Altitude Sickness

Altitude Sickness

I celebrated my 65th birthday climbing Machu Picchu, the famous 9,000-foot mountain in Peru. And just the day before that, I had climbed its steeper sister peak, Huainu Picchu. Two days of tough climbing nearly two miles above sea level and I could have suffered a bad bout of altitude sickness, what people in the Andes call soroche.

But before both climbs I knew that I might develop the symptoms of altitude sickness--headache, thirst, dizziness, weakness, heart palpitations and shortness of breath. So I did what Peruvian mountain hikers have done for thousands of years: I had a cup of mate de coca, or coca tea.

This tea is perfectly legal in Peru and Bolivia but not in the United States, because the coca leaf (Erythroxylum coca) is the source of cocaine. Cocaine is a highly processed derivative of coca, and coca tea contains only a little bit of it. But there's enough to act as a stimulant, which is why many Peruvians drink coca tea the way many of us drink coffee. In fact, hotels in Cusco and La Paz offer mate de coca as a reinvigorating refreshment to new arrivals from the lowlands. And they're well-aware that coca tea helps relieve altitude sickness.

For native Andeans, the straight, unbrewed coca leaf is the classical Andean energizer. On one ecotour to Peru, 27 of our 35 participants, myself included, experimented with chewing coca leaves. Some of us truly seemed to be energized. Several people commented that I climbed those mountains like a mountain goat.

Of course, I wouldn't recommend trying to get coca here in the United States. The association with cocaine has permanently tainted its legality and reputation, and getting relief from altitude sickness is not worth the prison sentence. But anywhere that coca is legal, it would be my top three-star recommendation for relief of soroche. I've never suffered any ill effects from coca tea, nor have I seen Peruvians become gangsters from chewing coca leaves.

In the United States, you might consider sipping Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola to relieve altitude sickness. The cocaine came out of these beverages many years ago, and they now contain decocainized coca leaves. Coca leaves still contain more than a dozen compounds that are closely related to cocaine but are completely legal, some of which help produce similar effects.

Why Going High Flattens You

Altitude sickness doesn't really have to do with the change in altitude but with the change in oxygen levels. The higher you go, the less oxygen there is. At 8,000 feet the atmosphere contains half the oxygen of the air at sea level. If you ascend slowly, a few thousand feet a day, your body will probably adjust to decreased oxygen with few ill effects. But rapid ascents--as in vigorous mountain climbing--leave your body deprived of oxygen availability, and the result is altitude sickness.

A key component of altitude sickness is dehydration. At high elevations, fluid moves out of the blood and into body tissues. As the blood thickens, dehydration interferes with efficient distribution of nutrients and oxygen and impedes the elimination of toxic wastes. The result is the headache, fatigue and malaise of altitude sickness, as well as extreme thirst.

One thing you can do to minimize or avoid altitude sickness is to drink plenty of nonalcoholic fluids before you start your ascent and continue taking in liquids as you climb. Plain water or juice works well. In the Andes, I eat a great deal of vegetable soup to get fluid as well as cooked vegetables (raw vegetables can cause problems). I also drink herb teas.

Green Pharmacy for Altitude Sickness

Since using coca leaf won't be an option in most of your travels, here are some other herbs that can help prevent altitude sickness.

Clove (Syzygium aromaticum). Clove oil is rich in eugenol, a compound that is a potent blood thinner (anti-aggregant). Other high-eugenol herbs in my database, in descending order of potency, include allspice, bayrum leaf, galangal, carrot seed, shrubby basil, cinnamon, bayleaf and marjoram.

Clove Cloves are the dried flower buds of a tropical ever-green tree.

Mix several of the anti-aggregant herbs together, and you get my Altitude Adjustment Tea: In a pot of boiling water, steep cloves, allspice, bayleaf, celery seed, cinnamon and marjoram as available and to taste. Mix in, as available, any or all of these mints: basil, mountain dittany, savory and thyme.

Garlic (Allium sativum). Garlic contains at least nine compounds that help thin the blood. Its anti-aggregant effect is valued as a heart attack preventive, but it also helps soroche sufferers. According to my database, other plants that have anti-aggregant activity include tomatoes, dill and fennel with seven blood-thinning compounds; onions, hot peppers and soybeans with six; and celery, carrots and parsley, each with five. You can cook them all in a big pot of water, and you will get what I call my Anti-
aggregant Soup. Enjoying these foods in a vegetable soup before a mountain hike really can help prevent altitude sickness.

Horsebalm (Monarda, various species). Many mints contain thymol, menthol or menthone, all compounds that have anti-aggregant activity. In my database, horsebalm wins as the herb with the most. Here are several more herbs, in descending order of potency, that contain these helpful ingredients: thyme, nude mountain mint, wild bergamot, winter savory, mountain dittany, lemon mint, basil and California bay.

Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum). People in the mountains of Asia use this mushroom the way Peruvians use coca leaf. According to scientific reports, reishi significantly reduced altitude sickness symptoms in Chinese workers who climbed to over 15,000 feet over three days in Tibet. The theory is that reishi increases the body's oxygen consumption.

Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba). This herb increases blood flow throughout the body, especially to the brain. In animal studies, rats fed a ginkgo extract show definite increases in cerebral blood flow and tolerance to low-oxygen effects. This sounds to me like a potential preventive and treatment for altitude sickness. You can try 60 to 240 milligrams of standardized extract a day, but don't go any higher than that. In large amounts, ginkgo may cause diarrhea, irritability and restlessness.