Why Does High Altitude Effect the Human Body?
Basically, the human body is not equipped to handle the drastic changes in the weather conditions prevailing at high altitudes. These changes include fall in temperature, lack of oxygen, change in atmospheric pressure, etc. The basics of climatology state that the temperature decreases with increase in the altitude. This, in turn, means that the temperature at the sea level is bound to be higher than the temperature in the mountainous regions. The belief that lack of oxygen is the driving factor for most of the ill-effects of high altitude on the human body is just an incomplete fact. A wide majority of these effects can be attributed to the change in the atmospheric pressure. The fall in pressure hampers our ability to take in air, due to which our body doesn’t get the required amount of oxygen, and therefore, it is assumed that lack of oxygen results in health problems, while the fact is that the fall in atmospheric pressure makes our body susceptible to these problems. Effects of Hi
