{"id":17194,"date":"2018-07-25T11:22:38","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T17:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=17194"},"modified":"2023-06-23T10:55:50","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T16:55:50","slug":"understanding-high-altitude-sickness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/understanding-high-altitude-sickness\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding High Altitude Sickness"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

High Altitude Sickness affects plenty of visitors to Colorado. It’s a subject\u00a0Dr. John Hall, an emergency department physician at UCHealth Pikes Peak Regional Hospital<\/a>, can talk about from a personal and professional point of view.<\/p>\n

Several years back, while completing a residency at a hospital in Chicago, Hall made a quick trip back to Colorado to go ice climbing with his father-in-law, a physician\u2019s assistant.<\/p>\n

Hall got off the plane at Denver International Airport, drove to Littleton, slept overnight, woke up at 4 a.m., and drove to Mount Lincoln, near South Park, Colorado, to go ice climbing.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. John Hall, an emergency room physician at UCHealth Pikes Peak Regional Hospital, sees plenty of patients who have High Altitude Sickness.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe were climbing at about 11,000 feet and halfway into the climb, I literally hit a wall,\u2019\u2019 Hall said. \u201cI was hanging on the rope and asking myself, \u2018Why can\u2019t I swing my ax? Why can\u2019t I kick my feet into the ice? Why can\u2019t I move?<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a little bit of a headache, I was nauseous and a little short of breath and I thought, \u2018My God, what is going on?\u2019 \u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Hall explained his symptoms to his father-in-law, who diagnosed him with high altitude sickness. The solution \u2013 move to a lower elevation.<\/p>\n

Hall wasn\u2019t convinced, and he told his father-in-law: \u201cI run 5 miles a day. I can do this.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

As soon as Hall reached a lower elevation, he felt fine. Now an emergency room physician at Pikes Peak Regional Hospital in Woodland Park, Colorado (elevation 8,400 feet), he sees plenty of patients \u2013 most of them from out of state \u2013 who come to the Emergency Department complaining of headache, nausea, fatigue and shortness of breath even while resting \u2013 classic symptoms of high altitude sickness.<\/p>\n

Hall said he has seen patients who range in age from 17 to 84 and some of them are extremely physically fit. He cares for them by administering oxygen, an IV of fluid and a diuretic to help reduce the amount of fluid on the lungs. He encourages patients to go to a lower elevation. Those patients who have underlying health issues such as COPD<\/a>, asthma or heart failure are at significantly higher risk for developing high altitude sickness.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh altitude sickness is more common than you realize,\u2019\u2019 Hall said. \u201cThis hospital sits at just below 9,000 feet and the typical patients we see come from states at sea level. People come up here and they have trouble breathing, they\u2019re nauseous, they\u2019re weak, they are short of breath with minimal exertion.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

High altitude sickness is a serious condition and can develop into life-threatening illnesses, including High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE<\/a>), fluid in the lungs; and High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE), fluid on the brain that causes brain swelling. If left untreated, both can be fatal.<\/p>\n

Hall has seen people with HAPE in the Emergency Department though, fortunately, he has not seen patients with HACE.<\/p>\n

People who are suffering from HAPE often have a cough, chest pain and produce white, frothy sputum. In some cases, patients cough up blood. These patients should seek a doctor\u2019s care immediately and descend to a lower elevation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens is their lungs are swelling. If you can imagine a sponge, soaking up water, that\u2019s what goes on in the lungs and it doesn\u2019t allow the oxygen to flow very well,\u2019\u2019 Hall said. \u201cSo then they start coughing up frothy sputum and we give them diuretics to try to get some of that fluid off.\u2019\u2019 He\u2019ll often send the patient to a lower elevation, where they seem to do much better.<\/p>\n

Hall recommends that people who have underlying conditions talk frankly with their doctor about traveling to high altitudes in Colorado. A physician can prescribe Diamox, which reduces and prevents the symptoms of high altitude sickness before a patient travels to Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a simple medication, it\u2019s generic and it\u2019s cheap,\u2019\u2019 Hall said. \u201cI recommend taking it three days before you come to altitude. It\u2019s a pill taken twice a day.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Hall also recommends that people who live at sea level who have underlying health issues become acclimated to Colorado\u2019s high altitude for a few days before going to an even higher altitude in the mountains. Staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water also helps.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t get off of a plane and head to 11,000 feet like I did. Make sure that you acclimate yourself before going to the mountains,\u2019\u2019 Hall said.<\/p>\n

The onset of high altitude sickness varies, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the onset can be pretty rapid and sometimes it can be a few days to even a week. A lot of times that can depend upon their activity. If they come up, as I did, and say: \u2018Hey let\u2019s go ice climbing, let\u2019s go climb Pikes Peak\u2019, you may feel it right away,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High Altitude Sickness affects plenty of visitors to Colorado. It’s a subject\u00a0Dr. John Hall, an emergency department physician at UCHealth Pikes Peak Regional Hospital, can talk about from a personal and professional point of view. Several years back, while completing a residency at a hospital in Chicago, Hall made a quick trip back to Colorado […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":17198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2728,227,2474,4097,9187,4792],"class_list":["post-17194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-living","tag-altitude-sickness","tag-health-and-wellness","tag-hiking","tag-preventive-care","tag-readysetco","tag-to-do-in-colorado"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnderstanding High Altitude Sickness - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This UCHealth Pikes Peak Regional Hospital ER doc know high altitude sickness as he sees it a lot and has experienced it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/understanding-high-altitude-sickness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Understanding High Altitude Sickness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This UCHealth Pikes Peak Regional Hospital ER doc know high altitude sickness as he sees it a lot and has experienced it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/understanding-high-altitude-sickness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCHealth Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uchealthorg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-25T17:22:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-23T16:55:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/07\/25111920\/featuephoto.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erin Emery, UCHealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uchealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uchealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erin Emery, UCHealth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/understanding-high-altitude-sickness\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/understanding-high-altitude-sickness\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Erin Emery, UCHealth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/f989ee92cb6da7cfb7f697db1c6771b3\"},\"headline\":\"Understanding High Altitude Sickness\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-25T17:22:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-23T16:55:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/understanding-high-altitude-sickness\/\"},\"wordCount\":831,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/understanding-high-altitude-sickness\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/07\/25111920\/featuephoto.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Altitude sickness\",\"Health and wellness\",\"Hiking\",\"Preventive care\",\"Ready. 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