In this post, we will share changes on the body and how to deal with them while adapting to the high altitude of Tibet. High altitude sickness can seriously hamper your holiday in Tibet. Therefore, when it comes to travelling to Tibet. It is best to understand changes in both geographical and your body in the high altitude of Tibet for smooth travel and planning for your Tibet tour.
There will be an enormous increase in altitude as you arrive in Tibet. Because of this, the air becomes thinner, leading to falling of the barometric pressure of the atmosphere. As the human body tries to adjust to the new environment, some maladjustment in travellers bodies leads to some maladjustment. It is called high altitude sickness. Acclimatisation is the process of gradually adapting to the high altitude.
Acclimatisation to the high altitude of Tibet
The process of acclimatisation is of utmost importance for all travellers visiting Tibet. Otherwise, altitude sickness could be hazardous and could seriously be life-threatening.
Take an example of an aeroplane, travelling on a modern pressurised plane flying at the altitude of 29,000 feet ( 8800 meters). If the plane suddenly loses its pressure, all the passengers will lose consciousness and die within five minutes unless breathing on supplement oxygen.
Yet, at that same altitude, many have submitted to mount Everest without oxygen supplements. Thus, acclimatisation is the only difference between the above two differences.
Your body will get used to lower oxygen in the air in the acclimatisation. An individual with sufficient acclimatisation can climb Everest unassisted and service for a short period.
Affect of Human body for getting lesser oxygen
In acclimatisation, our human body gets used to increasingly thin air and delivers the required amount of oxygen to cells. This could take from days to weeks, depending on each individual.
There is a massive difference in acclimatisation between you ( born and raised at sea level) and your Tibet tour guide (born and raised in Tibet). If you live at a bit higher altitude, you will be more tolerant to high altitude than other group members from lower areas.
An analogy to understand the process of adapting to the high altitude of Tibet.
To help our readers better understand how adapting process happens in our body to the high altitude of Tibet, we will use the following analogy of train delivery systems.
We will refer to our blood vessels as the Railway line over which the train (blood) move with power from its locomotive (Heart) and boxcars ( Red blood cell) carrying the cargo (Oxygen).
At the loaders ( Lungs), trains are filled with cargo and emptied at the factory ( Muscles, Heart, Brain and other tissues), where the shipment id is required. Not all the cargo arrives loaded at any one time. Many payloads are sent back to come again at the loader.
As an individual gains altitude in Tibet, in each minute, lesser cargo (oxygen) arrives at the loader (Lung). But the demand for it at the factory (body) remain constant. So your body will react by increasing the loader speed (Lung to breathe faster), Increase the speed of the train ( heartbeat quicker) and increase the number of boxcars (making more red blood cells).
In the following post, we will discuss the changes that occur in your body while adapting to the high altitude of Tibet.
Breathing
Change in breathing is one of the most noticeable when you arrive at a high altitude. Here you will have to stop in mid-conversation to grasp a breath. Generally, you will breathe more often in Tibet in both active or rest at altitude.
Everyone responds differently at the low oxygen of high altitude of Tibet. You might need to breathe more often. Using the analogy, when there is less oxygen to the loader (Lungs), you will have to make the loader work faster to get the required amount of oxygen.
Drugs like acetazolamide can increase the lung to work quickly, while sleeping pills can decrease your capacity to make the lung breathe faster. Whether you do it consciously or not, it is essential to increase the breathing rate by simply breathing more and deeper.
Increase Pulse
Your respiration increases as you travel higher in Tibet. Therefore, your pulse also increases during your initial days in Tibet. When there is less oxygen in each boxcar (Red blood cells), then the train’s locomotive (heart)will have to work hard to push deliver the same amount of oxygen to the factory as before.
At altitude destination, it is an excellent idea to check the pulse rate every day in Tibet. However, it is best to check the pulse in the morning after awakening up. Yet you can check in the night before going to bed.
You will notice the drop of pulse and pounding in your chest as you are more acclimatised to Tibet. This is a sign that you are responding well to altitude. Nevertheless, medication for blood pressure and angina can limit this response. In such a case, checking your pulse is not an effective way to judge what’s happening to your body.
Change in Urinary response
As you arrive in Tibet, other changes you will observe in your body are your urinary response changes. Here you will have to urinate more often due to diuresis. Again, using our analogy, If blood is represented by a train, diuresis means getting rid of non-cargo carrying cars. It generally happens while you are sleeping at 10,000 feet (3050 meters) or higher.
If the train represents your blood, diuresis means getting rid of non-cargo carrying cars like empty flatbeds. Diuresis occurs when you are sleeping at 10,000 feet (3050 meters) and higher.
When it happens, you will lose up to 2% of your body fluid, and more likely, you will have to get up once or twice in the night to urinate. Therefore, if such happen, be more careful of high altitude sickness. It means you are more susceptible to high altitude illness.
Blood Response
Using our train analogy can take more cargo (oxygen) if the train adds more boxcar (red Blood cells). But this could be a problem if there are too many boxcars only carrying a small payload. Then, the (Train) blood will become heavy and can’t efficiently travel. Your blood will become too thick.
Thick blood is easier to clot and leads to a problem in delivering oxygen to where it is required. Additionally, inactivities like being confined in a small place increase the risk of developing a cloth that could migrate.
Taking aspirin can make blood less sticky and less likely to clot. Yet, there are no studies of this at altitude. In addition, sometimes thinning blood could lead to increased bleeding from Injuries and stomach ulcers.
Opinion on if you should take aspirin at altitude is divide. It makes sense for travellers spending a relative amount of time at the extreme altitude above 18,000 feet or 5490 meters. Yet its effectiveness is not for sure.
Change in Sleep
Most face difficulties in sleeping at altitude. For example, you may sleep irregular and may wake up in the middle of the night to grasp breathe over 8000 feet, 2440 meters.
In the tent hostel at the Mount Everest Basecamp on the Tibet side, you will find your travel partner breathing become loud and increase. Then, after a minute or two, it becomes almost invisible and then would start again. This pattern of breathing is called period breathing. Sometimes they may awake to grasp a breath.
At the initial phase of rapid breathing, there will be a build-up of oxygen in the brain, and the need to breathe will diminish. Then, just as the breathing becomes invisible, it wakes up the person to breathe as the brain starves oxygen.
Breathing difficulties often make travellers anxious and leads to abandoning their trip. But it is normal, and it diminished as it acclimated over time.
Deterioration of Human body at high altitude
The human body doesn’t adapt well at 16500 feet (5030 meters) and higher. The longer you stay at such a high altitude, the more you will be mentally, emotionally and physically deteriorate. This is why people don’t live permanently live such a high place.
Excellent time for acclimatisation
Mountaineers take weeks to get used to Tibet’s thin air, but regular tourists take only three to four days to acclimate to Tibet. Therefore acclimatisation for typical tourist takes less time as compared with acclimatisation for maximum performance in altitudes like
There is not one switch formula for acclimatisation. The process differs from person to person and on every exposure. One proven way to acclimatise is to increase the sleeping altitude by 300 meters each night. If possible, it is ideal for taking a break in the same elevation for two to three days. Yet this is not a perfect way for regular tourists visiting Tibet.
Hence, most tour in Tibet consists first three days in Lhasa as a part of visiting the site in the city and acclimatisation to the elevation of 3600 Meter above sea level. Some travellers would prefer to arrive two to three days before the actual tour date to relax in their hotel for acclimatisation. If you do want that, we always welcome that.
I would also like to recommend following the rule of climb high and sleep low. Here, in the day, you will have to climb as high as you can, yet sleep slightly higher than the night before.
Conclusion of adapting to the high altitude of Tibet
I hope this post will help you prepare and know more about it before your travel to Tibet.
The information here is based on my experiences on operating tours in Tibet for many years and regular reading from books. You can write to me at info@lamamanitours.com.
