Who Is Most Likely to Have High Altitude Sickness?
Most lowland people begin to develop hypoxia symptoms at 1-2 miles altitude. However, there are some permanent settlements in the Andes Mountains in South America and the Himalaya Mountains in Asia that are at altitudes of 3 miles. Mountain climbers have reached peaks that are over 5 miles high, but only by using tanks of oxygen to assist in breathing. The highest peaks are too high for any human to acclimatize naturally. Climbers at the top of Mt. Logan, Yukon Territory, Canada (19,850 feet altitude) There is considerable variability between individuals and between populations in their ability to adjust to the environmental stresses of high mountain regions. Usually, the populations that are most successful are those whose ancestors have lived at high altitudes for thousands of years. This is the case with some of the indigenous peoples living in the Andes Mountains of Peru and Bolivia as well as the Tibetans and Nepalese in the Himalaya Mountains. The ancestors of many people in each
