How do Tibetans avoid altitude sickness?
How do Tibetans avoid altitude sickness? A trip to Tibet can be a transcendent experience. The Dalai Lama’s homeland is known as the “roof of the world” — a high, windswept place with roaring rivers, snowcapped peaks and pastoral villages. But a Tibetan visit can also mean a nasty case of altitude sickness for people who are used to the atmospheric pressure found at lower elevations. This illness, also known as hypoxia, is the result of a lack of oxygen to the tissue in the body. Hypoxia’s symptoms include nausea, vomiting, lethargy, confusion and breathlessness. It can also be fatal. A person struck by altitude sickness may wonder how the people of Tibet can live at such high altitudes without suffering hypoxia themselves. Researchers have studied Tibetans to find out why they can live in settlements averaging 16,000 feet above sea level. (By contrast, the city of Denver,
