What is Acute Mountain Sickness?
Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is also known as high altitude sickness. Acute mountain sickness occurs when a person rapidly increases their distance above the ground – usually when climbing, skiing or hiking higher than 6,000 feet above sea level. If the person is not used to high-altitudes (staying at a ski resort, riding in a hot air balloon or taking a hike after many years) they can experience acute mountain sickness.
Acute mountain sickness, or AMS, is more commonly known as altitude sickness, and most commonly occurs at altitudes higher than 2500 metres. Its symptoms include headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, and poor appetite. Inability to sleep is also commonly reported. The cause of AMS is fairly simple. Essentially, the human body is made to function at its best in the conditions you would find at sea level. The higher you go a mountain, the more extreme the conditions become and the harder your body has to work to maintain its normal functions. When climbing up a mountain, the main concern is the decreasing atmospheric pressure, which prevents the body from drawing enough oxygen from the air. The higher up you go, the harder it becomes to get the oxygen needed; the less oxygen the body gets; the less oxygen it gets, the harder it has to work, the less energy it has to pull in oxygen and so on and so forth in a rather nasty cycle. Though that all sounds very dire, the reason why y
