able to give you supplemental oxygen if you need it and if it is available. If the case of sickness is real severe, the person will be hospitalized. The mild manifestations of Acute Mountain Sickness will be reduced by administrating Diamox or Acetazolamide that is also used to stimulate a normal and regular breathing. This drug is very strict because it does not allow you to drink alcohol, but demands a high consumption of any kind of fluids. This is why sometimes it may provoke increased urination. Against the pulmonary edema the doctor will give nifedipine, a high blood pressure medicine and oxygen to the patient. If this accumulation of fluid in the lungs becomes more severe, the patient will be given a breathing machine. The risk of getting Cerebral edema may also occur so that the swelling in the brain is reduced by a steroid drug, decadron or dexamethasone. A person could also reduce the sickness by himself by taking from his own will eight to fifteen rapid and large breaths every seven minutes. By doing this, he or she will eliminate the quantity of carbon dioxide that is it too much and leads to tingling in the hands and foots. Some local remedies for Acute Mountain Sickness with mild symptoms are some teas made from the plant of cocoa, more exactly from the leaves, in Bolivia and Peru. If a big quantity of liquids is drunk, the acclimatization will be helped because the fluids lost after the heavier breathing in the thin will be replaced.